Washblog

Big Bad Alternative Fuel?

[Note:  This was originally posted as a comment.  It's too long, so I'm making it a diary]

I was given two articles that provide "cautionary tales" of environmentally-unfriendly development of ethanol and biodiesel:  

A carbon cloud hangs over green fuel
and Biodiesel -- worse than fossil fuel.

These articles raise an important point.  Are there important enviornmental differences between various crops and production methods in alternative energy production?

It just happened that I sat in on the monthly meeting of NW Biodiesel Network recently.  So I asked them about the accusations in the second article.  Based on that feedback and further reading, I sent a note to the people who gave me the articles.  Here goes (edited):

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The article on producing ethanol from coal brings up an important concern. There are environmentally important differences in how ethanol is produced. We should be paying attention to the way our emerging alternative energy industry is being structured here in WA.

I find the second article, by George Monbiot, to be unreliable, and to contain outright inaccuracies.  First, judging by the biography that he provides on his blog, his journalistic and scientific bona fides are questionable.  He's had several visiting professorships and, "during seven years of investigative journeys in Indonesia, Brazil and East Africa, he was shot at, beaten up by military police, shipwrecked and stung into a poisoned coma by hornets."   I shouldn't make fun of his problems; he's evidentally taken personal risks to do good things.  But I don't see those as relevant qualifications for him to provide to back up his assertions.

And he's wrong that biodiesel production is intrinsically more environmentally damaging than petroleum production.   Perhaps it can be. I can't judge about what's going on with palm oil.  But palm oil is not where we get our biodiesel here in WA -- at least not any significant amount.  We get it, I'm understanding, primarily from US Midwestern source -- soy.  And this is soy that is a by product of animal feed.  That's why it's cost-competitive.

[Author's note, 5/17/06. See Jesse Nelson's post, Grays Harbor and Biodiesel. Mr. Monbiot's article is looking more on-point on the palm oil issue, here. Much of the agricultural stock for this new Washington plant will be from Malaysia (crushed palms) and other areas of the United States. Imperium Renewables, the owner of the Grays Harbor plant, has indicated that they are committed to buying from sustainable palm sources.]

Monbiot dismisses the possibility that biodiesel will come from environmentally sound sources:  "you might imagine that you are creating a market for old chip fat, or rapeseed  oil, or oil from algae grown in desert ponds. In reality you are creating a market for the most destructive crop on earth."

Actually, here in Washington, when we get up and running to implement HB 6508, which just passed this session (the alternative fuels standard which will require all diesel to have 2% biodiesel content -- and petroleum to have 2% ethanol ) -- our crops for biodiesel here in Washington will be primarily two mono-crops -- the rapeseed  oil (canola) that Mr. Monbiot tells us won't be used, and mustard seed.

I hope we will have more diversity than that and that there will be many opportunities for community-based enterprise opportunities.  Total reliance on monocrops and centralized production is something we want to avoid for security, economic, social justice, and ecological reasons.  However, our situation, if not ideal, is certainly not dire the way Mr. Monbiot paints it.  As far as algae, the biodieselists told me that actually there is potential here in WA to produce some of our  biodiesel from algae.   But the likely picture, the almost certain picture is that mustard and canola will be it.  My understanding is that both these crops -- especially the mustardseed, are  relatively benign.   A side product of mustard is a biopesticide -- very helpful, as the application of petroleum-based pesticides to mono-crops for biofuels should be, obviously, minimized.

I was also told (I think I remember this correctly) that, despite what Mr. Monbiot says about  these crops taking up land that would be used for food production, that mustardseed will be used as a covercrop -- to rotate with wheat, for example, thus not supplanting food crops.

Neither of these crops, mustard or canola, can produce biodiesel that is economically competitive right now.  So the race is on to find value-added  uses that can solve this problem for Washington State.  One potential is the fumigant quality of mustardseed.  Patrick Mazza of Climate Solutions has written that it has been estimated that mustardseed can provide 10% of the US pesticide market -- thus replacing primarily petroleum-based pesticides with an organic.  

Currently, soy oil provides most biodiesel in the US.  And it is not, for the most part, grown for  this purpose -- but is already grown to feed animals.   The waste is what is turned into biodiesel.  Soy doesn't grow so well here in WA, thus our probable reliance on mustardseed and rapeseed.

There are other alternatives out there besides biodiesel that could power our cars.  Institute for Washington's Future is working on a dairy manure conversion project in rural Washington that would produce other types of alternative fuel: liquified natural gas and compressed natural gas.  It is important that we try to develop these alternative ways to produce alternative fuels.  The more that smaller, community-based and value-added production like this can be developed, the more capacity we will have in Washington to make our energy -- and our food -- supply more decentralized, reliable, secure, and environmentally and socially friendly.

As for Mr. Monbiot's contention that the amount of fossil fuels we can replace is negligible -- his efforts would be better spent advocating for greater diversification of sources and production.  There's a great of potential out here in Washington State with current technology -- and more developable potential to come.  We may have limited ability to affect what's going on in other countries.  But, as they say, peace starts at home.  Attention is needed right here in WA to ensure that our emerging alternative fuels industry develops in the ways most advantageous to us and to the cause of peace.

I don't appreciate Mr. Monbiot's villification of the biodiesel crowd. The NW Biodiesel Network meeting I went to was run by practical-minded environmentalists and peacemakers.   They're into this because of their convictions, because they want us to find ways to be off big oil.   Maybe the people who attacked Mr. Monbiot were baddies from "big multinational alternative oil," But he he didn't specify and he should have.  This is the kind of information we need.

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I have concerns about biodiesel.  The best resources I've found is the wikipedia page on biodiesel.  Note the bit about base oils, which compares the biodiesel production per arce.  Both mustard seed and rapeseed are double soybean.

I was bullish on algae farms for a while.  A place called Greenfuel (?) is setting up algae bioreactors to scrub the carbon emmissions.  Pretty impressive stuff.  Something like 92% of the CO2 gets removed.  In my enthusaism, I called a few times, to see if I could get a bioreactor in my backyard.  No response.  I've since learned that algea bioreactors need high concentrations of CO2, something like 30%, to work well.  Darn.

Anyway, back to biodiesel from crops.  Using waste is always a good idea.  So I'm onboard with using soy that would otherwise be wasted.  However, growing soy for biodiesel is currently energy negative, meaning we'd use more fuel than we'd make.  I think rapeseed and mustard oil are just at the cusp.

Here's how I see things shaking out:

Ford, in an uncharacteristicly correct move, recently introduced a full hybrid vehical which uses a diesel engine.  That's a step in the right direction.

Producing biodiesel from plant oils is complicated and expensive.  Lots of people are now looking into making it better.  A few months ago, a Japanese team said they had some new catalysts which were 80% more efficient.  This type of (chemical engineering) tech will be the real enabler for biodiesel.

Using biodiesel is just a step towards something better.  With all these systems efficiency projects, it's important to reduce steps and complications.  The original diesel engine ran on peanut oil.  The goal is to use the most simple fuels possible, thereby reducing production costs.

Much of the world will replace central production of energy with massively distributed sources of energy.  Including solar farms, wind farms, and people making their own power with vegetable fuel power generators.  This is the correct solution.

There's been too much focus on high mileage vehicals.  The correct answer is to reduce the number of miles traveled per person.

The key to our survival will be carbon sequestration.  We need to stop burning fossil fuels and start pumping carbon back into the ground.  But that's a topic for later.

by zappini on Tue Apr 11, 2006 at 07:53:40 AM PST

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noemie, I passed your post on to some folks who work these issues.
My opinions are mixed between the big picture, war for oil v/s changing our fuel sources prior to a huge war over a dwindling world supply and escalating world demand and the quest for a clean non warming replacement.
Short term environmental compromise may be one phase as we take some first and long overdue steps in the right direction. While it is sad to see ethanol plants being built to burn coal in place of gas, I thought the longer term vision was to burn solids in the creation of ethanol like biosolids, trash and lumber waist and farm waist. So it could be that the coal design is more in line with these other heat sources. In any event, it is the end cost of a gallon of fuel produced that will determine when and to what extent we as a nation will move away from imported and domestic fossil oil. So if domestic coal helps us make the hardest early steps then I can still see the value in going forward now v/s years from now when the artificial pump prices reflect a much higher cost and the economic picture is more attractive.
I think the bigger issue may involve the permitting of these new plants. Will the fed's or other states give the developers exemptions on epa standards involving particulate releases and heat and co2 releases or will the best technology be employed? My fear would be that the cost issue could lead to huge exemptions.
As for our state and biodiesel, the goals and phased in veg oil supply mandates are part of the plan in order to help Washington farmers and a benefit will be to not directly contribute to an off shore demand. But the national and international implications of raising the demand for
 Inexpensive veg oil looks to be an issue that must be addressed and likely will not be by states like Texas or the federal government until we see a change of power. Right now the capitalists have a firm grip on things and if this continues we will likely see a new wave of Del Monty style exploitation of central and south America.
But we can no longer sit on our hands as our Government sends our forces off to "protect our national security" i.e. our supply of oil and must take almost any first steps in our quest for an independent supply of a clean replacement for foreign oil. And this means we cannot do nothing cuz the "kinks" in hydrogen have not been "worked out". Like no delivery system. And why will this be a long wait? Well, because while gas burns it is a stable fuel but hydrogen has the capacity to take out a city block and thus hydrogen filling stations will not be built where our gas stations are, will cost big bucks and will be uninsurable and after the first bang socially unacceptable so are a bad investment.
But we must take the first steps in this walk toward energy independence and if the cost of fuel goes up that will help us get there.

by Particle Man on Tue Apr 11, 2006 at 11:32:24 AM PST

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I forgot to mention that's one of the sites that peddles the 9/11 Conspiracy stuff.

by zappini on Tue Apr 11, 2006 at 07:54:45 AM PST

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