The future of biodiesel

[joe Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close joe]

Hi all,

I was thinking about all of this the other night and I came so a bit of a negative outcome.

I wondered "If the world could convert to Biodiesel".

I was thinking about how many crops would need to be planted, how much area would this would take up, how many processing plants would need to be built or modified from the current infrastructure.

I can see over time as people start competing over the taking of WVO, a price will be attached to it (thus starting to negate the cost saving of biodiesel). And lets say, there is enough land and farmers to produce SVO, what happens to the prices if a few farmers have a bad crop and a few others have their crop wiped out by acts of god.

Does anyone know if there has been a large scale study of the feasability of biodiesel in the future with regards to the points I've raised here. I wouldn't be surprised if biodiesel fuel ended up be as expensive, if not more so as Petro-diesel.


Does anyone think differently.

Joe

[Terry Syd Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Terry Syd]

Re: The future of biodiesel

Joe, you and I already discussed this point in a private email, however others might be interested in what was written.

Years ago I did the number crunching on this issue. If all the oil seed crops and all the tallow production in Australia was devoted to the production of biodiesel - it would only amount to 8% of Australia's annual diesel consumption.

Those figures become even worse when the requirements of our present commercial agriculture system come into focus. With the advent of Peak Oil the cost of commercial agriculture goes through the roof. Commercial agriculture relies upon cheap petroleum for the diesel for the farm implements, natural gas for the fertilizer and diesel for transportation. The costs even now are so high that in many European countries biodiesel production is subsidised by the governments.

Once Peak Oil hits with some force, it will no longer be business as usual. I will offer the opinion that there never will be "fields of fuel". The result is likely to be that biodiesel will be primarily produced from the waste flows of society; that is, WVO from cooking and the tallow/fat from slaughtering.

Although biodiesel could only provide a small amount of liquid fuel in that situation, the ones using biodiesel will likely be the ones making it. Those that are learning the skill of making biodiesel now, are going to be in a far better situation than the clueless masses that will be standing around wondering what happened.

Welcome to the wonderful world of homemade biodiesel production.

[Terry Syd Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Terry Syd]

Re: The future of biodiesel

Joe, you mentioned algae as a potential source. Well, I gave a speech in Toowoomba at an Irrigation Conference and mentioned just that topic. Although some people there were interested in biodiesel, nobody wanted to explore the issue of algae ponds in the outback of Australia. It seems like such ponds could be a potential answer to some of our fuel needs, but somebody has to start doing it.

The most successful ponds in America were in the American South West where there was plenty of sunlight. They used efluent from feedlots and/or pumped carbon dioxide into the ponds. The programs determined the most viable types of algae; all the research has been done and it is available for those that look for it. I forget the figures, but the amount of oil from the algae was staggering compared to the cultivation of oil seed crops. It really is something that Australia needs to look into.

[joe Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close joe]

Re: The future of biodiesel

Joe, you mentioned algae as a potential source. Well, I gave a speech in Toowoomba at an Irrigation Conference and mentioned just that topic. Although some people there were interested in biodiesel, nobody wanted to explore the issue of algae ponds in the outback of Australia. It seems like such ponds could be a potential answer to some of our fuel needs, but somebody has to start doing it.

The most successful ponds in America were in the American South West where there was plenty of sunlight. They used efluent from feedlots and/or pumped carbon dioxide into the ponds. The programs determined the most viable types of algae; all the research has been done and it is available for those that look for it. I forget the figures, but the amount of oil from the algae was staggering compared to the cultivation of oil seed crops. It really is something that Australia needs to look into.

Here are a few comments from an American biodiesel forum about Algae.

While we are some years from production, there's really no contest that algae are the future. You can't beat the stuff in terms of sheer volume (thousands of gallons per acre/year) over soybeans (50 gallons).

Wow

I think the benefits come from the fact that Algae may have multiple crops per year and grow much deeper and therefore give higher yield per crop.

Joe