Biofuel production reality check

According to a new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, interviewed recently by ZDNet, the globally, we can only meet 4 to 5 percent of our current oil needs with biofuels.

I almost agree with Mr. Johnson's statement about the potential for biofuels. He appears to be approaching the idea realistically. It isn't a panacea, it isn't going to single-handedly unseat oil as our energy source of choice (until we run out that is). But, he does say "We’re not saying, 'There’s all this potential out there, go get it,'" but rather as his research partner Tracey Holloway says:

“We’re not suggesting that all exported vegetable oil should be converted into biodiesel, because that would fundamentally upset the food supply,” says Holloway. “We’re looking at this more from each individual country’s perspective: They’re already exporting one thing, could they be exporting something else”"

They are still seeing this as a potential global market problem to solve, and it very well may be, and envisioning that future is useful and challenges people to solve that problem, however, wouldn't it be better to take the Brazilian approach and have countries resolve their own energy usage needs before attempting to resolve other countries? In a place where gas is 20$/gallon, and a potential biofuel is 50 cents per liter, isn't that an opportunity for local innovation in energy usage as well as global market potential? Wouldn't the introduction of a cheap local alternative be as much of an economic and social improvement instead of focusing on the economic advantage of feeding some other countries energy needs for the benefit of corporate investors, conglomerates, etc?

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Vive Innovation!

A car that runs on air is described on the International Herald Tribune. More info at Green Car Congress. I love the apparent simplicity of the French design and it is still a "plug-in" vehicle. Granted, 120-mile range and top speed of 68 mph for a small vehicle may not be impressive, but it all goes back to a mindset of what is the most common usage of the vehicle, rather than the exceptional case of the 200-500 mile trip. NEV's get some attention because they are designed for the most common case in urban areas, and this sort of vehicle could fit the same solution, and uses the same power source - the grid. I wonder though, is there a greater efficiency in keeping the energy stored as "mechanical" energy, rather than repeated conversions from stored energy to elecricity to stored electrical energy to mechanical energy and back to stored electrical energy in the case of regenerative braking. At many points along that chain there is a bit of heat generated and wasted. The waste heat at the generating station, batteries get hot during charge (and need to be cooled), the motors get hot, etc.

This reminds me of the UPS hydraulic regenerative braking system I read about some time ago. The idea was that braking in a delivery vehicle would recapture a portion of the energy used to move the vehicle, which could then be used to drive the wheels when the vehicle was restarted.

And more recently, articles about using compressed air energy storage to store wind energy (or any other generated form of energy, really) when electricity demands don't require the power and then releasing the stored pressure to drive turbines to generate electricity during higher demand and low wind periods.

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How Ethanol is made

Driving ethanol, a pro-ethanol for fuel site, has a nice description of the process of converting feed stocks into ethanol. There is also a cartoony educational video available to see the process as well.

Educational and dodges any issues of using food crops to produce fuel, or the energy balance of producing this sort of fuel (including growing the corn).

e2, episodes 2 and 3

I took some time to view the second and third episodes of e2 over the past few days using their website. (thank you, sponsors and series producers)

Episode 2 is a very inspirational episode that addresses the work done in Bangladesh on the part of one man to pioneer microloans, create a bank to write microloans, develop and deploy low cost solar panels to provide electricity for lights, and a technology company to create jobs and technologies to improve the lives of Bangladesh's people.

Episode 3 is devoted to the discussion of vehicle technologies. It covers the current trends in rethinking vehicle propulsion systems, and asks some of the biggest question around automobiles: How to reduce the dependence on oil without abandoning personal vehicles and to a lesser extent, how to make a change to reduce the dependence on autos. Some sobering statistics: The first model T got 25 mpg, current average fuel economy nearly 100 years later is 21 mpg. There are 850 million vehicles in use in the world. At the turn of the last century, electric vehicles existed, before ICE vehicles.

The episode does not shirk its duty, and points out some reasons why the economic and regulatory situation of the US auto industry disincents these companies from really innovating with lighter vehicles and new propulsion technologies.

I was having a conversation with friends tonight, and was pointing out that it is possible for a company like Tesla or Phoenix to produce vehicles right now to sell to customers, granted at rather high costs and in limited quantities, yet the Chevrolet Volt will be lucky to be in production by 2010. And other plug-in hybrid/genset vehicles will in theory be entering the market within the next 12 months (eg: Aptera). GM's statement is that the battery technology they need for the Volt isn't ready yet, and the vehicle can't be produced for 2 years after the battery technology they need can be manufactured (and no manufacturing facility exists or is under construction yet). I find that hard to believe, and maybe I'm grossly misunderstanding the scales and costs of scale of comparing a product like the Volt to the other electric and electric/hybrid offerings that are entering the market. Something still doesn't seem right.

Further proof that the ICE is just a really bad idea

"Biofuel: is it a greenhouse gas, gas, gas?"

This post on Grist, with some very good follow on commentary talks about the costs of producing biofuels from current crop sources, and the estimated Green House Gas (GHG) impact. Seems like pretty much a even slate at best, and a slight loss at worst to use biofuels from new crops. I think there may still be something to the recycled fryer oil, depending on what has to be done to clean the oil to make it suitable for use in engines or even a generation facility.

I think it supports my thinking that the Internal Combustion Engine(ICE) needs to be phased out as much as possible in favor of vehicles for most that store energy produced elsewhere at a much higher efficiency. Of course, realistically, that isn't likely to happen in my lifetime. So how do we get higher fuel efficiency? Lighter, smaller vehicles, breakthrough technologies to use all that wasted heat.

I've been seeing a lot of commentary that increasing fuel efficiency will simply increase the number of miles driven, as the cost of each mile goes down, or stays constant as prices rise. I wonder if this is a conscious thought on the part of society in general, or a byproduct of cities sprawling and commuters being willing to accept longer drives in order to have a nicer house, larger lot, etc. and subsequently need to drive more to get to the store, post office, church, coffee shop, etc.

So, in additional to changing how the vehicles operate, we need to convince people to drive less. How to reduce usage of vehicles? Make fuel cost more. $3/gallon doesn't seem to be much of an impact. How about $4 or $5 or $6? Make carpooling/vanpooling work or how about shuttle services to supplement the existing public transit routes to cover schedules and destinations that public transit doesn't.

VW and Hybrids

It's a shame that VW isn't offering diesel's this year in its product line, but the word is that they'll be back next year with a new engine. Them comes new that VW is developing ICE/electric hybrids for their entire product line. Some of these hybrids could be out as early as next year.

I've always to wondered about the use of hybrid technologies though. Yes they reduce the amount of fuel used during the service life of the vehicle, but what about those batteries? What is the energy, recycling and environmental impact of those batteries? Can they be recycled in whole or part into new batteries or other items?

There is also a note that they are working on a pure electric version of some vehicles. A few weeks ago I found a company that had done trial electric conversions on contract for VW a few years ago. Again, the question of battery disposal remains, though I am otherwise completely behind the idea of plug-in cars (more on that in another post).