A smaller version of this story appeared in the November 25th City Paper:
After 16 years of selling thousands of gallons of gasoline a day, Chuck Wichrowski sells soybeans five gallons at a time -- as biodiesel fuel. Wichrowski, 55, of Greensburg, left what he calls the "loss leader" business of selling gas to run Baum Boulevard Automotive in North Oakland.
But now he’s back in the business, selling fuel made of soybeans, one hundred percent biodiesel that, while little different than vegetable oil, requires no changes or adjustments for most diesel engines.
"The customers I have are mainly concerned with saving the planet," says Wichrowski, but he sees interest in biodiesel growing. "We’re trying to get a larger tank and a pump. CMU has expressed an interest in using biodiesel for its fleet. They already have purchased biodiesel for emergency generators."
The use of biodiesel is nothing new. Back in 1895, Rudolf Diesel developed his first engine to run on peanut oil. Although fossil-fuel based was cheaper, Diesel harbored the desire that vegetable oil would make its return. "Such oils may become in the course of time as important as the petroleum and coal tar products of the present time," said Diesel in 1912.
Overall, biodiesel can reduce the amount of pollutants expelled from diesel engines. Producing and using biodiesel is carbon-neutral, meaning it takes as much carbon from the atmosphere as it gives, not contributing to greenhouse gases. With federal mandates to reduce sulfur in diesel fuel, biodiesel blends will be in demand to reduce sulfur and substitute its lubricating capacity.
Biodiesel America, an organization "whose mission is to change 100,000 diesel school buses to biodiesel by 2010," outlines biodiesel’s advantages in emissions:
There are no sulfur dioxide emissions from biodiesel, since biodiesel does not contain sulfur. Soot emissions from biodiesel are 40-60 percent lower. Carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions are cut by between 20 percent- 60 percent. Vehicles running on biodiesel still emit the same amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) as they did while running on diesel fuel. The difference is that the CO2 from burning biodiesel will be captured in the next batch of crops grown to make biodiesel. Then it will be emitted and captured again and again ad infinitum. The key here is that no new carbon dioxide is added to the Earth’s atmosphere.
Dick Morchesky of Export Energy, a biodiesel supplier in Export, PA, says that the typical blend is 20 percent biodiesel. Export Energy supplies the Pennsylvania Turnpike with biodiesel and says that they use a 20 percent blend. Morchesky says that the goal in the next few years is for biodiesel to capture 20 percent of the 15 billion gallon market.
"I don’t think you can grow enough soybeans to replace all fossil fuels. If you can replace 20 percent that’s the goal." In addition to soybeans, though, other agricultural products — rapeseed, hemp, sunflower, mustard seed, and algae among them — can be used to make biodiesel. Even some of the three billion gallons of waste vegetable oil generated annually is harvested from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and other fryers to make biodiesel.
“No additions, no subtractions, no changes to the engine,” says Morchesky. “If you have an older car you’ll have to replace the rubber seals. But today’s engines don’t have natural rubber seals.
“I’m 75 and I’ve been in business my whole life. Once in a while there’s a snake oil salesman who will try to sell you on a new carbeuretor or an additive that will upset the whole industry. This is not any snake oil. It does work, and will work. It’s an attempt by the country to try to lower dependence on foreign oil sources.
As one source put it, “No one died defending a soybean field.”
According to Biodiesel America, the price we pay at the pump for gas is not a true reflection of the actual cost of petroleum.
To remedy the situation, biodiesel producers and consumers will soon receive a boost. On October 22, George Bush signed the JOBS act. As of January 1st, the act specifies that for each percent of biodiesel gas sold producers will receive a one cent tax incentive, meaning BD100 (one hundred percent biodiesel) will receive a one dollar tax incentive.
José Ernesto Mieres, 36, of Squirrel Hill, has been using biodiesel in his car for three years now, and has seen its availability slowly increase. He first bought biodiesel mail order, and has been an online advocate for biodiesel on a few websites, including biodieselnow, and last year gave a presentation at CMU's Energy Expo on biodiesel.
"We first began to buy it from a place in southeast Ohio, then from Export Fuel. I was their first customer," says Mieres. Mieres recently bought recycled vegetable oil from Duff Science Company in central Pennsylvania. Chemist Keith Duff sells about 120 gallons a week, currently priced at $2.05 per gallon, and is looking to increase production capabilties to a half million gallons by first quarter 2005.
Mieres says that one of the obstacles to biodiesel's use is the unavailability of cars that run diesel.
"But everything else — construction vehicles, trains, big rigs, farm equipment, power generators, and ships — run on diesel. Your mind flies. We’ll no longer have to be slaves to the petroleum industry. But it will take money to liberate us to the possibilities."
Posted by mastr at December 7, 2004 10:46 AM