biofuel.txt
Biofuels
"How can you say you're environmentalists?" asked a local sceptic in Hong Kong. "Your Land Rovers aren't green at all -- one runs on leaded petrol and the other's a dirty diesel."
"Um," we said, thinking fast... "but if everyone had cars like ours, there'd be no need for roads."
In fact no car built today has such low manufacturing eco- costs as a Series Land Rover. And these old Land Rovers last and last: "My Land Rover is 41 years old and has prevented the need to build at least five replacements during that time." -- Series I owner, England, Land Rover Owners Internet mailing list, December 1999.
Land Rover stopped building the Series models in 1985. (See Project vehicles. See also The best car in the world.) The motor industry now produces 100,000 new vehicles a day worldwide. (See Car facts.)
But our critic had a point: the vehicles were green enough (even the blue one), but their fuel certainly wasn't. But we don't plan to pollute the atmosphere with dirty fossil-fuel exhaust fumes all the way from Hong Kong to Cape Town. There are better, cleaner, fuels -- and you can make them yourself!
Why make biofuels?
We had three aims in learning to make biodiesel and ethanol:
Finding renewable fuels for our vehicles
As an environmental project for schools participating in Journey to Forever
As a means of improving energy self-reliance in rural communities.
Both biodiesel and ethanol are clean, grow-your-own fuels that can be made on-site in small villages from renewable, locally available resources, for the most part using simple equipment that a village blacksmith can make and maintain.
These fuels are among a wide range of sustainable rural energy options. Others are methane (biogas) digesters that turn livestock and crop wastes into cooking and heating gas, solar energy (see Solar box cookers), wood gas, charcoal and fuelwood (good fuels unless overharvesting destroys the trees themselves), wind power, water power.
Usually the "answer" is in a mix of technologies. Biofuels can be used to power small-scale farm and workshop machinery and electricity generators as well as local vehicles. Knowing how to make them provides a useful set of ecological questions in investigating local energy options which makes it more than worthwhile even if the final answer is "No".
For instance, should a crop such as peanuts be used to make fuel, or would the villagers be better off eating the peanuts? Or selling them? Or should they press them to make oil, for cooking or for selling, and feed the high- protein residue "cake" to livestock, which in turn they can either eat or sell, while using the livestock wastes (and the crop wastes) to make compost to renew the soil, or to generate biogas for cooking and heating? (The heat generated by the composting process can also be harnessed for heating.) Or should they grow a different crop altogether?
Should a grain crop be distilled to make ethanol fuel or should the villagers eat the grain? If they use the grain for livestock feed, it can be used for ethanol and still feed the livestock: the distillation process to produce ethanol converts the carbohydrates in the grain while leaving the protein. The protein residue is excellent stockfeed, which can be supplemented by forage crops which humans can't eat. This could mean improved utilization of the available resources.
This is the sort of question we'll have to find answers for in our work in rural villages. As always, it will be the villagers' views that decide the issue.
Foundation for Alternative Energy, Slovakia -- a good summary of the various ways to derive useful energy from biomass (34,000-word article):
http://www.seps.sk/zp/fond/dieret/biomass.html
Food or Fuel?
A common objection to biomass energy production is that it could divert agricultural production away from food crops in a hungry world -- even leading to mass starvation in the poor countries.
True or not? Not true: at best it's an oversimplification of a complex issue. It just doesn't work that way, and neither does hunger.
See: Food or Fuel?
Join the Biofuel mailing list
The Biofuel mailing list run by Journey to Forever is
the biggest and fastest-growing alternative fuels mailing list on the Internet. An information-sharing resource for anyone who is making their own fuel or has an interest in biofuels. All aspects of biofuels and their use are covered -- biodiesel, ethanol, other alternative fuels, related technologies and issues, and energy issues in general. The list has a large, global membership and has been at the forefront of small-scale biofuels development for nearly five years.
Comment from a member: "I just want to say how important what you all are doing here is (I'm just an interested bystander). Closed-system fuel production, on a local or small regional scale, tied to local resources, using accessible technologies, and dependent on entrepreneurial innovation combined with open-source information exchange--it's AWESOME. Keep up the good work everyone, before the planet fries."
Another comment: "Some of the brightest biofuel brains in the world."
And another: "Your list contains some of the best information I have found on the Internet. The archives are great and that is where I spend most of my time acquiring knowledge. This information I believe vitally important NOW and am very happy it is here. Our future may just depend upon it. Now that is important."
Subscribe:
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel
By email:
Send an email to biofuel-request@wwia.org with the subject title "subscribe" (without the quotes), or click here:
biofuel-request@wwia.org?subject=subscribe
Search the Biofuel archives -- 38,000 entries from discussions by biofuellers all over the world, a treasure trove of information on all aspects of biofuels:
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
The Biofuel list really helps biofuellers. A typical example: list member Jack Kenworthy of the Cape Eleuthera Island School in the Bahamas joined the list in November 2002 as a novice. List members helped him learn how to make biodiesel from scratch, helped him solve problems he encountered, then helped him design and build a processor. Nine months after joining he wrote to the list: "Hey All -- just thought I would let you know that I just received my results from the ASTM tests [the US ASTM D-6751 biodiesel standard] and we passed all categories. Just another good example of a homebrewer in a remote setting (Bahamas) making spec-grade biofuel! Thanks! -- Jack"
Journey to Forever's Biofuels-biz mailing list was mainly concerned with running biofuels businesses, primarily but not only small-scale. It ran successfully for two and half years before we merged it with the more general Biofuel list. The archives is still open for seaching and contains a lot of useful information:
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuels-biz/
Car facts
From Grist Magazine
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/counter/ counter011900.stm
70 million motor vehicles were on the world's roads in 1950.
630 million motor vehicles were on the world's roads in 1994.
1 billion motor vehicles are expected to be on the world's roads by 2025, if the current growth rate continues.
50 million new cars roll off the assembly line each year -- 137,000 a day.
27 tons of waste are produced in the manufacture of the average new car.
11 million cars are junked annually in the US.
12,000 pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted by the average car each year.
5% of a car's fuel can be wasted by underinflated tires.
2 billion gallons of gasoline could be saved annually if 65 million car owners kept their tires properly inflated.
85% of auto fuel is consumed just to overcome inertia and start the wheels turning.
2.5 times more emissions are generated by SUVs (Sports Untility Vehicles) and light trucks than by standard cars.
33,000 natural gas vehicles were in use in the US in 1993.
75,000 natural gas vehicles were in use in the US in 1998.
-- by Josh Sevin
Sources: World Resources Institute; Environmental Working Group; 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth; Amicus Journal; L.A. Times; U.S. Department of Transportation; Earth Communications Office; Amicus Journal; Wall Street Journal.
Facts & Stats On Cars, from
(Auto Free Ottawa)
the Recycling Council of Ontario -- learn just how earth-unfriendly cars really are, the complete horror-story:
http://www.rco.on.ca/factsheet/fs_b02.html
Visit the Car Free Day Web site by @Car Free Day Consortium:
http://www.ecoplan.org/carfreeday/cf_index.htm
Biofuels
Biofuels Library
Biofuels supplies and suppliers
Biodiesel
Make your own biodiesel
Mike Pelly's recipe
Two-stage biodiesel process
FOOLPROOF biodiesel process
Biodiesel processors
Biodiesel in Hong Kong
Nitrogen Oxide emissions
Glycerine
Biodiesel resources on the Web
Do diesels have a future?
Vegetable oil yields and characteristics
Bubble washing
Biodiesel and your vehicle
Food or fuel?
Straight vegetable oil as diesel fuel
Ethanol
Ethanol resources on the Web
Is ethanol energy-efficient?
This site is owned by Handmade Projects.
[ Previous | Next | List Sites ]
This Biofuels Network site owned by Handmade Projects.
[ Previous 5 Sites | Previous | Next | Next 5 Sites | Random Site | List Sites ]
Community development | Rural development
City farms | Organic gardening | Composting | Small farms | Biofuel | Solar box cookers
Trees, soil and water | Seeds of the world | Appropriate technology | Project vehicles
Home | What people are saying about us | About Handmade Projects
Projects | Internet | Schools projects | Sitemap | Site Search | Donations | Contact us
of all original material on this website is the property of Keith Addison, unless otherwise stated, and may be copied and distributed for non-commercial education purposes only as long as the source of the material is stated and a reference to the Journey to Forever website URL is included (http://journeytoforever.org/). All material is provided “as is” without guarantees or warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied.
"How can you say you're environmentalists?" asked a local sceptic in Hong Kong. "Your Land Rovers aren't green at all -- one runs on leaded petrol and the other's a dirty diesel."
"Um," we said, thinking fast... "but if everyone had cars like ours, there'd be no need for roads."
In fact no car built today has such low manufacturing eco- costs as a Series Land Rover. And these old Land Rovers last and last: "My Land Rover is 41 years old and has prevented the need to build at least five replacements during that time." -- Series I owner, England, Land Rover Owners Internet mailing list, December 1999.
Land Rover stopped building the Series models in 1985. (See Project vehicles. See also The best car in the world.) The motor industry now produces 100,000 new vehicles a day worldwide. (See Car facts.)
But our critic had a point: the vehicles were green enough (even the blue one), but their fuel certainly wasn't. But we don't plan to pollute the atmosphere with dirty fossil-fuel exhaust fumes all the way from Hong Kong to Cape Town. There are better, cleaner, fuels -- and you can make them yourself!
Why make biofuels?
We had three aims in learning to make biodiesel and ethanol:
Finding renewable fuels for our vehicles
As an environmental project for schools participating in Journey to Forever
As a means of improving energy self-reliance in rural communities.
Both biodiesel and ethanol are clean, grow-your-own fuels that can be made on-site in small villages from renewable, locally available resources, for the most part using simple equipment that a village blacksmith can make and maintain.
These fuels are among a wide range of sustainable rural energy options. Others are methane (biogas) digesters that turn livestock and crop wastes into cooking and heating gas, solar energy (see Solar box cookers), wood gas, charcoal and fuelwood (good fuels unless overharvesting destroys the trees themselves), wind power, water power.
Usually the "answer" is in a mix of technologies. Biofuels can be used to power small-scale farm and workshop machinery and electricity generators as well as local vehicles. Knowing how to make them provides a useful set of ecological questions in investigating local energy options which makes it more than worthwhile even if the final answer is "No".
For instance, should a crop such as peanuts be used to make fuel, or would the villagers be better off eating the peanuts? Or selling them? Or should they press them to make oil, for cooking or for selling, and feed the high- protein residue "cake" to livestock, which in turn they can either eat or sell, while using the livestock wastes (and the crop wastes) to make compost to renew the soil, or to generate biogas for cooking and heating? (The heat generated by the composting process can also be harnessed for heating.) Or should they grow a different crop altogether?
Should a grain crop be distilled to make ethanol fuel or should the villagers eat the grain? If they use the grain for livestock feed, it can be used for ethanol and still feed the livestock: the distillation process to produce ethanol converts the carbohydrates in the grain while leaving the protein. The protein residue is excellent stockfeed, which can be supplemented by forage crops which humans can't eat. This could mean improved utilization of the available resources.
This is the sort of question we'll have to find answers for in our work in rural villages. As always, it will be the villagers' views that decide the issue.
Foundation for Alternative Energy, Slovakia -- a good summary of the various ways to derive useful energy from biomass (34,000-word article):
http://www.seps.sk/zp/fond/dieret/biomass.html
Food or Fuel?
A common objection to biomass energy production is that it could divert agricultural production away from food crops in a hungry world -- even leading to mass starvation in the poor countries.
True or not? Not true: at best it's an oversimplification of a complex issue. It just doesn't work that way, and neither does hunger.
See: Food or Fuel?
Join the Biofuel mailing list
The Biofuel mailing list run by Journey to Forever is
the biggest and fastest-growing alternative fuels mailing list on the Internet. An information-sharing resource for anyone who is making their own fuel or has an interest in biofuels. All aspects of biofuels and their use are covered -- biodiesel, ethanol, other alternative fuels, related technologies and issues, and energy issues in general. The list has a large, global membership and has been at the forefront of small-scale biofuels development for nearly five years.
Comment from a member: "I just want to say how important what you all are doing here is (I'm just an interested bystander). Closed-system fuel production, on a local or small regional scale, tied to local resources, using accessible technologies, and dependent on entrepreneurial innovation combined with open-source information exchange--it's AWESOME. Keep up the good work everyone, before the planet fries."
Another comment: "Some of the brightest biofuel brains in the world."
And another: "Your list contains some of the best information I have found on the Internet. The archives are great and that is where I spend most of my time acquiring knowledge. This information I believe vitally important NOW and am very happy it is here. Our future may just depend upon it. Now that is important."
Subscribe:
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel
By email:
Send an email to biofuel-request@wwia.org with the subject title "subscribe" (without the quotes), or click here:
biofuel-request@wwia.org?subject=subscribe
Search the Biofuel archives -- 38,000 entries from discussions by biofuellers all over the world, a treasure trove of information on all aspects of biofuels:
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
The Biofuel list really helps biofuellers. A typical example: list member Jack Kenworthy of the Cape Eleuthera Island School in the Bahamas joined the list in November 2002 as a novice. List members helped him learn how to make biodiesel from scratch, helped him solve problems he encountered, then helped him design and build a processor. Nine months after joining he wrote to the list: "Hey All -- just thought I would let you know that I just received my results from the ASTM tests [the US ASTM D-6751 biodiesel standard] and we passed all categories. Just another good example of a homebrewer in a remote setting (Bahamas) making spec-grade biofuel! Thanks! -- Jack"
Journey to Forever's Biofuels-biz mailing list was mainly concerned with running biofuels businesses, primarily but not only small-scale. It ran successfully for two and half years before we merged it with the more general Biofuel list. The archives is still open for seaching and contains a lot of useful information:
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuels-biz/
Car facts
From Grist Magazine
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/counter/ counter011900.stm
70 million motor vehicles were on the world's roads in 1950.
630 million motor vehicles were on the world's roads in 1994.
1 billion motor vehicles are expected to be on the world's roads by 2025, if the current growth rate continues.
50 million new cars roll off the assembly line each year -- 137,000 a day.
27 tons of waste are produced in the manufacture of the average new car.
11 million cars are junked annually in the US.
12,000 pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted by the average car each year.
5% of a car's fuel can be wasted by underinflated tires.
2 billion gallons of gasoline could be saved annually if 65 million car owners kept their tires properly inflated.
85% of auto fuel is consumed just to overcome inertia and start the wheels turning.
2.5 times more emissions are generated by SUVs (Sports Untility Vehicles) and light trucks than by standard cars.
33,000 natural gas vehicles were in use in the US in 1993.
75,000 natural gas vehicles were in use in the US in 1998.
-- by Josh Sevin
Sources: World Resources Institute; Environmental Working Group; 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth; Amicus Journal; L.A. Times; U.S. Department of Transportation; Earth Communications Office; Amicus Journal; Wall Street Journal.
Facts & Stats On Cars, from
(Auto Free Ottawa)
the Recycling Council of Ontario -- learn just how earth-unfriendly cars really are, the complete horror-story:
http://www.rco.on.ca/factsheet/fs_b02.html
Visit the Car Free Day Web site by @Car Free Day Consortium:
http://www.ecoplan.org/carfreeday/cf_index.htm
Biofuels
Biofuels Library
Biofuels supplies and suppliers
Biodiesel
Make your own biodiesel
Mike Pelly's recipe
Two-stage biodiesel process
FOOLPROOF biodiesel process
Biodiesel processors
Biodiesel in Hong Kong
Nitrogen Oxide emissions
Glycerine
Biodiesel resources on the Web
Do diesels have a future?
Vegetable oil yields and characteristics
Bubble washing
Biodiesel and your vehicle
Food or fuel?
Straight vegetable oil as diesel fuel
Ethanol
Ethanol resources on the Web
Is ethanol energy-efficient?
This site is owned by Handmade Projects.
[ Previous | Next | List Sites ]
This Biofuels Network site owned by Handmade Projects.
[ Previous 5 Sites | Previous | Next | Next 5 Sites | Random Site | List Sites ]
Community development | Rural development
City farms | Organic gardening | Composting | Small farms | Biofuel | Solar box cookers
Trees, soil and water | Seeds of the world | Appropriate technology | Project vehicles
Home | What people are saying about us | About Handmade Projects
Projects | Internet | Schools projects | Sitemap | Site Search | Donations | Contact us
of all original material on this website is the property of Keith Addison, unless otherwise stated, and may be copied and distributed for non-commercial education purposes only as long as the source of the material is stated and a reference to the Journey to Forever website URL is included (http://journeytoforever.org/). All material is provided “as is” without guarantees or warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied.
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