Desert Biofuels Initiative

New Scottsdale-based biofuel company

2011-04-30T18:45:00.000-07:00

The AZ Republic describes a new Scottsdale-based biofuel venture in today's paper:

Easy Automation Inc. of Welcome, Minn., is opening a two-person headquarters in Scottsdale where it will launch Easy Energy Systems, with hopes to hire about a dozen executives.
Founder and Chairman Mark Gaalswyk aims to build a factory in Arizona that will produce modular ethanol distilleries that can turn waste, such as milk whey and corncobs, into ethanol.

One of these days we'll get our list of AZ biofuels orgs updated -- the list on the right nav bar is out of date.

Intel-ASU algae CO2 capture project

2011-04-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

Intel Corporation and Arizona State University have completed the initial phase of a project called "(Towards) Zero Emission Fabs." The project, funded by a grant from Intel's Sustainability in Action program, explores two research questions: (1) can algae be grown using the CO2 from Intel factory boiler stack emissions, and (2) if yes, how would this kind of CO2 capture be counted or credited under different regulatory regimes? The video below provides an informal summary of the project results to date. (To be clear: this is not a DBI project; we are just reporting on it here. Brad from DBI is involved with the project wearing his "day job" hat as an Intel employee; Sam West of DBI participated as a member of the project's extended team.)

The team has made other material available as well:

Some raw video of the proof-of-concept implementation is here.
Every video segment shot, showing the proof-of-concept implementation in detail, is cataloged here.
Every still photo shot is here (the collection of still photos is limited; the video segments are more comprehensive).
A 1-pager summarizing the Kyoto Protocol research is here (author: Chris Baker)
A 1-pager summarizing the EU Emissions Trading System is here. (author: Ismail Aliyev)
A 1-pager summarizing the EPA Greehouse Gas regulations is here (author: Chris Thiele)
A 1-pager summarizing volutary carbon trading markets in the U.S. is here (author: Adam Neville)
The poster the team presented in connection with the Algal Biomass Organization's national conference is here.

The material created to date is fairly raw and informal; more polished material will be made available in due course.

For more information about the project, contact John McGowen or Brad Biddle.

Greg Gumbel is an Internet Bully

2011-01-25T19:05:00.000-08:00

In 2009 Desert Biofuels Initiative hosted a workshop. We had a fantastic speaker line-up, made up of virtually every key biofuels stakeholder in Arizona. As noted in this press account, the workshop advanced our goal of developing a "unique collaborative, open source environment" for sustainable biofuels in Arizona. The workshop was free for all of the 150 participants, consistent with our non-profit mission. After the workshop we posted each speaker's presentation materials (with their permission); see this page. Among the material we posted was a video presented by a representative of Amereco, a company that makes biodiesel from waste vegetable oils. In this video CBS television sportscaster Greg Gumbel narrates what appears to be a news story about Amereco.

Today (January 25, 2011), we received a message from Greg Gumbel's representative stating that we are making an "unauthorized misappropriation of Mr. Gumbel's personal characteristics," which is "an infringement of Mr. Gumbel's legal rights" subjecting us to "serious legal liability." We are "hereby directed to immediately remove the aforementioned video from the Internet." Should we fail to "comply with this demand" Mr. Gumbel will "pursu[e] any and all legal remedies" available to him.

As a legal matter, this is complete nonsense. Note that Mr. Gumbel is not asserting that he owns the copyright in the video, but rather that Desert Biofuels Initiative is infringing his right of publicity by posting the video. To succeed with this claim, Mr. Gumbel would have to show that we are creating a false and misleading impression that Mr. Gumbel is endorsing some DBI product or service. That is, publicity rights claims involve unauthorized use of a celebrity's name or likeness for a commercial purpose. As should be blindingly obvious, we are not asserting that Mr. Gumbel endorses DBI in any way whatsoever. We sell no products or services. We have simply archived material from an important public forum, with the authorization of the party who provided the video. Any claim that DBI is infringing Mr. Gumbel's publicity rights isn't even remotely plausible.

Mr. Gumbel appears to be engaged not in an intellectually honest legal dispute, but rather in overt legal bullying. Mr. Gumbel presumably wants this material off the Internet and out of public discourse because it is deeply embarrassing to him. And he should be ashamed: as extensively reported by this watchdog site and summarized by the Center for Media and Democracy, Mr. Gumbel was involved in an extraordinary breach of journalistic ethics, under which the subjects of "news" stories paid for favorable coverage. This video appears to be an example of the scandal described by the watchdog group. Mr. Gumbel's shame (or whatever other motive is driving him) is no excuse for using spurious legal claims to try to bully organizations like DBI into taking legitimate, newsworthy material out of public discussion.

Indeed, Mr. Gumbel's demand that we take down this material makes the case for keeping it up even stronger. Attendees at our workshop, and researchers, scholars and other stakeholders tracking the development of sustainable biofuels in Arizona need to understand the context of this video -- which we were not aware of prior to Mr. Gumbel's missive. Knowing the context provides insight into the featured company, a key player in the development of an AZ biofuels infrastructure. Separately, it also now provides insight into the tactics of an individual involved in a remarkable journalistic scandal. Taking the video down would be inconsistent with our organization's public interest objectives.

We have provided a copy of Mr. Gumbel's message to us for inclusion in the database at the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, an organization devoted to stopping attempts to use intellectual property and other laws to silence online users. We've also pasted the full message below.

------

Text of message received:

Unauthorized Use of Greg Gumbel's Name and Likeness

January 25, 2011

Re: Unauthorized Use of Greg Gumbel's Name and Likeness

Dear desertbiofuels: :

Please be advised that IMG is the agent and representative of Mr. Greg Gumbel. It has come to our attention that you are currently posting a video on the Internet [Ihttp://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=1cZXhOb0PgY&feature=related] which incorporates the name, likeness and performance of Mr. Gumbel.

You do not have the right to use the name, likeness, performance or any other characteristic of Mr. Gumbel in this video or otherwise. The unauthorized misappropriation of Mr. Gumbel's personal characteristics is an infringement of Mr. Gumbel's legal rights. Such infringement subjects you to potential serious legal liability.

Accordingly, you are hereby directed to immediately remove the aforementioned video from the Internet and cease and desist all further use of Mr. Gumbel's personal characteristics. Please provide your prompt written assurance within three (3) business days that you will comply with this demand.

Should you fail to comply with the terms of this correspondence, we will consider immediately pursuing any and all legal remedies available to Mr. Gumbel.

Sincerely yours,

Peter DeVita

SVP Business Affairs
IMG
304 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10010
Peter.devita@imgworld.com
212.774.4586

cc: Greg Gumbel
Lash & Goldberg LLP

Sent to: desertbiofuels

Sam is back!

2010-05-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

We're thrilled that Sam West has rejoined us, stepping back into his role as our part-time executive director. Sam initially joined us in 2008 as a third year law student; after graduation he took on a leadership role for DBI, managing several key projects. As we noted then, Sam brings a unique and valuable set of skills to the table for DBI, drawing from his experiences as a civil engineer, his MBA and law degrees, and his leadership experience associated with his serving on submarines and other roles as an officer in the Navy.

For the past year Sam has been serving the United States in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. He notes:

Kunar is a busy province in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan on the Pakistan border. I was the executive officer of a Provincial Reconstruction Team. Our three major lines of effort were governance, reconstruction and security for the Afghan people. I saw much progress while I was there. We were able to help bring infrastructure to a war-torn province where only several years ago there were no paved roads or power. From our assistance, we were able to see private business and markets within the province almost double over the year. The great news is we were able to start programs that encouraged sustainable development. This included agricultural programs, hydro-electric plants, wind and solar power. We also invested in the future of Afghan children by building over 50 schools in the province. While there is still much more to be done, we had a successful year and we were able to meet and help a great group of people. Although I enjoyed hiking through the mountains of Afghanistan, I think I am easily going to get used to the car again. I am looking forward to reconnecting with everyone and moving forward with our biofuel projects.

We're extraordinarily proud of Sam for his selfless service, very pleased that he is home safe and sound, and excited to continue working with him on our DBI projects. Sam can be contacted at sam@desertbiofuels.org.

Homebrewer fire in Maine

2010-02-28T13:48:00.000-08:00

I came across an article about a fire associated with biodiesel homebrewing in Brunswick, Maine. This is just the second such incident that I'm aware of, based on monitoring relevant news articles, although a quote from a NFPA official in the article implies that there have been others. The article prompted me to review the blog post Eric wrote a year ago in response to a similar incident here in Arizona; Eric's thoughts, and the insightful comments on the post by Hans Huth, remain quite relevant. It also got me thinking about our meeting the City of Phoenix Biodiesel Task Force. The task force went silent as far as I know -- perhaps for the best, given the heavy-handed approach they appeared to be to adopting. I also was reminded of the quote from the US Fire Administration concerning homebrew biodiesel -- "The overall process is legal and relatively safe when properly performed" -- a useful point for regulators and policymakers to keep in mind.

Waste-based biofuels efforts in AZ

2010-02-19T07:40:00.000-08:00

This issue warrants a more expansive post, but the addition of Tuscon-based EDG to the mix (see Biofuels Digest's Feb. 19th article "EDG to launch 1.5 Mgy waste based biodiesel plant in Arizona") makes a total of at least four companies in AZ focused on waste grease-based biofuel production. The others include AZ Biodiesel, Amereco and AZ Green Dining Network. (The website of Mountain Biofuel in Flagstaff reports that it is currently not operating.)

Additionally, the member-driven Dynamite Biofuels Co-op in Cave Creek is going strong.

Waste oil-based biofuels just make sense. We applaud the efforts of all of these organizations. Please give them your support!

Vaclav Smil: 9 billion people + 1 Planet = ?

2010-01-25T09:34:00.000-08:00

From the 'Quantum to Cosmos' festival held in Waterloo, Ontario, October 2009:

"Do we want 100 kilos of meat per year and Hummers or 40 kilos of meat per year and Hondas?"

http://www.q2cfestival.com/play.php?lecture_id=8251

Bill Gates blogs about 'alternative energy'

2010-01-25T07:16:00.000-08:00

In addition to his significant philanthropic efforts, Bill Gates has been interested in 'alternative energy' for some time. Very glad to see he is now divested from ethanol investment and is on-board with algae.

On his recently launched 'Gates Notes' website he has a series of podcasts (in .wma and .mp3 formats) he talks about the need for 'carbon-free energy sources' and makes the call for increased government funding of 'basic research in energy':

http://www.gatesnotes.com/Thinking/article.aspx?ID=104

Going to spend the morning listening!

Also glad to see he is giving Vaclav Smil page-space...

Okay, it's an hour and a half later...

Mentioned in the Gates podcast:

David MacKay - http://www.withouthotair.com/

Vaclav Smil - http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~vsmil/index.html

and some follow-up here - http://www.gatesnotes.com/Learning/article.aspx?ID=25

A couple recommendations from the 'Dummies' series -

http://www.dummies.com/store/product/Organic-Chemistry-I-For-Dummies.productCd-0764569023.html

and

http://www.dummies.com/store/product/Weather-For-Dummies.productCd-0764552430.html

And he mentions some online courseware that he's been studying on physics, but does not give many specifics on the podcast. Found this page for followup -

http://www.gatesnotes.com/Learning/article.aspx?ID=24

Not included there is a reference to Lewin, whom he mentions in the podcast -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lewin_Lectures_on_Physics

Dan Rees (AZ Biodiesel) on the Biodiesel Tax Incentive

2010-01-22T20:07:00.000-08:00

Dan Rees of AZ Biodiesel sent us the following note about the dire situation facing biodiesel producers due to the unexpected non-renewal of the biodiesel tax credit. While there are criticisms that can be levied against the credit program (e.g. at DBI we're unenthusiastic about the virgin soy-based biofuel that can benefit from the credit), the fact is that elimination of the credit will be devastating to local businesses like AZ Biodiesel, Amereco and AZ Green Dining Network that use waste vegetable oils (restaurant grease) to create clean-burning biodiesel. This local waste grease model precisely embodies our vision of sustainable regional biofuels, and a setback for a company like AZ Biodiesel would be a major blow to the development of a sustainable biofuels infrastructure in Arizona. Please give Dan's message careful consideration, and note his call to action near the bottom of his message.

Your Help Is Needed to Reinstate the Biodiesel Tax Incentive

Hi Everyone,

Az BioDiesel is still alive and producing for now without the $1 a gallon federal biodiesel tax credit.

It will hopefully be passed by Feb/March and be retroactive to Jan 1st but there are no guarantees.

For now, we (AZ BioDiesel) can afford to "weather the storm" and wait until the end of January to see if the tax credit will come back anytime soon.

Most plants around the country unfortunately, have closed or severely reduced production as they can't weather a long wait to get the tax credit dollars.

The word is that if congress doesn't get around to it before Feb, most of the industry will close and many may not be able to reopen. 29,000+ jobs will be lost very soon. Congress came back Jan 20th from their holiday break. Health care was still taking priority to anything else when they started.

Our industry is the victim of congress' focus on health care and not having time to pass the biodiesel tax credit extension which helps biodiesel to be competitively priced to the already subsidized petroleum fuels.

Several senators (Dem & Rep) have sent letters to President Obama to get the extension passed quickly but, no answer yet.

Some are saying that Big Oil is behind this. The EPA was going to pass (this Feb) it's new alt fuel standards which, for the first time, would include a national minimum requirement for 1 billion gallons of biodiesel to get the industry on its feet and growing. The EPA now is saying they may just give the 1 billion gallons to the ethanol industry to add to the minimum requirement they already have since they don't believe the biodiesel industry can now live up to the new requirement.

Another win for Big Oil and their support of ethanol! The alternative fuel (ethanol) that isn't a threat to the future of replacing petroleum oil.

It really concerns me that President Obama had the nerve recently to tout the $2.3 billion he gave out to create new forms of energy and add 17,000 jobs while he knows that the biodiesel industry is about to lose 29,000+ jobs and already can produce new energy but no one in congress or the white house seems to care. You'll notice very little press about the loss of the biodiesel tax credit and it's potential to bankrupt this industry even if they get around to passing an extension later in the year.

Please help save the biodiesel industry by going to this link and sending emails to our congressmen:

Your Help Is Needed to Reinstate the Biodiesel Tax Incentive
http://www.biodiesel.org/news/taxcredit/default.shtm

With your help, this industry can survive!!!

Thanks,
Dan Rees, AZ BioDiesel

Biodiesel Science Cafe TONIGHT

2010-01-15T07:33:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the last minute post, but today at 5:30 I'll be joining Dr. Milt Sommerfeld and Dr. Mark Edwards for the January Science Cafe at the AZ Science Center. I'm also planning to ride and display my 150mpg biodiesel chopper. The event is free and open to the public. More info is available here: http://cnsasu.info/cafe/jan10cafe.pdf

Arizona: not on the algae biofuels map?

2010-01-12T11:48:00.000-08:00

In December Biofuels Digest published an article "The Hottest 50 Companies in Bioenergy and the DOE Integrated Bioenergy Grants, in maps." They produced maps that represent:

1. Locations of the companies in their list of the "50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy."
2. Locations of pilot-scale projects of these companies.
3. Locations of demonstration-scale and commercial-scale projects for these companies.
4. Locations of pilot and demonstration-scale projects that received support in the $564 million Department of Energy IBR grants, announced in December 2009.

Observe Arizona's status in each of these maps (I realize that the keys aren't legible in these thumbnails, but here's all you need to know: blank = zero).

Granted, Biofuels Digest focused on bioenergy broadly, not just on algae. Nonetheless, in my view these maps demonstrate a problem: Arizona is not on the map (literally and figuratively) when it comes to algae biofuels -- and we absolutely should be!

Arizona should have owned solar: that is, we should be the leading region for solar in the way that Silicon Valley is the leader in information technology. For reasons I won't try to diagnose or analyze here, we aren't. We have a second chance, however, with "green solar" (to borrow Mark Edwards' term for algae). I believe that algae is a fundamentally transformational technology, akin to the semiconductor in its potential impact. Arizona has an extraordinary opportunity to lead in connection with algae biofuels and related products and services (nutraceuticals, bioplastics, wastewater remediation, carbon capture, etc.).

Consider the assets we have available to us:

1. Unbeatable natural assets: (a) sun, (b) heat, (c) abundant cheap, flat land, and (d) plentiful briny aquifers (not useful for much else given their salinity) and wastewater.

2. Incredible world-class research efforts, including the highly acclaimed [1] [2] work by Drs. Sommerfeld and Hu at ASU Polytechnic and the impressive work at ASU BioDesign. [4/23/10 update: the University of Arizona is also emerging as a research leader.]

3. Leading algae entrepreneurs, including XL Renewables (one of the few companies in the world to be currently producing algae for commercial sale, not just engaged in demo projects or research), Diversified Energy, Desert Sweet Biofuels, Energy Derived (.pdf), PetroSun (featured in the film Fuel), Heliae, Bye Energy and Algae Biosciences.

4. World-class policy analysts and thought-leaders, such as Mark Edwards (author of the award-winning and bestselling Green Algae Strategy), Colleen Crowninshield at the Tucson Clean Cities Coalition, Dave Conz and the team at ASU's Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO), and Sandy Askland and the team at ASU's Center for the Study of Law, Science and Innovation.

5. Increasingly strong support from trade groups and NGOs such as the Arizona Bioindustry Association, Science Foundation Arizona and the Flinn Foundation.

[4/23/10 addition: a commenter correctly noted that I neglected to mention two key pioneering efforts by APS: (1) the 2006 project at RedHawk, and (2) the $70M carbon sequestration project at Cholla Generation Station.]

To date, despite these strong assets, Arizona has lagged behind as other regions have taken the lead in connection with algae. I'm hopeful that this is beginning to change, for several reasons:

1. The establishment of ASU Lightworks under Gary Dirks can provide a focal point of leadership for the Arizona algae community.

2. The Algal Biomass Organization's Algal Biomass Summit, an important national conference, will be held in Phoenix in September. This provides a unique opportunity to showcase Arizona as a leading region for algae technology.

3. Government stakeholders are beginning to engage. Progressive government entities such as the City of Phoenix and the Town of Gilbert have provided demonstrable/tangible support, and other local and state government entities appear increasingly interested in engaging in the fashion we've seen in other states.

Algae presents an extraordinary opportunity for Arizona. I hope that we can capitalize on it.

Biodiesel may be gone, sooner than you think...

2009-12-18T20:22:00.000-08:00

The tax credit for biodiesel / petroleum diesel blends (1¢ for each percent biodiesel, per gallon) is set to expire Dec 31, 2009 unless extended by Congress. Locally, Dan Rees of AZ Biodiesel is looking for a community response to motivate Congress to extend the 'blenders credit' for another year, which allows AZ Biodiesel and other vendors to price biodiesel at (or below!) petroleum diesel prices.

Without the blenders credit -- which on the 99.9% biodiesel that AZ Biodiesel sells is effectively $1/gallon -- biodiesel prices will rise to levels significantly higher than petrol diesel. The end result: there may not be enough demand for biodiesel to keep it available here in the Valley.

Congress has less than two weeks to extend the blenders credit: if they don't, even a retroactive extension may not be enough to keep pioneers like Dan in business.

Time to make some noise!

Here's a link for more info: http://www.biodiesel.org/news/taxcredit/default.shtm

Your turkey grease can clean our air and save taxpayer money

2009-11-21T11:16:00.000-08:00

Desert Biofuels Initiative applauds the grease recycling efforts in the Valley (by the Town of Gilbert and AZ Biodiesel, and by the Dynamite Biofuels Co-op) and in Tucson.

At DBI we're not fans of the "Big Agriculture" model of growing corn or soy for conversion to ethanol or biodiesel. This model can can provide some air quality benefits, but otherwise has some serious flaws (e.g. excessive fertilizer runoff, displacing food crops). We're excited about the future potential of next-generation biofuels feedstocks (inputs), such as algae. However, there is another feedstock option that is widely available right now but that is currently being significantly underused as a biofuel input: so-called "yellow grease" or "WVO" -- waste vegetable oil and other similar waste grease, such as from restaurant deep fryers. WVO can be converted into clean-burning biodiesel (that can run in any diesel engine) easily and cheaply.

Did you know that:

There are about 10 million gallons of WVO produced annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area, but most of this currently is used as animal feed or simply "disappears" -- often down the drain.

If all of the WVO in the region were turned into biofuel that was used locally in place of petroleum diesel, this would take 100,000 tons of CO2 out of Valley air each year -- roughly the equivalent of taking 20,000 cars off the road.

We would also reduce the significant taxpayer expense associated with municipalities addressing the hundreds of grease-caused sewer blockages and overflows that occur in the Valley every year.

This Thanksgiving, we all have the opportunity to make a small contribution towards cleaner air and a cleaner wastewater infrastructure: we can recycle our turkey grease and other used cooking oils as biofuel. There are two WVO collection efforts here in the Valley: one in Gilbert, the other in Cave Creek. There is also a notable collection effort in Tucson.

Town of Gilbert and AZ Biodiesel

The Town of Gilbert continues to impress with their ability to demonstrate results when it comes to clean energy. For Thanksgiving they have partnered with Gilbert-based AZ Biodiesel and are collecting household grease at eight of the nine Gilbert fire stations. AZ Biodiesel will convert the grease to fuel, all of which will be used locally -- displacing petroleum diesel and reducing air pollution. Click here for details and a map to the various collection points. We applaud Gilbert's leadership in this area, and deeply appreciate AZ Biodiesel's commitment to the project and to sustainable biofuels in Arizona more generally.

Dynamite Biofuels Co-op.

The Dynamite Biofuels Co-op, a membership-driven grassroots biofuels effort based in Cave Creek, is also providing a grease recycling opportunity. The Co-op will have a grease collection bin at Big Earl's Greasy Eats restaurant, 6135 E. Cave Creek Rd. in Cave Creek. The team at the Co-op are longtime leaders in the Valley on biofuels issues, and we applaud their efforts to make this recycling opportunity available to the community. Check their website for additional details.

[Note: we understand that the Co-op would be willing to provide collection bins and pick up services at other locations in the Valley as well. Restaurant owners or others, please let them know if you would like to participate.]

Tucson

To their great credit, the Tucson Clean Cities Coalition, Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department, and Grecycle have put on a day-after-Thanksgiving grease drive for several years. This year the drive will run from 9am - 1pm at three locations in Tucson: O'Reilly Chevrolet (6160 E. Broadway), the Pima County Industrial Wastewater Control plant (5025 W. Ina Rd.) and the City of Tucson Water Plan #2 (1102 W. Irvington Rd.). The Clean Cities website will have more detail.

So: this Thanksgiving RECYCLE YOUR GREASE! And while you're doing so, consider the opportunity for cleaner air and wastewater treatment cost savings that we're missing by under- utilizing this local resource as a biofuel feedstock.

[To our friends in the press: we'd love for you to tell this story! Here are some contacts if you'd like more info:

Beth Lucas, Town of Gilbert, (480) 503-6766, beth.lucas@ci.gilbert.az.us
Dan Rees, AZ Biodiesel, contact info
Gene Leach or Jay Nance, Dynamite Biofuels, contact info
Kathryn Van Kirk, Tucson Clean Cities, (520) 792-1093, kvankirk@pagnet.org
Eric Johnson, Desert Biofuels Initiative, (602) 996-9682, eric@desertbiofuels.org]

AZ Biofuels Grant Program: A Missed Opportunity

2009-11-17T10:57:00.000-08:00

If you had nearly $1 million to spend on advancing biofuels in Arizona, what would you do?

Here's my list:

Fund a program to incentivize restaurants to convert their waste vegetable oil into biodiesel. There are over 10 million gallons of WVO produced annually in the Phoenix area alone. The vast majority of this WVO goes into animal feed or is "missing" (presumably frequently going into the sewer system). Converting this WVO to biodiesel would have dramatic air quality and other benefits -- and would likely reduce the substantial costs to taxpayers associated with the hundreds of annual grease-caused sewer blockages in AZ. Prices in the WVO collection market don't reflect these air quality benefits or avoided municipal costs, however. Fixing this market flaw with a state-funded incentive program would yield us cleaner air and save real money for local governments.

Support the algae biofuels industry. Algae-derived biofuels ("green solar," to borrow Mark Edwards' nomenclature) are an incredibly promising, potentially transformational technology. Arizona should be a leader in this space: we have the necessary natural resources (sun, heat, wastewater, cheap flat land), leading-edge world-class university research (ASU Poly, ASU Biodesign), unrivaled pilot implementations by APS, and an array of entrepreneurs doing amazing work. Yet other regions such as San Diego, New Mexico, and even St. Louis are seen as algae leaders; Arizona isn't even on the map. The state could fund demonstration projects that enable researchers and entrepreneurs to connect, and that showcase Arizona's strengths in this area.

Explore innovative agricultural feedstock options that work in our climate. For example, researchers in AZ have suggested that former open pit mines in the state could be seeded with low-water-need crops that could be used as biofuels inputs. The state could support pilot projects that focus on agricultural approaches to biofuels that fit our unique circumstances, with a goal of not displacing food crops.

Support biodiesel co-ops. The biodiesel "homebrew" community -- individuals who collect WVO and convert it to biodiesel at home -- has been far in front of the commercial community in terms of getting clean-burning biofuels in tanks and on the road in Arizona. The independence, innovation and initiative of the homebrewers is admirable, yet there are some safety and other challenges associated with homebrewing. Co-ops can serve to balance interests, enabling the do-it-yourself ethos within a more manageable environment. Biofuels co-ops in Arizona have struggled for funding and regulator support, however. The state could fund a pilot project that demonstrates the value of co-ops for reducing homebrew-related risks and enabling grassroots-based innovation.

All of the ideas above focus on what DBI calls "sustainable regional biofuels" -- that is, creating biofuel locally, in a sustainable manner, and using it locally. The benefits of this approach are (1) environmental (cleaner air), (2) economic (keep more of the $4 BILLION that Arizonans spend on fuel in the state), and (3) security-related (e.g., make ourselves less vulnerable to a pipeline disruption).

The state of Arizona is currently spending $900,000 on the "Arizona Biofuels Conversion Program." The program focuses on subsidizing fueling-station owners or other businesses (e.g. fleet owners) who convert their fuel infrastructure to handle biofuels -- either E85 (ethanol) or biodiesel. The program provides up to 40% matching funds for a conversion project, up to a maximum of $30K. Another aspect of the program provides similar support for municipalities.

My reaction: eh. Given the big opportunities with biofuels, this program seems to be targeted at a narrow problem. Further, the benefits to Arizona appear modest: if this program leads to more stations carrying ethanol, for example, and more people start using it, that could help our local air quality problems. But, given that corn ethanol and soy biodiesel -- the primary types of biofuels that would be sold via the subsidized infrastructure for the foreseeable future -- are produced out of state, using processes that (arguably) cause some environmental and economic problems (e.g., excessive fertilizer run-off, displacement of food crops), it's not obvious that the net benefits of the program are that high.

I would have liked to see the program focus on fostering local production of sustainable biofuels. I believe that if we had a robust local supply, demand would follow. And if we had supply and demand, I think the infrastructure issues that are the focus of the program would potentially be unnecessary.

What would you do with $1 million?

Updated "Biodiesel 101" available

2009-11-05T07:48:00.000-08:00

An updated version of Han Huth's amazingly comprehensive "Biodiesel 101: An Introductory Guide to Brewing and Using Biodiesel in Arizona" is available at http://biod101.com. This is an incredible free resource for the AZ homebrew community. You can support Hans' efforts by purchasing a "Grease for Peace" bumper sticker via his site.

Some upcoming events

2009-11-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

There are several events coming up that might be of interest:

1. On Sunday, November 8th, SustainaBIL, an "unconference" modeled on the BIL Conference, will be held at ASU Skysong beginning at 11am. I had a chance to talk with with conference co-organizer Brian Shaler today, and it sounds like the day will be quite interesting and fun. The organizers describe the event as "an unconference for people changing the world in big ways. It's a place for passionate people to come together to energize, brainstorm, and take action." Show up and listen, or show up and plan to talk about your passions. Send email to speakers@sustainabil.com if you have a topic you'd like to speak about.

2. The 4th Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference is coming up on November 12. DBI advisor Francine Hardaway is a principal organizer of this event. I attended last year and was extremely impressed with the energy in the rooms and the quality of the speakers, presentations and discussions. Highly recommended.

[SEE UPDATE BELOW] 3. ASU Technopolis is hosting an all-day workshop on November 13 "targets early-stage, first-time, writers of SBIR/STTR Program Phase I proposals, and is created for energy companies looking for grant funding. All government agencies will be covered, but special emphasis will be given to the Department of Energy. A review and discussion of various appropriate technology roadmaps will be included in the workshop." I suspect that this could be extremely valuable for some local biofuels companies. Details by phone 480-884-1804 or e-mail contactus@asutechnopolis.org.

[UPDATE: The Technopolis event has been postponed until after the 1st of the year.]

The Fuel Film to open Nationwide!

2009-08-05T16:20:00.001-07:00

I never followed up with my review of Tickell's feature-length documentary, "Fuel." Let me cut to the chase: it's a must-see, and based on a press release at his website, it's opening nationwide this fall. More details here: http://thefuelfilm.com

Regarding "Cash-for-Clunkers"

2009-06-20T23:48:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty much on extended hiatus from Desert Biofuels stuff, although I've been making my weekly trek down to AZ Biodiesel to top off and fill a couple 5 gallon jugs. As long as B99 is $2.19/gal it's hard to get motivated to go through the hassle of making biodiesel at home. So thanks Dan!

What I have been doing (besides my two jobs, and life in general) is trading a lot of emails with two of my brothers-in-law, one of whom is conservative, one of whom is liberal. I'm the token independent.

Some of the "conversations" get pretty far afield, but just the other day I forwarded a quote from a great motorcycle blog called The Kneeslider (subtitle: Motorcycle News for Positive People -- how cool is that?!). It's regarding the recently passed "Cash-for-Clunkers" bill and it that pretty much sums up my views on the insanity coming out of Washington D.C.:

Frederic Bastiat once said, “Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” Unfortunately, we are now living in this fictitious world, or at least, many people are trying to make it come true.

Note to politicians giving away our money: You look more foolish and cynical every day by constantly adding people and businesses to your list of political beneficiaries, trying to buy votes with our money. Stop it.
Note to people and businesses taking the money: When you tell everyone how beneficial these programs are, you sound greedy and shallow and you think people believe you. Stop it.
I have a simple idea, let’s all buy our own cars, trucks, motorcycles or anything else we want within the limits of what we can afford. Then companies can build products that people want to buy. There’s no government bureaucracy involved either so we can start immediately. Let’s try that.

Motorcycle Vouchers Proposed in Addition to Cash for Clunkers - A Bad Idea Gets Worse

Solar charged electric motorcycle in Apache Junction

2009-05-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

Just saw this on Gas 2.0: a (supposedly) fully electric, solar charged motorcycle. 50 mile range and 90 mph top speed. Right here in Apache Junction!

GreenFuel Technologies goes down...

2009-05-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

The company that partnered with APS at the "Redhawk" facility to capture carbon dioxide from the power plant's emissions is going out of business.

We've often wondered what happened to the GreenFuel/APS algae pilot: now we know.

Getting the whole thing to run smoothly [...] was tougher than expected. GreenFuel could grow algae. The problem was controlling it. In 2007, a project to grow algae in an Arizona greenhouse went awry when the algae grew faster than they could be harvested and died off. The company also found its system would cost more than twice its target.

The closed photobioreactor model used by GreenFuel (and others) appears especially challenging in terms of up-front expense.

I recently posted a link to a paper by Jeff Hassania which discusses the sobering economics of algae.

A GreenFuel Technologies timeline is available at BiofuelsDigest.

Visit to XL Renewables

2009-05-13T18:30:00.000-07:00

On Monday I had the opportunity to visit the XL Renewables algae production facility in Casa Grande, AZ and was deeply impressed by the progress they are making: among other things, I was able to leave with some sample algae that was a HUGE hit with the 7th grade class I spoke to about biofuels on Tuesday.

I particularly like the trench-based, farm-like model that XL pursues, as their low-cost approach seems like a promising way to address the difficult economic challenges that algae producers face. It was also great to speak with Mike Bellefuille and George McNeely of XL and hear about the hard-won lessons they are learning about growing algae at production scale -- they've had to navigate through a host of practical difficulties and now have invaluable experience (and lots of algae!) to show for it.

It's fantastic to see algae moving beyond just lab experiments and PowerPoint slides. Kudos to XL for meeting the "running code" test!

Mike Bellefuille and George McNeely

Nice review for Green Algae Strategy

2009-05-08T13:17:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Mark Edwards, whose book Green Algae Strategy: End Oil Imports and Engineer Sustainable Food and Fuel continues to receive some great reviews; see, e.g., this review at Celsias. Green Algae Strategy is available at Amazon.com and via free download on the GreenIndependence.org downloads page (scroll down).

Desert Sweet Biofuels forum at ASU SkySong

2009-05-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

At our recent workshop Professor Mark Edwards announced a forum that he is coordinating with Gary Woods and the team from Desert Sweet Biofuels, a commercial algae venture. The forum is planned for Friday, May 22 (not May 15, as initially announced) from 9am to noon, at ASU SkySong; the flyer for the event can be downloaded here.

Mark is planning to facilitate additional forums where different companies and organizations can do a "deep dive" on their particular technologies or vision (i.e., not constrained by the 5 minute format we insisted on for the Workshop). Please contact Mark if you'd be interested in presenting at such a forum. We're envisioning a monthly speakers series, picking up in the Fall.

More DPF/biodiesel news

2009-05-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

Popular Mechanics has posted an article by Dave Hubbard explaining the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) / biodiesel incompatibility issue, and Jason Burroughs of DieselGreen Fuels has written up his experience with a 2009 VW TDI on biodieselSMARTER.

Economic viability of algae-based biofuels

2009-04-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

Jeff Hassania of Diversified Energy Corporation in Gilbert, who recently presented some of this information at the 2nd Desert Biofuels Workshop, has published an editorial on the commercial viability of algae-based biofuels.

PDF format: Algae Biofuels Economic Viability: A Project-Based Perspective

2nd DBI Workshop summary

2009-04-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

Francine Hardaway, a long-time friend of Desert Biofuels Initiative, has posted an excellent synopsis of the 2nd Desert Biofuels Workshop on her blog.

2nd Desert Biofuels Workshop and DPFs: an update

2009-04-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

[Boy, say something in public and they want to hold you to it... Sheesh!]

We just had a fantastic 2nd Desert Biofuels Initiative Workshop at ASU SkySong; about 150 in attendance, and just a great energy and buzz during the 3 hours from 9a to 12p (plus post-workshop pizza lunch: score! Huge shout-out to Dan Rees and AZ Biodiesel for paying the pizza man).

Brad did an unbelievable job in organizing and playing emcee. The format was a series of fast-paced 5 minute "update" presentations, including many who presented last year, and some new faces. A webpage with the slides from today's event is already online.

I limited myself to some (mostly) extemporaneous remarks, and started by asking: "how many of you drove here today using biofuel?" As you might guess, even among this self-selected and highly motivated group, I would (generously) estimate a dozen hands went up.

When I got home I wrote up and expanded on my thoughts, put them into PowerPoint, and they're now also online. Kind of like a mulligan. Cool.

But it was my closing comment that got the most attention of my talk: I mentioned the ongoing issue with diesel particulate filters, which are being used in newer passenger vehicles with diesel engines. After expressing new-found respect, and even empathy, for the engine manufacturers, I noted that anyone who is running biodiesel in these newer engines should be aware that in-cylinder injection of fuel in a post-combustion process can experience problems, like oil dilution, high and/or premature wear, etc.

I summed up with something like: what are we going to do if we finally get widely available biodiesel, and then don't have any new vehicles that are compatible with it?

I've blogged about this issue previously, and I had several people approach me at the break to ask me about it, and later received a phone call of disapprobation from a prominent local biodiesel advocate.

I think I've been about as public an advocate of biodiesel as most people can be, without being a public figure, so I want to clarify that I'm talking about a very specific technical, but real, problem with newer engines and their biodiesel compatibility.

More on the "post-combustion" issue here:
http://savebiodiesel.org/
http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2290&q=&page=1
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/419605551/m/2721003282

FUEL film extended in Scottsdale

2009-04-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

Greg Piraino writes: "due to increasing ticket sales, FUEL will be extended until April 30th". So if you haven't had a chance to see Josh Tickell's film, go see it!

"Showing at Harkins Camelview 5 - several showings per day through April 30th unless extended. Tickets and more info is available at www.thefuelfilm.com or www.harkinstheatres.com"

FUEL film follow-up

2009-04-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

Dave posted a introduction to the Josh Tickell film "FUEL" which is now showing at Harkins Camelview 5 in Scottsdale. I was invited to this Saturday's 7p show; afterward there was a short Q&A with Greg Piraino of Applied Engineering (who's helping with local promotion of the film), Greg Pitz of Logos Solar, and me. Friday's panel included Mark Edwards of GreenIndependence.org.

Saturday's audience included Dan Rees of AZ Biodiesel, who answered questions about getting biodiesel into local school buses, and James Towner of AZ Sustainability.com and the Arizona Alternative Fuel Alliance.

The film itself was visually compelling and told Josh's personal story around biodiesel, with a liberal sprinkling of political muckraking. Tighter editing would help; toward the end of the film not much new is being said. Dorothy attended as my "guest" and Harkins got his $5.50 for Emily. All three of us were fidgeting in our seats by the 90 minute mark of the nearly 2 hour movie. The soundtrack was fantastic.

Many of the issues are more nuanced than the somewhat histrionic version Tickell presents, and some of the interviewee's proposed solutions would only exacerbate our current problems (new government mandates and subsidies are mentioned more than once as "obvious" solutions).

One of the reasons *why* we are in this pickle: we don't pay, at the pump, the true cost of petroleum (we pay in other ways, though: through higher taxes to pay for foreign entanglements, and Superfund cleanups, for example). These externalities subsidize our petroleum dependence, and prevent alternatives from competing on a level playing field. This is a *hard* problem for which lots of solutions have been proposed.

And it seems, at least to me, that few people want to acknowledge the obvious: we benefit greatly from cheap energy, in the form of, well, everything! Food, clothes, housing, ... Whatever the solution is it better be consistent with first principles. Is massive social engineering really required? To quote David Boaz: "A socialist system - or an interventionist state, which is just partial socialism - requires uniform solutions to problems rather than the myriad variety of solutions available through the market process." [1]

Here's a simple question: Are we willing to pay for what we use?

Despite its faults the movie achieves its main purpose: to inform and, more importantly, to motivate those rapidly diminishing number of persons who are unaware that we have serious and immediate issues with our continuing dependence on petroleum. It'll also be interesting to see if Tickell can generate enough buzz, and money, to fund a follow-up: something that provides a "deep-dive" into some of the proposed alternatives to oil.

After all, folks (especially those for whom this is all new) want to know: what do I *do*? Suggesting CFLs is good as far as it goes, but kind of misses the point. Using his own logic, if the situation is really as dire as Tickell suggests, then we *really* need to focus on the big wins.

But enough nit-picking: FUEL is *definitely* worth checking out.

[1] The Politics of Freedom: Taking on the Left, the Right, and Threats to Our Liberties, David Boaz, 2008

The FUEL Film

2009-04-09T05:34:00.000-07:00

For over 7 years I've been following the work of Josh Tickell. Most of you are familiar with his self-published book, "From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank," a glossy primer for homebrewers. Tickell took his lead from the women who, in the early 1990s, traveled the US on B100 (and possibly WVO; obtaining the film is elusive) and filmed a documentary entitled "The Fat of the Land." Some of Tickell's critics argue he failed to acknowledge this seminal work, unfairly accepting the title of "Pioneer" bestowed unto him by his followers. I mention this not to diminish Tickell's impact for Biodiesel awareness but to note there is some controversy (in fact, he deserves more credit than any other single person or entitiy, in my view - except maybe Rudy Diesel!).

Over the last few years, Josh parted ways with the homebrew community (accused of "selling out" and abandoning amateur scientists and engineers) to reach a broader audience, primarily through presentations and keynote addresses to farmers, policymakers, and investors. For years, he's been working on shorts and a feature-length documentary, which won accolades at independent film festivals worldwide.

Now, buoyed by the support of Hollywood icons like Peter Fonda, the film is building national momentum. In fact, it starts tomorrow in Scottsdale. I plan to attend the Saturday 7pm show, where Josh will be leading Q&A (according to his website: http://thefuelfilm.com/).

2nd Annual Desert Biofuels Workshop - April 24, 2009

2009-04-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

Our first Desert Biofuels Workshop, held in March of 2008, was an exciting event; attendee feedback included comments such as:

"...a watershed for AZ biodiesel..."
" ...never been at a conference with such broad representation, from corporate, to government, education, NGOs and home brewers..."
"...showed just how important this topic is..."
"...tremendously valuable..."

Details about last year's event can be found here (the "agenda" .pdf file includes links to the slides presented by each speaker).

For our second annual Desert Biofuels Workshop we hope to build on last year's success. Our primary goals for the Workshop are to (1) enable the diverse members of the Arizona biofuels community to connect with each other, and (2) explore how the $50 Billion in energy programs in the stimulus bill can advance biofuels in Arizona.

Confirmed presenters include (in alphabetical order):

John Andrews, Principal, Biofeedstocks Global
Andrew Ayers, CEO, Algae Biosciences
Ben Cloud, President & COO, XL Renewables
Jeff Collier, CEO, Energy Derived
Dave Conz, ASU
Colleen Crowninshield, Tucson Clean Cities Coalition [via videoconference]
Bob Eaton, President & CEO, AZBio
Gary Greenburg, Science Foundation AZ
Francine Hardaway, Stealthmode Partners
Jeff Hassannia, VP, Diversified Energy
Gene Leach and Jay Nance, Founders, Dynamite Biofuels Co-op
Gordon LeBlanc Jr., CEO, PetroSun
Victor Merino & Max Enterline, City of Phoenix
Kelly Patton or Dan Henderson, Town of Gilbert
Dan Rees, President, AZ Biodiesel
Bill Sheaffer, VP, Amereco Biofuels
Chris Walker (formerly of PinalJet and AZ Biofuels)
Gary Wood, CEO, Desert Sweet Biofuels
Neal Woodbury or John McGowen, ASU Biodesign Institute
other invitations pending

We'll also feature an analysis of biofuels-related funding opportunities (grants, loan guarantees and tax incentives) available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the "stimulus bill").

The Workshop will be held at ASU SkySong on Friday April 24th, 2009, on the first floor in the "Convergence" conference room. We'll have coffee and networking from 9:00 to 9:30am, and then begin the Workshop promptly at 9:30am. We'll end at 12 noon.

The Workshop is free and open to the public. Register at http://desertbiofuels.eventbrite.com/.

Ignite Phoenix presentation

2009-03-04T19:43:00.001-08:00

I had the pleasure of presenting a 5 minute overview of our Desert Biofuels Initiative history and vision at Ignite Phoenix #3 at the Tempe Center for the Arts on Feb. 25th:

Eric rocks the third grade

2009-02-10T14:55:00.000-08:00

Eric gave a talk this week on sustainable biofuels to some elementary school students, and got some rave reviews from the teacher and volunteer coordinator, excerpted below. Their feedback was very kind, and nice for DBI to hear. Great job Eric!!! (I sense that he had as much fun as any of the students.)

"The students loved it"
"...said it was amazing"
"They particularly liked looking at and smelling the waste cooking oil and the refined biofuel that it was turned into."
"The algae farm sparked their imaginations"
"Your videos were informative and the perfect length for their attention spans."
"You were very patient with their many questions and spoke to the children as if they were adults, which they really appreciated."
"We are so grateful for your talk and for the work you are doing with alternative energy."
"The students loved it, and ... kept referring back to the things they learned later in the day."
"It's so good for kids to see the things that are being done to better the environment, and also to see some of the options, career-wise, found in various areas!"

Amereco B99 at Western States Petroleum

2009-01-28T22:53:00.000-08:00

Western States Petroleum has been selling Amereco B99 for a while now but I hadn't been down to WSP since they added it. Since I was downtown already this morning I went by to fill up.

According to the folks I spoke to, WSP is now selling only Amereco B99 (which is made from WVO) at the B99 pump at 16th Ave and Grant, and the Iowa "Soy diesel" is only available to bulk customers.

Light duty B99 pricing on 1/28/09 was $2.19/gal.

Way to go Bill!

Meeting the Phoenix Biodiesel Task Force

2009-01-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

Today Brad and I had a meeting at Phoenix City Hall with the newly formed "Bio-diesel Taskforce". Desert Biofuels Initiative was invited to come and give a 15 minute presentation about biodiesel and "homebrew".

After I received the email meeting invitation last week, we quickly enlisted the aid of several DBI "advisers" to get input on what to present and how to present it. Hans Huth in particular gave invaluable feedback on our slides (which we will post on our website). (Sidenote): Hans' manual is exactly the type of thorough, well-organized information that homebrewers can use to be safe and effective, and it gives real weight to the assersition that homemade biodiesel can be done responsibly.

Going into the meeting we didn't have any idea of what had already been discussed within the City bureaucracy, or how much impact we would have with our presentation. But it was great to be invited to participate.

As the various department reps assembled (Fire, Planning, Development Services, ...) we had a chance to review the minutes from the initial Biodiesel Task Force meeting, held Dec 12, 2008. At that meeting, according to the minutes, it was decided that "Planning will start drafting changes to their ordinance to prohibit bio-diesel manufacturing in residential zoning." Ugh! It appeared that we would be facing an uphill, and perhaps futile, slog.

Brad gave a short intro about DBI and then segued into my presentation about "homebrew". My purpose was: a) to accurately describe the basics of making biodiesel at home, b) to describe the advantages and challenges of homemade biodiesel, and c) to emphasize (as previously discussed here) that although it may not be reasonable to make large quantities of biodiesel at home (with "large" yet to be defined), it was certainly reasonable to allow some quantity of biodiesel to be made at home, and Phoenix residents should be at liberty to pursue their "homebrew" activities as long as they do not negatively impact their neighbors. We noted that the Town of Gilbert has already taken a "pro-homebrewer" stance which we find very encouraging, and we expressed hope that the City of Phoenix will follow their lead.

Whether or not we achieved these goals, we did have ample opportunity to answer the numerous questions that came up. And, in closing, we emphasized the need to continue dialog on this issue.

DBI will be hosting a "homebrewer safety" workshop at ASU SkySong where we hope to assemble homebrewers, home biodiesel processor manufacturers, biodiesel cooperatives, and various government stakeholders, the purpose being more constructive discussion on this topic.

(Mis)reporting the problems with biodiesel

2009-01-22T16:10:00.000-08:00

Gas 2.0 has an interesting update to the story you may have heard about Minnesota school buses being disabled by biodiesel:

Some Cold Truth About Biodiesel In Minnesota

School buses that left kids stranded in the cold, buses running a biodiesel blend per the Minnesota B2 mandate, were reportedly disabled by the biodiesel turning "gel-like".

The truth, it appears, is that the petroleum gunked up the fuel system, according to the National Biodiesel Board.

Hmmm....

Coffee diesel: update

2009-01-22T07:06:00.000-08:00

Ken Costello has done an initial oil extraction from the coffee grounds we procured from MonaLou Callery's Cup o' Karma. It turns out that the coffee grounds only contain about 10% oil, and the amount of hexane lost to evaporation exceeds the amount of oil extracted (at least in the small amounts used for his testing) by a factor of 4.5!

To get 15ml of coffee oil Ken lost 70ml of hexane during the extraction process (he recovered 230ml). Since hexane costs about $16 a gallon, plus shipping and hazmat fees, we probably aren't looking at a new feedstock for biodiesel! A lot of the hexane lost was residue in the coffee grounds that evaporated out when the grounds were dried, after extracting the oil. Residual hexane in the coffee oil also reduced the final amount of coffee oil.

Ken will be trying additional extractions to a) see if he can reduce the amount of hexane lost in processing, and b) scale-up the process to get us to a gallon of coffee oil to turn into biodiesel.

You can check out Ken's full write up of his experiment on his Chemistry Land website.

Coffee diesel

2009-01-17T12:41:00.000-08:00

About a month ago Brad got a wild hair and posted a note to a small group of us about the recently published paper:

Spent Coffee Grounds as a Versatile Source of Green Energy
Narasimharao Kondamudi, Susanta K. Mohapatra, Mano Misra
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2008 56 (24), 11757-11760

Paraphrasing, he said: "Wouldn't it be cool if we could get used coffee grounds from a local coffee shop, extract the residual oil, turn it into biodiesel, and document the process via pictures, video and blog(s), from start to finish?"

Well, why not?

Ken Costello is a friend of Desert Biofuels and was intrigued by the idea. He agreed to do some small test batches to determine how much oil was present in the coffee grounds. MonaLou Callery, who operates Cup o' Karma in Mesa, agreed to collect coffee grounds for the project.

So yesterday I went down to Mesa and picked up two 5 gallon pails of coffee grounds and delivered them to Ken this morning. He'll be spending at least part of this afternoon trying to find out the percentage of residual oil in the grounds, and then a reasonably efficient way to scale up the extraction process so that we can get about a gallon of oil to turn in to biodiesel.

We'll post a full report, with pictures and maybe video, sometime soon.

Another "Europe only" diesel

2009-01-12T07:04:00.000-08:00

How long, oh Lord, how long? HST used to write that a lot. It was the first thing that came to mind (again!) when I read that BMW is releasing a new turbo diesel that gets 54 MPG, is BMW's least polluting vehicle ever (and looks cool as hell), but it will, of course, ONLY BE SOLD IN EUROPE.

What is our friggin' problem? Doesn't anybody in a position of authority here in the US care that we are getting hosed? Are the EPA and our other "safety czars" really this intransigent?

http://gas2.org/2009/01/12/bmws-new-diesel-116d-gets-54-mpg/

2008 Desert Biofuels Initiative Accomplishments

2009-01-04T16:31:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all! We created the following summary of our accomplishments for 2008. Our heartfelt gratitude to the many, many people who made this possible. We look forward to an exciting 2009!

FORMATION AND ORGANIZATION:

Formed as an Arizona non-profit corporation in April.
Submitted application for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS.
Established tenancy at ASU SkySong.
Hired full-time Acting Executive Director.
Established advisory group that includes highly-respected biofuel experts, university professors, public relations and business professionals.
Developed and launched professionally-designed website at desertbiofuels.org.
Developed professionally-designed logo, courtesy of Brands By OVO.

ACTIVITIES:

Organized and held the first annual Desert Biofuels Workshop. Participant comments:

"...a watershed for AZ biodiesel..."
" ...never been at a conference with such broad representation, from corporate, to government, education, NGOs and home brewers..."
"...showed just how important this topic is..."
"...tremendously valuable..."

Regularly published blog with news and information relevant to the Arizona biofuels community (called "a must-read for the current happenings in biofuels in Arizona"). Biofuels expert Professor Dave Conz of ASU joined us as a regular blogger. Also maintained an e-mail discussion list with local biofuels community members.

Created three white papers researching and analyzing key issues:

Analysis of law and regulations applicable to Arizona biodiesel producers
Analysis of biofuels feedstocks relevant to Arizona (includes groundbreaking primary research concerning the volume of waste vegetable oil (WVO) feedstock in the Phoenix area and identifies potential linkages between WVO disposal issues and sewer blockages and overflows)
Analysis of biofuels incentive programs implemented in other states

Developed proposal for Algae Biofuel Demonstration plant:

Identified site location for the pilot plant on municipal property. Received an informal (non-binding) commitment from the municipality.
Completed detailed cost estimates and briefs for the project. Renderings of the pilot project are in progress.
Identified and are pursuing potential funding sources for the project.
Key project partners--including several private companies, the municipality and the university--are actively engaged with us in the exploration process.

Researched and developed materials demonstrating benefits of a WVO-based biodiesel to municipalities (focused on environmental, safety and water treatment issues). Presented to two local municipalities.

Developed proposal for WVO incentive program (goal: all local restaurant grease converted to biodiesel; would, e.g, displace 100,000 tons of CO2 from Valley air). Discussed with key stakeholders. Refining proposal based on input received and on results of feedstock analysis white paper research.

Facilitated tours of (a) ASU Algae Lab, (b) XL Renewables pilot algae facility, and (c) the Dynamite Biofuels Co-op for key stakeholders in the Arizona biofuels community.

Developed and launched IT infrastructure for algae biofuels wiki. Arranged for ASU intern to lead wiki project in 2009.

Presented our sustainable regional biofuels vision at (a) an algae biofuels conference hosted by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and (b) the Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference. Participated in the Phoenix chapter of the Arizona Green Chamber of Commerce launch event. Participated in the CTO Forum on Green Technology hosted by Intel Corporation.

Met with and discussed our vision with numerous elected officials and other policymakers (U.S. Congress, AZ State Legislature, AZ Dept. of Environmental Quality, City of Phoenix, City of Scottsdale, City of Buckeye).

Organizing a homebrew safety “Roundtable” which complements the City of Phoenix in the creation of a homebrew safety taskforce.

Organizing an event to create biodiesel from used coffee grounds.

PARTNERSHIPS:

Established an affiliation with Professor Mark Edwards of ASU and developed greenindependence.org as a sister site to our desertbiofuels.org site. Built infrastructure for new greenindependence.org site; launch planned in 2009. Green Independence is the global portion of DBI’s vision in the use of biofuel based on algae. Professor Edwards, author of Green Algae Strategy, leads our Green Independence effort.

Established a strong working relationship with the Arizona State University Technology Ventures Services Group. TVSG interns were the lead authors of our white papers on policy issues facing biofuel production.

FUNDRAISING:

Received private donations sufficient to cover 2008 expenses.

Submitted grant applications for 2009 operational funding, including (a) EPA Environmental Education Grant and (b) Echoing Green Fellowship Application.

Identified potential funding sources for future projects. This includes funding from private individuals, corporations, foundations, and governments.

Diesel Particulate Filters

2008-12-13T11:35:00.000-08:00

Newer diesel vehicles being sold often have Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs) which reduce particulate emissions by trapping them in a filter in the exhaust system. To prevent the filter from plugging, fuel is sent into the exhaust system at intervals to burn off the particulates.

There are a couple problems with this system:

extra fuel is used to burn the particulates, which reduces overal MPG.
extra CO2 emissions are released when burning up the particulates.
Biodiesel, which vaporizes a higher temperature than petroleum diesel, doesn't function the same way in the system, and fuel ends up in the engine crankcase rather than clearing the DPF. [1]

If you have a newer diesel vehicle you may want to investigate these issues before running biodiesel. A good discussion of the issues, with links to more information, can be found here:

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/419605551/m/2721003282

[1] It depends on how the system is designed, of course. The problem is caused by using the fuel injectors in the cylinder to place additional fuel into the exhaust gases. Since biodiesel doesn't vaporize per the system design, some of it stays in the cylinder and leaks past the piston rings into the crankcase. If the additional fuel is squirted into the exhaust pipe, and not the cylinder, then you bypass the problem of fuel getting into the crankcase. But that is more complex and maintenance intensive (additional dedicated fuel injectors).

Visit to potential demonstration algae biofuels site

2008-12-05T15:57:00.000-08:00

We made a trip today to the site for our proposed algae biofuels demonstration plant. The land, near 19th Ave. and Lower Buckeye Road, just southeast of downtown Phoenix, is really perfect in many respects: great water and power infrastructure, close to downtown but zoned industrial, flat and sunny. The quality of the land coupled with some progress we're making on the grant funding side has me in a state of optimism and excitement with the project at the moment -- which, of course means that the next iteration of frustration and despair is just around the corner, but we'll take what we can get. :-)

Pictured above (l-to-r) are Grey Fowles, who is helping us with some architectural renderings; Sam West, who is doing superb work as the project lead for DBI on this effort; Mike Bellefeuille of XL Renewables, a potential partner in the effort and a deep expert on algae; and Jeff Collier of Energy Derived, another potential partner and, like Mike, a deep algae expert.

A couple of other photos of the proposed site below.

Jetta TDI in NYT

2008-12-03T03:44:00.001-08:00

It's refreshing to see positive reviews like this. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/automobiles/autoreviews/23-vw-jetta.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

EPA releases biodiesel plant manual

2008-12-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

This compliance assistance manual serves as a road map of information on federal environmental programs and federal, state, and local agency roles as they apply to parties interested in designing, building, and operating biodiesel manufacturing facilities.

http://www.epa.gov/region07/priorities/agriculture/biodiesel_manual.pdf

Phoenix reportedly creates biodiesel task force

2008-11-23T15:35:00.000-08:00

The Arizona Republic is reporting that City of Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has created a task force to "help educate residents on the hazards of skirting permits, codes and existing regulations" to produce homemade biodiesel:

Joe McElvaney, a Phoenix fire protection engineer, said the city requires a permit to handle the flammable and combustible materials used in biodiesel. But many home brewers ignore zoning regulations and waste-disposal requirements.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/11/22/20081122biodiesel1122.html

The story has also been picked up by the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/us/23arizona.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Miscellany

2008-11-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

We're in the process of re-launching our website and incorporating this blog into our site, and thus have been holding off on creating much new material on the blog hosted here. In the interim, though, I wanted to touch quickly on a few miscellaneous items:

We're thrilled to have Dave Conz doing some guest blogging with us. Our original "who's who" post on Dave is here.

The EPA released a new study "Environmental Laws Applicable to Construction and Operation of Biodiesel Production Facilities," found here. (hat tip: Gerry Darosa)

AZ Biodiesel's launch, and the sale of Amerco biodiesel at Western States Petroleum, is a Huge Friggin' Deal for those of us focused on sustainable regional biofuels in AZ. These two developments combined are really momentous.

We're looking forward to working with the new City of Phoenix task force on biodiesel homebrew safety. AZ Republic article here.

Anybody out there on Twitter? I was initially skeptical, but have been enjoying it recently. Many (well, some) of my posts are biofuels-related, if anyone is interested.

We had the great pleasure and privilege of speaking at the AZ Entrepreneurship Conference this past week. An amazing conference and fantastic group of people -- our deep thanks to the organizers for the opportunity.

Lastly, here's a photo of the AZ Biodiesel pump (taken this morning):

AZ Biodiesel update: B99 for $2.50/gal

2008-11-19T21:24:00.000-08:00

From Dan Rees:

99.9% BioDiesel only $2.50 per gallon

Our pump is now open:
9-9 M-F and
9-1 on Saturday

No appointment necessary.

10% discount on 250 gallons or more and free delivery available. Deposit required for our barrels or totes.

Map of our pump location on our web site:
www.AzBioDiesel.com

Thanks
Dan

Diesels I'd like to see here!

2008-11-18T13:51:00.000-08:00

Although Dave's Mercedes-Benz is cool, no doubt, there are a couple current vehicles I really wish we could get our hands on in the US:

Toyota Hilux 4x4
http://blogs.edmunds.com/straightline/2008/09/2009-toyota-hilux.html

Subaru Forester AWD
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=131970

Dream Car

2008-11-16T05:30:00.000-08:00

Last week, after years of searching, I bought my dream car. It is a 1984 Mercedes-Benz 300CD Turbodiesel coupe in Anthracite Gray. The turbo coupes have been in high demand in recent years for several reasons. First, they are the best looking diesel coupes ever imported into the US (The Isuzu Imark and the ultra rare Jetta coupe are the only others I know of), and the turbos were only available from 1982-1985. Second, they look really cool due, in part, to the lack of B pillars (when all the windows are down there are no vertical obstructions, contributing to a sleek look). Third, they are very durable. Mine has over 205,000 miles on it (my '79 300SD has 274,000 and is still going strong) and has been equipped with a Lovecraft WVO system. More next time.

Amereco selling WVO bio in the Valley

2008-11-04T06:58:00.000-08:00

James Towner over at http://azsustainability.com/ is reporting that Amereco is also now selling WVO biodiesel in the Valley, at Western States Petroleum in downtown Phoenix.

Unfortunately there is still no mention of it on either the Amereco or WSP websites, but local reporter Daniel Burnette has also confirmed the availability of Amereco's biodiesel at WSP via an article he published last week in the Phoenix Business Journal.

AZ Biodiesel's first customer

2008-11-03T12:12:00.000-08:00

Went down to AZ Biodiesel's location in Gilbert today and when I contacted Dan to confirm my appointment, I was told to "bring a dollar bill", since I would be their first commercial sale, and they wanted a keepsake from this significant event in their company's history.

Glad to oblige Dan, and congratulations...

BTW, this dollar was duly deducted from my CC bill :-)

It's for sale !!!!!!!!

2008-11-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

That's a quote, by the way.

From Dan Rees:

$2.99 a gallon !!!!!! CHEAP !!!
Cash or most major CC's

By appointment only.
No drop-in's please.

We have 55 gallon barrels available for a $10 deposit each.

You can fill into your own vessel and your vehicle.

Because we are not a regular gas station, we must require appointments.

Email requests are best.
We have very limited staff to answer all the phone calls we get.

We're working on a better way that keeps officials happy and everyone safe and organized.

Thanks for your support!!!

Dan

You can find out more at AZ Biodiesel's website: http://www.azbiodiesel.com/fuelrequest.htm

Almost there!

2008-10-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

It was with a real sense of excitement that Brad and I ventured out to the new home of AZ Biodiesel in Gilbert this Saturday (Oct 11). Having moved twice in the last six months, AZ Biodiesel has faced daunting challenges to get to the point they are now: nearly ready to begin full-scale production of B100 (100% biodiesel) made from recycled restaurant grease.

Dan Rees and his son Richie gave us a tour of their new facility, and we spent a couple hours discussing the numerous obstacles they've had to overcome, and some they still face, to get their business off the ground.

Their test batches are dialed, and except for a few new (and rather esoteric) testing requirements, they will be ready to begin selling to the public very soon.

AZ Biodiesel is really the best example we have of the community-based commercial model of local biofuels that DBI is championing: local restaurants giving their grease to a local company, which in turn makes ASTM-spec fuel to be sold locally. Environmentally and economically: what a huge win for our community.

Home biodiesel producer safety video

2008-10-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

A video has been posted on YouTube by the University of Idaho on Biodiesel Safety, specifically targeted at home biodiesel producers. Hosted by Dr. Jon Van Gerpen, head of the Biological & Agricultural Engineering Dept of the University of Idaho. Runtime: 8:26.

Addresses common hazards associated with biodiesel production and how to minimize risks.

Mark Edwards - Green Independence

2008-09-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

Mark Edwards is a close friend of and a key strategic advisor to our Desert Biofuels Initiative effort. We're very pleased to be partnering with Mark to help him advance some components of his global "Green Independence" vision.

Mark is a professor in the Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness at ASU and the author of Biowar I -- which focuses on problems associated with corn ethanol, among other issues -- and Green Algae Strategy, which lays out a compelling vision for how algae can solve critical global fuel and food problems. We've found Mark's vision to be inspiring, and we're striving to implement aspects of his vision in an algae biofuels demonstration plant project we're exploring with Mark and a number of other team members.

Mark has generously agreed to allow us to post some documents he's authored that capture some of his thinking on Green Independence and related topics (all in .pdf):

Green Algae Strategy Summary and FAQs
Mark's Speaker Brief from a recent talk (addresses algae and summarizes Biowar I)
Green Independence (version focuses on U.S. transportation fuel issues)
Biowar I powerpoint slides

Mark has also made available reviewer copies of his full Green Algae Strategy manuscript that we can provide electronically upon request (to brad-at-desertbiofuels-dot-org).

DBI policy projects for Fall '08

2008-09-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

(l-to-r) C. Thomson-Jones, P. Arambula, E. Menkhus (TVSG Director), S. Howe

Our relationship with ASU's Technology Ventures Services Group (formerly Technology Ventures Clinic) continues to be exciting and productive for DBI. This Fall we have three extremely talented students joining us, to work on two projects. The projects are:

1. A market analysis of biofuels feedstocks in Arizona, focusing on (a) waste vegetable oil, (b) region-suitable agricultural feedstocks, and (c) algae. The goal of the project is to gather facts about precisely what is happening in AZ in connection with these feedstocks (e.g. how much WVO is there? where is it currently going? what agricultural feedstocks looks promising for our region? etc.) . Our hope is that this sort of data will enable regional biofuel producers to make solid investment decisions and will help policymakers who are interested in advancing the regional production of biofuels. This project is an expansion and continuation of the project that we launched this past summer.

2. An analysis of state-level legislative initiatives aimed at promoting biofuels that have been enacted in other states. The goal of this project to accumulate data that may be helpful to Arizona policymakers interested in advancing the production of sustainable biofuels locally.

The students are:

Pete Arambula, a third year J.D. student with an M.A. in Physiological/Experimental Psychology and professional interests in biotech, health science, civil rights and sustainability.
Sarah Howe, a junior in the undergraduate chemical engineering program at ASU's Barrett Honors College. Sarah has biodiesel homebrewing experience and a deep interest in environmental engineering.
Carrie Thomson-Jones, a J.D. student and former entrepreneur and business owner. She brings deep business experience and savvy to our projects, plus has the additional incentive of hoping for success of our mission so that she can regularly run her VW TDI on biodiesel.

We've set up email addresses for each in the format "firstname@desertbiofuels.org".

We're grateful to Eric Menkhus and the entire team at the Technology Ventures Services Group for all of their support.

US Fire Administration on Homemade Biodiesel

2008-09-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

The US Fire Administration has posted portions of a "non-sensitive Situational Awareness Bulletin" regarding biodiesel production, specifically homemade biodiesel. Targeted at first responders, note that the bulletin includes the following:

"The overall process [of making biodiesel] is legal and relatively safe when properly performed."

It goes on to list some of the potential hazards, and notes:

"If the [home] processors are not careful, they can poison or burn themselves, and modifications to pressure vessels by inexperienced people can result in possible explosions."

Thanks to Hans Huth for the referral.

Unfortunate / Opportunity

2008-08-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

Just a few days ago (8/24) there was a report of an explosion and fire at a residence in Surprise. It has been reported that oily rags caught fire and ignited methanol stored in a garage. The homeowner had been making biodiesel "from a kit". Fortunately no one was injured, but the hapless homebrewer unintentionally gave biodiesel, especially "homebrew biodiesel", a black eye.

While DBI remains favorably disposed toward the idea of individuals producing their own fuel [1], there are very real safety and legal obligations in making biodiesel. One of my realizations after making biodiesel for a while was that it just wasn't reasonable to expect that a family in a residential area could make themselves fuel self-sufficient. [2]

While some would assert that no amount of biodiesel can be safely made at home, I still believe the issue to be resolved is how much is too much? Some folks are going to do what they will, regardless of what anyone says, but for those who are trying to be good neighbors while they pursue their homebrew activities a couple things seem obvious:

1) Making a "Dr. Pepper" batch is a perfectly reasonable example of homebrew biodiesel, even in a residential setting.

2) Making hundreds of gallons per week for a "cul-de-sac biodiesel coop" is not. [3]

The question is: where on that continuum -- between a liter test batch and hundreds of gallons for friends and neighbors -- can a reasonable person say "this is (or should be) permitted" in a residentially zoned area. And I mean this activity is permitted in the sense of "non-interference" from the authorities, not sanctioned or licensed by them. The City of Gilbert has a forward-thinking approach on this issue, based on work done by the Arizona Emergency Response Commission.

Anyone who is currently contemplating "homebrewing" biodiesel would be well-advised to do some extensive investigation into the safety and legality of making fuel at their residence. A great starting place is Hans Huth's excellent "Biodiesel 101", which is an updated (and improved) version of a widely used homebrewer's guidebook, and has the additional benefit of Arizona-specific legal/tax information.

What may be an even better alternative is to join a biofuels cooperative, such as Dynamite Biofuels Co-op. This leverages the experience of persons who have been doing this for years, and neatly side-steps the idea of residential fuel production altogether.

[1] Brad put his thoughts into a dbi-workshop forum post which I think neatly captures our thinking:

"Re homebrewing, while I'm not a homebrewer myself, I personally remain favorably disposed to homebrewing, subject to a few serious caveats. I admire the do-it-yourself, self-sufficient culture that homebrewing embodies -- it seems somehow quintessentially American. I like too that homebrewing is a manifestation of an extremely decentralized model of fuel production -- I think the trend towards decentralization in fuel production is good for everyone except a few petrol fuel stakeholders. And homebrewers meet our "running code" test: they have been getting sustainable biodiesel into fuel tanks and on the road for years, with all of the attendant air quality and other benefits. The grassroots energy of homebrewers has significantly helped the adoption of biofuels. Plus there's an element of liberty: people should be free to pursue their homebrewing interests (and put non-ASTM tested fuel into their own personal vehicles) unless and until they create unwarranted risk for others."

[2] I use about 15-20 gallons of biodiesel a week. Add an additional vehicle (or three, in my case, if I count my two sons, who both wanted in on this deal :-) and let's say for round numbers 40 gals of biodiesel a week. That means processing 45-50 gals of oil per week, which uses over 10 gals of methanol and approx. 3 lbs. of catalyst. I would also have to dispose of at least 15 gals of glycerol/soap and, if water washing, more than 80 gals of high BOD wash water a week. Keeping enough methanol around to avoid running every week to get it, and enough catalyst for same, means we've probably moved beyond what could be considered reasonable in my home. However, doing a 15 gal batch per week, as I did for several months, meant keeping only 10 gals of methanol at the house, good for about 3 batches. By avoiding water-wash entirely using Graham Laming's process, and composting the glycerol, I found it quite reasonable to fuel my personal vehicle from 50-100% with homemade biodiesel.

[3] I want to emphasize I am talking about typical, densely packed residential neighborhoods. At the closest point the gap between the roofs of my house and my neighbor's is about 15' (I just measured it). And I have only the garage as a work area. There are plenty of residential areas in Phoenix where there is enough room to safely make hundreds of gallons of biodiesel a week in an out-building away from anyone else's property. A lot of people would disagree with that statement, though :-)

Biofuels-related articles of interest

2008-06-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

Given various other time demands we're not blogging much these days, but in case anyone is interested we do regularly throw links and snippets of articles into a Google Notebook that is available here as a webpage and here as a RSS feed. The kinds of things that end up in there are AZ-related biofuels news, algae biofuels news, WVO-related articles, agriculture stuff, policy and legislative developments, etc. The links can be fairly random -- the only real criteria is that something about a particular article caught our attention and we wanted to share it with each other. If anyone else out there finds this useful, enjoy.

Torrey Kolesar joining DBI

2008-06-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

Another piece of exciting news for DBI (in addition to the release of our regulatory white paper) is that Torrey Kolesar will be joining us as an intern this summer. Torrey is a junior in ASU's Barrett Honors College, where he is studying chemical engineering and finance. Torrey was part of a groundbreaking effort in Ghana, Africa to develop a biofuel infrastructure based on Jatropha feedstocks, and is co-author of a biofuels wiki hosted by ASU. We're thrilled to have Torrey on board.

Torrey will be leading a project to assess the current state of biofuels feedstocks in Arizona. The goal of the project is to analyze WVO, agricultural and algae feedstocks, assessing issues such as current market structure, supply/demand, costs, and feasibility. Our plan is to publish the results of Torrey's research as a white paper, and to host a meeting at ASU SkySong in the early fall where Torrey can present and discuss his results with interested parties.

We're also hoping that Torrey will contribute to this blog, and envision that he'll participate in some of the other projects we have underway.

Torrey can be contacted by email at torrey@desertbiofuels.org.

AZ Biodiesel Regulatory Environment white paper

2008-06-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

We're very pleased to announce that "version 1.0" of our DBI white paper Arizona Biodiesel Regulatory Environment is available for download in a number of different formats, linked from our DBI home page at http://desertbiofuels.org, under the "Key 2008 Projects" header. The HTML version is here.

Deep thanks and kudos to author Sam West, who did an amazing job pulling the paper together.

Thanks as well to AZ Biodiesel, whose generous support of the ASU Technology Ventures Clinic helped make the paper possible.

We expect that the white paper will be a living document that will be revised regularly. The information in the document is not comprehensive or complete, but in the spirit of running code our hope is that it can serve as a starting point for deeper discussions among the AZ biofuels community.

Hunter's new ride

2008-05-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

My son Hunter graduated high school on Thursday. He wants to do something in business and presumably make a ton of dough. Since business is the agenda, I suggested (insisted) that he take an AP Stats class his senior year. Hunter protested, complained, said it was too hard, threatened to drop... and got a B.

Hunter turns 18 on Tuesday and wants to go to NAU in the fall. Last year I promised him the same deal I gave Nelson when Nels got my old Toyota T100 as a graduation present. At the time I booked out the T100 to get an idea of how much this promise was going to cost.

As we spent the last month or two looking for vehicles, I noticed that all the trucks and SUVs Hunter suggested were about twice the budget I allowed. Hmmm. I kept looking anyway. Last weekend I found a truck online that looked perfect: original owner, less than 100K miles, all maintenance records, etc. It was also within "the budget". So I called and we went to look last Sunday.

Although not perfect by any means -- it was repainted marginally well, the dash is horribly cracked, the stereo is convinced that a (phantom) tape is inserted at all times, the door locks are broken -- it started immediately, ran great, and sounded bitchin'. So I put a deposit down and we picked it up last Tuesday.

What does this have to do with DBI?

Well, everyone who sees it immediately notices that I bought Hunter a BIG truck. Yep. And I'm concerned about the environmental impact of driving, so I run biodiesel. Yep. And this 4x4 pig is thirteen years old, runs gas, and gets (optimistically and according to the EPA) 10 mpg city, 14 highway. Yep.

See, he has to fill it up. He got a truck, not a gas card. And with gas approaching $4.00/gal, and a 35 gallon tank, it will cost nearly $140.00 to fill the damn thing. How much driving is an 18 year old going to do when it takes 14 hours of work to fill his truck? Once! Sure, we need vehicles on the road that get better mileage. But more importantly, wherever feasible, we need to drive less. And a NAU freshman doesn't need to drive much at all. So Hunter got the truck he "needed", the one I promised, and now it's his problem. Maybe he'll even start reading the blog :-)

Another month of record fuel prices

2008-05-24T14:18:00.000-07:00

It's been kind of a rude awakening the past few weeks, seeing the price of petrol diesel continue its upward spiral. According to this story in the New York Times demand for gasoline actually decreased since the beginning of the year, and miles driven dropped by the largest month-on-month (March) margin (4.3%) since record keeping began in 1942. And yet the cost of gasoline (and more dramatically, diesel) has continued to rise.

According to the Energy Information Administration:

Based on projections of weak economic growth and record high crude oil and product prices, consumption is projected to decline by 190,000 bbl/d in 2008 [...] After accounting for projected increases in ethanol use, U.S. petroleum consumption is projected to fall by 330,000 bbl/d.

So if demand is falling, why are prices rising dramatically?

World oil consumption is projected to grow by 1.2 million bbl/d in 2008. Almost all of the growth in 2008 is expected to come from the non-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, led by China, Middle East oil producing countries, and Russia, as well as Brazil and India [...]

more than offsetting any decline in demand in the US.

Bummer for us. Of course, it's also great for us. Fuel prices are starting to more directly affect individual driving decisions, consumer vehicle preferences, and therefore auto manufacturer's vehicle production. Business Week reports:

Ford Motor (F) is cutting its production of its one-time cash cows, pickups and SUVs, to instead increase production of smaller and more fuel-efficient cars.

And the New York Times reports:

With technical and environmental hurdles overcome — and facing tougher mileage standards that call for a 35 m.p.g. average by 2020 — automakers are rushing in with clean-diesel cars.

Nice.

The Right Biofuels

2008-04-24T12:11:00.001-07:00

Check out the NY Times op-ed column today (Apr 24) by Roger Cohen. Ethanol-specific but the points he makes are equally valid for biodiesel: choice of feedstock is the key to sustainability, and poorly implemented incentives distort markets and exacerbate other negative effects.

Articles like this are not just nice to see, but necessary for public awareness, if we are to save the term "biofuels" from being misused to the point it must be abandoned.

Measuring Petroleum MPG

2008-04-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

There are lots of ways to measure efficiency and progress. My son Nelson just wrote a freshman English paper about DBI for a class at NAU. He's particularly impressed that by running homebrew biodiesel it's now cheaper for me to drive my 3/4 ton Duramax pickup truck on my 75 mile work commute than my 37 mpg Toyota Corolla.

Another angle on this is something I've been thinking about: Petroleum MPG, or PMPG (yes, I made that up! "That just happened!"). Since environmentally it is a heck of a lot better to be running biodiesel from WVO than gasoline from petroleum, for a number of reasons explained elsewhere, I was interested in what my effective MPG was for the truck if I measure based on the amount of petroleum diesel I use.

Since the beginning of the year, when my truck had an oil change (Jan 8), I've driven, as of this morning, 6883 miles. If I counted correctly, that's 107 days, a little over 64 miles a day. Looking at my fuel receipts, and using $3.50/gal as a rough number for that period, I've purchased 86.9 gallons of petroleum diesel. The rest has been either B99 from Western States Petroleum [1], B100 from Dynamite Biofuels Co-op, or my own individually produced biodiesel.

My PMPG is 79.2 miles per gallon.

If I factor in the methanol needed to produce the biodiesel [2] used to increase my PMPG so dramatically, that is another 44.3 gallons of "fossil fuel" products (most methanol is produced from natural gas). That brings my "petroleum" fuel total up to 131.2 gallons for the period.

My PMPG is 52.5 miles per gallon.

Something interesting to think about.

[1] WSP's B99 is not WVO-based, but soy biodiesel from Iowa. I'm giving it a pass here for simplicity. It's still better than petrol diesel!

[2] 20% of the volume of oil for the reaction, but we'll factor in methanol recovery since we are environmentally and economically sensitive :-) , so let's call it 15%.

AZ policymakers "get" biofuels

2008-04-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

One of the points we've been making when we articulate our vision of "local biofuels" is that we have the ingredients here in Arizona to implement local biofuels in a world class way. We have bleeding-edge research happening at ASU. We have visionary entrepreneurs doing some amazing things. We have well-established grassroots organizations and an active individual producer community. And, critically, we have policymakers that "get it." We've had the opportunity to have dialogue with folks like state Representative Tom Boone, Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon, the Governor's environmental policy advisor Lori Faeth, senior reps from ADEQ and many others, and have been consistently struck by how thoughtful, knowledgeable and supportive these key policymakers have been concerning biofuels.

While we haven't had the opportunity to meet with him personally, another Arizona policymaker who is playing a leadership role in connection with biofuels is federal Representative John Shadegg. As described in this article, on April 4th Shadegg proposed legislation to close the shameful "splash and dash" loophole that has enable foreign biodiesel producers to transship biodiesel through a U.S. port, blend it with 1% petrol diesel, collect a $1 per gallon blenders credit (funded by U.S. taxpayers), and then ship the fuel onward to Europe (or elsewhere) for sale. Kudos to Shadegg for leading on this issue.

[The one potential counterexample we've encountered in connection with local policymakers "getting it" (or not) is AZ Biodiesel's current struggle with the City of Chandler. As described here, AZ Biodiesel is caught up in dispute over zoning and planning issues which threatens to shut them down. Our hope is that cooler heads will prevail and city leaders will figure out a path to resolution that enables this critical local resource to stay online while issues are being addressed.]

DBI Inc., con't

2008-04-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

Eric is baiting me, but just for the record: my sole qualification to be the nominal "president" of our newly formed AZ non-profit corporation over Eric's "vice president" role is that my last name comes ahead of his alphabetically and our esteemed counsel dropped my name in the first slot. Eric's already agreed to swap in 2009, but I'll enjoy my lame duck session while it lasts. :-)

For anyone who wants more info about how we envision DBI evolving, we have a draft 1-pager posted here (.pdf) that might be useful. As noted in the 1-pager, Eric and I see our roles currently as roughly "technical director" (Eric) and "policy director" (Brad), with responsibilities split equally and considerable overlap in what we cover. Also, Sam has been working with us in a role that I think of as "policy analyst." We're all volunteer at the moment, but we're working with some grant writers (whose services have been generously lent to us by ASU Law's Center for the Study of Law, Science and Technology), and if we can raise some money we'll hire in an executive director-type position.

As described better in the 1-pager, we envision our activities falling roughly into three categories: policy, operational and education. On the policy side, our goal is to create a virtual "think tank" focused on biofuels policy issues, working closely with various partners at ASU. Operationally, we're excited about some ideas under discussion about a program to incentivize restaurants throughout the Sonoran Desert region to keep their WVO here for use as feedstock for biodiesel, and about the possibility of creating a pilot biofuel plant that could help local commercial producers bridge new technologies from academic research labs into actual production. On the education front, we plan to continue extensive stakeholder outreach, more blogging and info-gathering, and will plan a second local biofuels summit.

Ultimately we hope to help play a "glue" role connecting the many various stakeholders -- entrepreneurs, policymakers, regulators, researchers, the grassroots community -- who will need to work together in order for "local biofuels" to thrive in Arizona. Our intent is to complement the efforts of other stakeholders, and to try to identify and solve problems that aren't being addressed by others.

DBI Inc.

2008-04-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

Well, DBI is no longer just a project: we signed the papers today to incorporate as a non-profit in the state of Arizona. Many thanks to Rick Berry, P.C. for his assistance. I'm sure our new president will have more to say about this, and other new developments, shortly :-)

WVO SWAGs for public beta test

2008-03-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

We did some estimates recently I'd like to share. Feedback and corrections requested. And I promise to take a break from the software metaphors after this...

A search at Environmental Services for Maricopa County [1] returned 21155 entries for licensed "Food Establishments":

Using 50 gal / month / licensee [2] for round numbers equals 12,693,000 gals WVO (waste vegetable oil) per year in the greater Phoenix area.

Using 22 lbs of C02 per gallon of diesel fuel [3], and reducing that by 78% when running B100 [4] equals a net CO2 reduction of:

217,811,880 lbs (108,906 tons) of CO2 removed from the Valley [5]

by converting that WVO to biodiesel and displacing the petroleum diesel that would otherwise be used here.

[1] http://www.maricopa.gov/EnvSvc/envwebapp/business_search.aspx?as_page_title=Food%20Establishments%20Search&as_type=Food

[2] http://nyc.cce.cornell.edu/emerginginitiatives/Waste%20Oils%20&%20Fats%20Supply%20Final%20Report.pdf

[3] http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/factors.html

[4] http://www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels/npbf/pdfs/37136.pdf
[5] actually, the 78% reduction is described as "life-cycle CO2 emissions" compared to petroleum diesel, so the local CO2 reduction is probably less.

That won't fly

2008-03-25T13:06:00.000-07:00

I read with interest a post on Lyle Estill's blog recently. It reiterated a point that I see made frequently: we all need to just quit driving. Well... I don't want to cause a commotion, but that's not going to work.

What made the post more interesting to me was that he was writing from Mexico, on vacation with his family, where he flew. The incongruity is exquisite, yes? As I stated in my comment on his blog, the modern world is, at least partly, defined by the possibility of taking your family from NC to Mexico for a vacation, whether by land, sea, or air. The issue is how to keep that possibility alive and not destroy our homes, vacation destinations, and everything else in the process. Aren’t biofuels (especially "local biofuels") part of the solution?

Look, I have a terrible carbon footprint. I'm a corporate pilot. I live 40 miles from my home airport. There is not a lot I can do about either one.[1] I am interested in solutions that will work for existing people, in existing circumstances. My brother-in-law is convinced that solar-powered electric cars are the answer. The problem is that I can't buy one. And certainly not one that will take me and my two sons across the western US this summer with a couple hundred pounds of gear and three 40 lb. downhill mountain bikes.

I actually have pretty simple requirements. I want to run local B100 in my 3/4 ton 4x4 20 mpg Duramax turbodiesel until I can buy a diesel-electric hybrid 3/4 ton 4x4 truck that gets 40 mpg. I'll drive that until I can buy a zero-emission 3/4 ton 4x4 truck that gets 80 mpg equivalent. Easy.

[1] I can change careers. I can move. Neither option is on the table at this time.

What do you mean by non-profit?

2008-03-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

It's been really interesting in our conversations with local biofuels stakeholders, and interested third parties, that we often get questions along the lines of "Why a non-profit?" "What's the advantage?" "Aren't you leaving money on the table?" "Can't you do good and do well?"

Legitimate questions all. And we've done a lot of thinking about them, as explained in a previous post. But there are, I think, some underlying assumptions in the questions that may not be readily apparent.

It's kind of a hackneyed device, but let's start with a definition (Oxford American): "profit n. 1. an advantage or benefit obtained from doing something. [...]" Let me make it clear: Brad and I fully intend to profit from the work we are doing. We want cleaner air to breathe, local economic development, more independence from foreign sources of petroleum, ... See?

We finished our ASU LPEC class last night[1], and Brad presented our work-in-progress business plan for DBI. There was a great panel of business and community leaders present to listen and give feedback. And sure enough, we got it again... "What do you want to be a non-profit for?" But the follow-up was more interesting. The panelist shared his perception that he automatically shuts down his listening when he hears "non-profit business". And that is valuable feedback for us. It will help us frame our presentation to address that built-in bias.

There is really only one reason why we've chosen this business model. We believe by using it we'll maximize our profit. So please don't ascribe any pretense of noble purpose or higher calling to our work. This is pure enlightened self-interest.

[1] By the way, the class was really helpful. Recommended. Please send Brad or me email if you'd like more information on our class experience.

DBI v 1.0

2008-03-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

After the encouraging results of the workshop we held at ASU SkySong on March 7, we have been intensely focusing on next steps for DBI. Brad and I have been taking a class at SkySong on Sustainable Launch Prep Entrepreneurship to try and hammer out our ideas about where to go next.

We think we have a good handle on immediate next steps: Sam is nearly finished with his legal and regulatory analysis at the Federal, State, and Local levels. That paper will be available here once it's complete. We have other ideas for projects that we hope to connect to the right students.

Also, based on the positive feedback we've received from the biofuels stakeholders we've connected with, we are planning to move forward with the formation of an Arizona-based non-profit, and hope to receive a charity status designation from the IRS to incentivize donors.

This is a big mental and practical step for us: we are making a commitment to move from being an informal "project" to becoming a legitimate entity, with a specific purpose. Our goal will be to provide the "glue" to connect the various commercial, political, academic and individual biofuels stakeholders. At the risk of beating a metaphor to death, DBI is leaving "beta" and is entering version 1.0.

In the short term, the low-hanging WVO fruit is available now. We just need to decide, as a community, that it is a "good thing", and then do it! There are commercial (and coop!) producers in this space and they need support. In the "project phase" we have already been able to help make connections in local government with key departments and decision makers. We need to keep this dialog going.

We were very excited to learn about plans for a Prescott-based biodiesel coop. We connected with Paul Katan and Michael Freeman (Who's who posts to come!) at the workshop and there is a great opportunity to work together on goals that are mutually beneficial.

We are discussing the development of a "best practices" document that can be shared not only with individual producers and coops, but also with the relevant city, county and state agencies. "Flying under the radar" is an approach that may work on a (very) limited scale, but to have a substantial, positive impact we need to get "rough consensus" and then get to work!

In the long term, we believe there is tremendous opportunity in this space to connect world-class research institutions, industry, political support and grass roots enthusiasm. If successful, we hope to assist in the development of a regional biofuels infrastructure that is self-sustaining, environmentally responsible, and energy independent.

Desert Biofuels Workshop

2008-03-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

DBI held the "Desert Biofuels Workshop" on March 7th, 2008, at ASU Skysong. A summary of the Workshop and links to the slides can be found here. We're deeply grateful to all of the presenters and particpants, as the conference proved fascinating both for the substantive ground covered and for the diversity of the stakeholder groups represented. We've received some wonderful and very kind feedback from participants, including the following comments:

"...a watershed for AZ biodiesel..."

" ...never been at a conference with such broad representation, from corporate, to government, education, NGOs and home brewers..."

"...showed just how important this topic is..."

"...tremendously valuable..."

We hope to continue the dialogue begun at the Workshop, and invite everyone to visit the our Google Group site we've established for follow up activity.

CTO Forum on Green Technology

2008-02-29T10:50:00.000-08:00

I had a chance to attend the CTO Forum on Green Technology yesterday, a 150-attendee event hosted by Intel Corp. There was an impressive array of participants: the CEO and CTO of Intel, senior VPs from Dell, Sun, Cisco, Cadence, Fujitsu; a member of the California Energy Commission, researchers from Lawrence Berkeley Labs and other institutions, one of Al Gore's Nobel Prize co-laureates. Some quick, non-comprehensive, biofuels-related observations:

o Stephen Schneider from IPCC, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore in 2007, is a former biofuels enthusiast now turned skeptic (judging only from comments he made as an aside during his very compelling global warming talk). He seemed to not be groking the "not all biofuels are created equal" point that Eric makes in this post. I worry that this is a sign that local biofuels proponents have a significant uphill battle to distinguish our vision from the "big agriculture" model.

o Bernardo Lopez, head of BMW Research, gave an interesting presentation in a "clean transportation" breakout session that I participated in. The good news was that BMW had some incredibly cool diesel hybrids on the way -- I got very excited about the idea of a hybrid running biodiesel. The bad news was that BMW is much more focused on what, in my view, is a pie-in-the-sky hydrogen vision for alternative fuel, and seems skeptical about and at best only mildly supportive of biofuels. I had a good discussion with Bernardo and his colleagues, though, and I hope to have more dialogue with them about this.

o Generally the folks at the conference with whom I had a chance to discuss the DBI project were quite supportive and interested. I noted that the overall level of knowledge about biofuels was fairly low, however, even among this 'green tech'-savvy crowd.

o One of the giveaways at the forum was a book by Pernick and Wilder called The Clean Tech Revolution. It has a good chapter on biofuels. The chapter notes several "breakthrough opportunities," one of which is "go local":

A number of biofuel pioneers are taking a contrarian approach to the way we process fossil fuels. Rather than ship raw feedstock thousands of miles to refineries, and then ship processed fuels hundreds or thousands of miles to end users, why not make the entire process more local? In this new energy model, you grow your crops regionally and process or refine the oil or feedstock near the point of use. ... [W]e do believe there are opportunities for farmers, local agriculture groups, universities, lawyers, policy makers and of course entrepreneurs to play a role in helping to establish regional production of biofuels. It's happening in places as diverse as Seattle and Pune, India--and will become a growing movement in years to come.

Radio interview with Dan Rees, AZ Biodiesel

2008-02-29T10:41:00.000-08:00

Dan Rees, President of AZ Biodiesel was interviewed by KFNN 1610 AM on Tuesday; listen here. We're big AZ Biodiesel fans, as they embody the local biofuels model that we champion.

Biofuels are the problem... NOT!

2008-02-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

Wow! It's getting hot and heavy out there, and I'm not talking about global warming:

The biofuel myths By Eric Holt-Giménez (Jul 10, 2007)

Some Biofuels Are Worse Environmentally Than Fossil Fuels, Analysis Shows ScienceDaily (Jan 7, 2008)

Studies Call Biofuels a Greenhouse Threat By Elisabeth Rosenthal (Feb 8, 2008)

The Trouble With Biofuels By Bryan Walsh (Feb 14, 2008)

It seems like a lot of the criticism above is based on the assumption that food crops on newly cleared virgin lands are required to create biofuel. But what we are trying to do in the Valley, at least initially, is turn waste into fuel. As Brad pointed out in his post about DBI versions: "First, a reminder of what we mean when we talk about local biofuels: our focus is on locally-produced biofuels, that are derived from local, non-food feedstocks, and used locally. The current corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel models -- where fuel is derived from food crops grown in distant locations, processed elsewhere, and shipped here -- is not consistent with our vision".

The environmental analyses that contend biofuels are actually more harmful to the environment than petroleum products start with the assumption that corn, soy and sugarcane are the feedstocks for biofuels. True, but incomplete. And by leaving out the compelling benefits of non-food feedstocks leaves the impression that biofuels themselves are bad.

"Studies Call Biofuels a Greenhouse Threat". Wow! There's a headline that gets some attention! But is that an accurate statement? The article reports the "destruction of natural ecosystems" to "support biofuel development". Okay, but where does WVO-based biodiesel fit into that picture? What about jatropha (a perennial non-food shrub) planted in the desert? What about algae? What about cellulosic ethanol? What about land fill waste? The problem is not so much with the facts, but with the way they are being reported. By painting all biofuels with the same broad brushstrokes, we stand to lose a lot of help from local folks who otherwise would have been enthusiastic supporters.

When we started this project one of our operating principles was that we would put stuff out as we went along, knowing that much of it would seem naive to more experienced participants. I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to post updates and corrections as we go along. But it's amazing to see that we've learned enough in just a few months to find major flaws in internationally reported news stories.

The most balanced headline of the bunch: Some Biofuels Are Worse Environmentally Than Fossil Fuels. Agreed.

Pending biofuels legislation

2008-02-19T12:43:00.000-08:00

This topic deserves (and will get) some deeper analysis, but here's a quick summary of the biofuels-related bills that are pending in the Arizona legislature this session:

1. HB 2766, the "Omnibus Energy Act of 2008," which (among many other things) calls for a B2 biodiesel mandate after regional production in AZ, NV, CA, UT, and NM reaches 5 million gallons per year of biodiesel, then steps the mandate up to B5 after 15 million gallons regional production is reached.

2. HB 2620, the "Biofuels Conversion Program," which "establishes the Arizona Biofuels Conversion Program in the Department of Commerce (DOC) to encourage the use of biofuel."

3. HB 2621, "Biofuel Standards," which "establishes standards for biofuel relating to labeling, product transfer documents, registration and reporting requirements."

4. HB 2363, called "Weights and Measures; Biofuels Rules," which we have discussed before, and which may have been subsumed by HB 2621 (they cover similar ground).

Big hat tip to Jim Lombard of Roadrunner Biodiesel and the AZ Biodiesel Board for his work in tracking these bills.

Who's who post #11: Sam West

2008-02-19T11:53:00.000-08:00

We are thrilled to announce that Sam West, currently in his final year of law school at ASU, will be joining the Desert Biofuels Initiative team during at least the Spring semester, working on a project to assess the federal, state and local legal and regulatory environment for biodiesel producers and distributors. Sam brings a wealth of experience and education to the table with him: he has a civil and environmental engineering degree, an MBA, energy-related experience as a Naval officer, restaurant industry engineering experience, and his legal background. Sam can be contacted at sam@desertbiofuels.org.

Sam comes to us via ASU's Technology Ventures Clinic. Our deep thanks to Eric Menkhus and team for their support.

Who's who post #10: Francine Hardaway

2008-02-19T11:39:00.000-08:00

Francine Hardaway lives in Phoenix and is a board member of the American Biofuels Council, which describes its mission as "to conduct research, development, education and promote the accelerated use of sustainable biofuels and, to advise decision makers on how these goals are best accomplished." Francine is a principal at Stealthmode Partners, and is well-known and highly-regarded in the Phoenix-area business, technical and political communities. She has been a good friend to the Desert Biofuels Initiative. Francine writes an entertaining blog, online here.

Who's who post #9: Arizona Alternative Fuels Alliance

2008-02-19T11:13:00.000-08:00

The Arizona Alternative Fuels Alliance is a 501(c)(3) with a mission of educating the public on alternative fuels, accepting and distributing charity to like-minded organizations, and to support legislation that is favorable to alternative fuels. To date, their efforts have largely focused on creating the infrastructure that will support their mission (corporate entity formation, etc.) and on compiling a useful set of online resources, including various alternative fuel locator tools. Key principals with AzAFA are James Towner (left) and Drew Bierlien (right) [I'm beginning to make an effort to collect photos of our "who's who" entrants.]

Getting right-sized

2008-02-06T09:10:00.000-08:00

Lyle Estill just published the text of his speech to the NBB folks at the 2008 Biodiesel Conference and Expo. As usual, I got a lot out of reading his stuff. I decided to submit a comment on his blog, but then got a little carried away. Before I pressed the "Submit" button I figured I had really written a blog entry for DBI. So here it is. It will make more sense if you read Lyle's blog entry first.

Disclaimer: I haven't been doing this for years and years, and don't claim any special insight. These are just some opinions based on my observations.

"Appropriate scale" is right on. In other words we need to stay "right-sized" to be sustainable. But that "right-sizing" also means some folks will have to make significant changes to be truly sustainable. Perhaps that is obvious, but the 4X4 off-road magazines are publishing full page ads for the "Fuel Meister II" biodiesel processor, which supposedly makes fuel for "only $0.70 a gallon".

Where does the "Fuel Meister II" fit into the "micro nodal form of fuel production"? Does the "Fuel Meister II" come with a big, bold-faced disclaimer about the inherent safety issues of using a plastic processing vessel? Does the "Fuel Meister II" include instructions for disposing of hundreds of gallons of wash water and scores of gallons glycerol? Is the "Fuel Meister II" a model of sustainability?

Sustainable would mean the manufacturer requires mandatory, not simply 'available', hands-on training to purchase one of those processors. Sustainable might require certification of the processor! Just as you don't just buy a helicopter and start flying, turning a novice loose with a PVC pipe, poly tank machine capable of hundreds of gallons of biodiesel production, with no hands-on training, is crazy. It's unsustainable.

Let's take that flying analogy a little further. There's a fundamental difference between me building an experimental helicopter and trying to fly it solo, and taking others up in the air with me. Or building a production helicopter and offering it for sale. Especially if I advertise how cheap, safe and easy it is to operate. I'm not advocating that everyone who wants to try to make biodiesel needs to be certified by some authority. But when companies are holding out to the general public products which require handling flammable and caustic substances, that will generate prodigious amounts of "sidestream" material that will need proper disposal, perhaps some oversight is in order.

I've made small batches of biodiesel using a tiny all metal appleseed processor, fuel that I've been confident enough with that I've actually put it in my common-rail diesel truck. That's me flying solo in my experimental helicopter.

For me to be fuel self-sufficient would require quite a bit more production. My current needs (not my wife and kids, just me) are about (1) 26 gal tank of fuel a week. If my math is close, that would mean processing a hundred gallons of oil, a half-barrel of methanol, and over 5 lbs. of KOH a month. My suburban neighbors are pretty cool folks, and even if they were okay with that (which I doubt) I bet the fire marshal and/or my insurance agent wouldn't be okay with it. If I add fuel for my wife and kids, all of a sudden I'm up to 150 or 200 gallons of oil, a barrel of methanol, etc.

Right-sized for me means staying with a 5 gal gas can of methanol for processing and running a small mix of "homebrew" and petrol diesel, when I can't get to the coop or downtown. As Brad and I learn more, we may find out even that's not okay in the garage. That would suck, and we'd try to change the rules so it would be okay. I like experimenting in my helicopter. But I don't take people for rides in my helicopter. And I've learned enough about biodiesel that I no longer think I'm going to fuel my whole family out of my suburban garage either.

The guys I know doing this stuff for free and for fun, because they think it's important to their families and the community, are working really hard to become right-sized. Small enough to be in control of their own little part of the world, but big enough to credibly engage the community over issues like zoning, permitting, safety and sidestreams. The folly of the industrial producers is pretending that bigger must be better; the folly of the grassroots is that we aren't big enough to hurt anybody, or the bigger lie, that we're only hurting ourselves if we screw up.

Who's who post #8: Arizona Biodiesel

2008-02-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

While individual producers and co-ops play a role in the "local biofuels" vision, to have a significant environmental and economic impact local commercial producers are absolutely critical. Dan Rees and the team at Arizona Biodiesel (formerly known as Arizona Performance Biodiesel) are leading the charge on the commercial side. They have a sophisticated operation in Chandler that is on the cusp of producing saleable fuel, and have a goal of shipping a million gallons of WVO-derived biodiesel this year. As pioneers in this space they've worked through difficult regulatory, technical and business challenges, and we're hopeful that they can get over some final hurdles and get fuel shipping this month (it remains unclear whether they or Amereco will be the first commercial biodiesel producer in the Valley to ship fuel).

Also, AZ Biodiesel is supporting an initiative called Arizona Green Dining that, among other things, showcases restaurants that are dedicating their WVO for conversion to biodiesel and encourages consumers to support those restaurants. Please check out the Arizona Green Dining website, let others know about it, and support restuarants that are supporting the local biofuels vision in the Valley.

Ugghh...

2008-02-03T10:44:00.000-08:00

Got back home yesterday from a great coffee meeting with Brad, Dave, Gene, Jay, Mike, and Stuart Shellenberger of Fusion Biodiesel ("Who's who" post coming soon!) at Unlimited Coffee in north Phoenix to find this in my local-b100-biz folder:

EPA Enforcement Action to Protect Streams in Missouri

Release date: 01/28/2008

Contact Information: Kris Lancaster, (913) 551-7557, lancaster.kris@epa.gov
Environmental News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Kansas City, Kan., Jan. 28, 2008) - EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and the Missouri Department of Conservation conducted a joint investigation of an illegal discharge of pollutants in Hermondale, Mo., leading to criminal charges against James Raulerson and James Raulerson Farms for violating the Clean Water Act.

The investigation began October 2007, when an anonymous call was received by the Missouri Department of Conservation stating that a tanker truck was observed backed up and discharging its contents into Belle Fountain Ditch in Hermondale, Mo. Upon arrival, state and federal emergency responders found that an undetermined amount of decomposing glycerin that was generated from Natural Biodiesel Plant LLC was released into the Belle Fountain Ditch. Approximately 100,000 fish and other aquatic life were killed.

A federal indictment, filed January 9, 2008, alleges that James Raulerson and James Raulerson Farms knowingly discharged or caused to be discharged pollutants, namely glycerin, methanol and oil into the Belle Fountain Ditch, a water of the United States.

EPA Region 7 Administrator John B. Askew said, "EPA supports the growth of the renewable fuels industry, however, workers need to be environmentally responsible. EPA will take whatever steps are needed to ensure compliance with the Clean Water Act."

EPA hopes these actions will result in greater compliance and improved water quality by sending a clear message about the importance of protecting our nation's waters. The mission of EPA is to protect human health and the environment.

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/e4c0f074fa522794852573de00778a40!OpenDocument

It should be evident from all our postings that this type of behavior is clearly NOT part of our vision for biofuels in the Valley, or anywhere else. It does, however, bring up rather dramatically that environmental compliance issues could be a potential deal-breaker for any producer -- homebrewer, coop, or commercial -- that is unwilling or unable to deal with ALL the products that come from a biofuels plant.

Having a way to responsibly deal with safety and sidestream issues is critically important if biofuels are to make any significant impact here in the Valley. We hope that the connections we're making, with backyarders, coops, commercial producers, educational institutions, legislators, will enable us to act as a trusted third-party to help facilitate common-sense solutions to the very real issues that surround biofuel production and distribution.

First and only e85 pump in the Valley

2008-01-31T15:04:00.000-08:00

We stopped by Western States Petroleum today (Eric filled his truck with B99) and got a look at the Valley's first and only e85 pump. WSP also is the site of the Valley's only B99 (99% biodiesel) pump. WSP's fuel doesn't fit the "local biofuel" model that we champion (it's soy and corn based, and shipped in from the midwest), but they nonetheless deserve major kudos for being a biofuels pioneer in the Valley and for meeting the critically important "running code" test.

Here's a photo of the e85 pump:

One of the WSP workers said that Super Bowl-related vehicles had been funneling through regularly filling up with e85. Kudos on this front to WSP, Fox Sports and the Tucson Clean Cities Coalition. From a TCCC press release:

...Tucson Clean Cities Coalition at Pima Association of Governments is assisting FOX Sports with securing hybrid and flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) for use both internally by FOX, as well as by designated VIPs during Super Bowl XLII festivities in the Phoenix area. FFVs can run on either gasoline or alternative fuel blends, including up to 85 percent ethanol (E85). FOX Sports executives will drive hybrid SUVs and flex-fuel vehicles throughout Super Bowl week...

Local biofuels in the Valley: at beta version 0.6

2008-01-31T10:34:00.000-08:00

Readers of this blog will know that we have an affinity for software industry metaphors (see, e.g., our "rough consensus and running code" and "open source biodiesel" posts). Here's another one I wanted to try.

First, a reminder of what we mean when we talk about local biofuels: our focus is on locally-produced biofuels, that are derived from local, non-food feedstocks, and used locally. The current corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel models -- where fuel is derived from food crops grown in distant locations, processed elsewhere, and shipped here -- is not consistent with our vison, although we recognize that generally this model is still much better than petroleum fuels.

Now for the software metaphor: my sense is that local biofuels in the Valley are in early beta, maybe at version 0.6. Early adopter homebrewers and co-ops are producing and using biodiesel, but are having to contend with significant bugs in the regulatory system. Commercial entities like AZ Biodiesel and Amereco are on the cusp of producing saleable fuel, but still have major production and distribution kinks to work out.

I think that version 1.0 of local biofuels in the valley is not far off, however: although it will take significant heavy lifting to get there, we can imagine a world where homebrewers and co-ops making WVO*-derived biodiesel have a supporting infratructure that enables compliance with tax and environmental regulations, and where local commercial producers are making high quality WVO-based biodiesel available to consumers on a routine basis.

If version 1.0 is in sight, then planning for version 2.0 should be underway. My sense is that version 2.0 will also be biodiesel-focused, but will replace or complement WVO as the key feedstock. Crops like jatropha seem promising as a alternative feedstock, one that need not displace food crops and that can be grown in a desert climate. We'd like to see the local agribusiness community begin exploring options for local biofuels version 2.0.

As for version 3.0, it's likely premature to guess at what this might look like. Algae feedstocks for biodiesel and/or ethanol show promise, as do technologies like cellulosic ethanol. We'd certainly love to see an embodiment of ethanol that was consistent with the local biofuels vision, given the inherent limitations of biodiesel (i.e., a limited number of diesel engines).

--
* WVO = waste vegetable oil, a.k.a. grease

Who's who post #7: Colleen Crowninshield

2008-01-23T20:18:00.000-08:00

In this series of who's who posts we plan to focus on people active in biofuels in the Valley region, but one Tucson-based person is such a standout statewide leader that we'll depart from the Valley-specific focus for a moment. As a quick Google search can demonstrate, Colleen Crowninshield of the Pima Association of Governments has been tireless in promoting biofuels throughout the state. In 2005 the DoE gave her an award and described her as "a persistent advocate of alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles." The Arizona Republic described her as the "state's clearinghouse on all things ethanol and most things biodiesel." She serves as a member of the Arizona Biodiesel Board and has been deeply involved in the development of biodiesel and ethanol fueling stations in Tucson. She chairs the very active and successful Tucson Clean Cities Coalition.

Who's who post #6: William Sheaffer

2008-01-23T18:40:00.000-08:00

Bill Sheaffer may have the deepest experience of anyone in the Valley in connection with commercial biodiesel and associated policy issues. Bill was a VP with Southern States Power Co., which sold biodiesel to customers that included the Deer Valley School District before ceasing operations in 2004. He was involved with a company called Buckeye Biofuels, and now is Executive VP at Amereco, a West Valley-based biodiesel producer that now plans to begin shipping fuel at the end of January. Bill also has served as the executive director of the Valley of the Sun Clean Cities Coalition. The VSCCC website apparently hasn't been updated in several years but Bill reports that the VSCCC is "very much alive" and has a major event planned in late February (we'll post details here when we have them).

Who's who post #5: Michael Sarin

2008-01-23T18:16:00.000-08:00

Michael Sarin is a successful entrepreneur and engineer (ASU alum) who has been as been a renewable fuels consultant since 2004. Most recently Michael was involved with the 100% biodiesel race boat Earthrace, working as a member of the ground support crew, and as a sponsor during their 2007 world tour. He is currently consulting for two renewable energy companies in the Phoenix area, XL Renewables and Diversified Energy. He and his wife both drive diesel vehicles, one powered by biodiesel, and the other recently converted to run on WVO. Michael is active in local efforts to promote biodiesel.

[Our ongoing, still very incomplete series of "who's who" in Valley biofuels posts is linked here]

$100/bbl is GREAT!

2008-01-23T16:13:00.000-08:00

My brother-in-law Joseph is an unabashed optimist. Start describing the latest financial meltdown, environmental catastrophe or political scandal and he'll retort with something wonderful he's found on the Internet that day. He'll say something like "laser light hard disk technology will eventually enable us to store 10 terabits per square inch. Isn't that amazing?!" It won't necessarily be on-point, but it will make his point: a lot of life is where you look, how you look at it, and that there has never before been such a wondrous time to be alive. And, once again, technology from human ingenuity will save the day.

Although I've always been a bit of a pessimist, I'm starting to come around to Joe's way of thinking, especially when it comes to the Peak Oil doomsday scenarios that abound on the 'net. It's interesting to me that many of the doomsayers are also marketing products and services to address the problem. http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/ features a 'preparedness store' for instance. It's all strangely reminiscent of the Y2K phenomenon, one that swept me into a funk for a year and half prior to that non-event. (As a matter of fact, I pulled a couple tablespoons of sugar this morning out of the 20lb HDPE container I bought... 8 1/2 years ago.)

One of the most balanced and readable commentators on energy issues that I've discovered thus far is Vaclav Smil. As I learn more about biofuels generally and biodiesel in particular, it has become apparent, at least to me, that there is not a singular solution to the problem of petroleum substitutes. We are going to have to have a diversity of resources lined up to make the transition from so-called 'fossil fuels' to whatever's next. And the fact that I think Smil could be characterized as 'down' on biofuels provides me with a reality-check on this project.

But, be that as it may, again and again over the past 30-plus years since the OPEC embargo of the US, any momentum for alternatives to petroleum has been hampered by the return of cheap oil. So in that sense the best thing for biofuels generally, and local B100 in particular, is a sustained run of 'outrageously' expensive oil. The fact that oil remains nearer $100/bbl than $20/bbl keeps it on everyone's radar, and makes it easier to engage allies (such as local legislators and educational institutions) who may otherwise be too deeply immersed in other pressing issues to pay much attention. Smil says "Steeply rising oil prices would not lead to unchecked bidding for the remaining oil but would accelerate a shift to other energy sources." [1] I'm sure Joe would agree with that.

[1] Vaclav Smil, Peak Oil: A Catastrophist Cult and Complex Realities

Defining our (current) mission

2008-01-20T20:24:00.000-08:00

[ Note: The previous posts in this narrative can be found by searching 'DBI history' ]

We concluded that DBI could be most effective by identifying local stakeholders currently working on biodiesel projects in the Valley (see sidebar), and discovering what issues still needed to be addressed to help them become successful. Also, by contacting the stakeholders in this open and informal way, we hoped to improve our understanding of the issues surrounding biofuels generally.

For example, we discovered early on that a problem with small-scale production of biodiesel is the question of fuel quality. The equipment necessary to do a full set of tests to a sample of fuel is prohibitively expensive for an individual homebrewer, and perhaps even a small coop. Sending batch samples to a commercial testing facility is possible, but also very expensive, and therefore not cost effective for the relatively small batches being produced.

We thought: If there was a way to engage a logical partner with resources and interest, for instance a local community college or university, then conceivably you would have a win-win scenario. The small producer gets accurate and comprehensive quality testing (perhaps for a nominal fee) and the college or university gets real-world material to examine and test. Maybe a angel-funded coop could purchase the testing equipment and turn the 'problem' into a service for homebrewers and other small producers.

Another idea: WVO-based biodiesel appears to be the 'low hanging fruit' in the biofuels world. There is, however, an existing infrastructure to collect and process the large quantities of fryer oil from fast-food chains. This oil is used for pet food, cosmetics, and other products. This so-called 'yellow grease' is a commodity that is traded like any other. But how much of the stuff is there in the Valley? Seems like a good thing to know, especially for a nascent local biodiesel community. Perhaps we could engage some grad students in gathering some of the market data we needed to analyze the potential WVO-based biodiesel production.

Or more directly applicable to homebrewing: one of the first things Brad and I talked about was the need to 'get out of the garage'. Processing small batches of biodiesel is a pretty innocuous affair. Methanol and KOH are not trivial substances, but neither are DRANO and the dozens of other common household chemicals most everyone has in their homes and garages.

The more pressing point was the quantity of chemicals (and processing sidestreams) for producing the amount of biodiesel necessary to become fuel self-sufficient. Identifying possible locations (properly zoned and permitted) for biodiesel processing and chemical storage, handling sidestreams of wash water and glycerol properly: these were issues that we felt both should and could be addressed while preserving the DIY ethic and enthusiasm of the homebrewer community.

A danger that we have talked about is one of exposure: perhaps by going public in this way we would draw attention to activities that had been 'flying under the radar'. But, at least from our perspective, there were a couple compelling reasons to press forward. 1) The 'right' thing to do is be a good neighbor. That includes complying with applicable rules, and if there is room for improvement to the rules, to petition for change. 2) By complying with the rules, we gain a legitimacy in the community to affect change at a larger, more substantial level. One of our primary goals with this project is promote a local biofuels infrastructure that includes commercial, coop and homebrewers. The only way to be included at the table is to show up.

AZ HB2363, ethanol and biodiesel

2008-01-18T08:11:00.000-08:00

I assume that AZ HB 2363, introduced yesterday, is being driven by ethanol producers and retailers. It appears to strike a bargain that many industries make: provide broad rule-making authority to a regulatory agency (knowing that industry can often influence that agency to create friendly regulations), and get some favorable legal rules (e.g., liability limitations) in exchange for compliance with the regulations. Sometimes these sorts of arrangements can be shady, but this may be a sensible arrangement in this particular case: the industry may be better off with agency-level rather than legislative-level rulemaking (the agency will presumably be better informed and more flexible), and the liability limitation that is being granted seems reasonable.

The bill does create a risk for biodiesel producers and retailers: the regulatory agency (the Dept. of Weights and Measures) is being empowered to create rules for "biofuels" -- not just ethanol -- so biodiesel folks will have to live with these rules too. The homebrew, co-op and small-scale producer community may have to put some energy into ensuring that the rules don't advantage a "big agribusiness" model of biofuels over the local biofuel vision (locally-produced, locally used, non-food-crop-based biofuels).

The bill may also be, so far, a missed opportunity for biodiesel. The bill solves a problem for E85 retailers: it ensures they won't be liable if a consumer misfuels their non-flex-fuel car. Perhaps biodiesel producers and retailers could have a similar "ask" -- e.g., ask for a similar risk allocation rule around a situation where a consumer claims that their warranty was voided because of the consumer's choice to use biodiesel. I'm not sure what the right "ask" is, but it strikes me that there is a window of opportunity for the biodiesel community to get some benefit from the legislative bargain it is getting pulled in to.

Some thoughts on the current legal regime

2008-01-17T19:29:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking more about ARS Section 41-2083. At first blush it strikes me that (a) it is potentially unfriendly to homebrewers and co-ops, and (b) even as applied to commercial producers it has some potentially troubling components. Has anyone out there done the analysis around:

Does the limitation in subsection A to "retail seller or fleet owner" flow through the rest if the statute? Or do the sections stand alone; i.e., could subsections K, L, M and N apply (theoretically) to homebrewers and co-ops?
Are the testing and labeling requirements sensible? Does this strike the right balance between maximizing consumer protection and minimizing the regulatory burden on biofuels innovators?
Do the reporting requirements make sense? From an academic and public policy perspective I think the opportunity to get data about the volume of biofuel produced by each commercial player (and co-op and homebrewer? -- see first point above) would be fascinating. But I wonder if from a competitive perspective the commercial players want this sort of data to be public (I'm assuming the data will be an accessible public record once collected).

To the extent that 41-2083 (K)-(N) was interpreted to apply to homebrewers or co-ops, certainly this would dramatically undermine our "local biofuels" vision. I'll be curious to learn if the local small scale commercial producers think this law helps them (e.g., by increasing consumer confidence in biodiesel) or hurts them (e.g., by imposing unnecessary regulatory burdens).

Here are the relevant sections (other than K, which is in the post below):

A. . . . [A] retail seller or fleet owner shall not store, sell or expose or offer for sale any motor fuel . . . if the product fails to meet the standards specified in this section and in the rules adopted by the director. [ . . . ]

L. A person who blends biodiesel that is intended as a final product for the fueling of motor vehicles shall report to the director by the fifteenth day of each month the quantity and quality of biodiesel shipped to or produced in this state during the preceding month. A person who supplies biodiesel subject to this subsection shall report the following by batch:
1. The percentage of biodiesel in a final blend.
2. The volume of the finished product.
3. For neat biodiesel, the results of analysis for those parameters established by ASTM D6751.
4. For biodiesel blended with any diesel fuel, the results of the analysis of the following motor fuel parameters as established by ASTM D975: (a) Sulfur content. (b) Aromatic hydrocarbon content. (c) Cetane number. (d) Specific gravity. (e) American petroleum institute gravity. (f) The temperatures at which ten per cent, fifty per cent and ninety per cent of the diesel fuel boiled off during distillation.

M. The report required by subsection L of this section shall be on a form prescribed by the director and shall contain a certification of truthfulness and accuracy of the data submitted and a statement of the supplier's consent permitting the department or its authorized agent to collect samples and access records as provided in rules adopted by the department. A corporate officer who is responsible for operations at the facility that produces or ships the final product shall sign the report.

N. A person shall label dispensers at which biodiesel is dispensed in such a manner as to notify other persons of the volume percentage of biodiesel in the finished product and that conforms with 40 Code of Federal Regulations sections 80.570, 80.571, 80.572, 80.573 and 80.574 to inform the customer of the sulfur content of the diesel fuel being dispensed.

State legislative developments

2008-01-17T15:42:00.000-08:00

Evidently a new biofuels-related bill was introduced today (HB 2363), sponsored by Representatives Crandall, Reagan, Adams, Driggs and Konopnick. It appears that the focus is on reducing liability risk for E85 ethanol retailers, but it sweeps quite broadly. The bill would amend ARS Section 41-2083 with the following provisions:

THE DIRECTOR SHALL ADOPT RULES RELATING TO BIOFUELS, INCLUDING:
1. STANDARDS AND TEST METHODS FOR INDIVIDUAL BIOFUELS.
2. REGISTRATION AND REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.
3. LABELING REQUIREMENTS.
4. QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAMS FOR PRODUCERS AND SUPPLIERS OF BIOFUELS.
5. ROUTINE QUALITY CONTROL SAMPLING AND TESTING REQUIREMENTS FOR BIOFUELS.

IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THIS SECTION AND RULES ADOPTED PURSUANT TO THIS SECTION, A RETAIL SELLER OF THE ETHANOL BLEND E85 IS NOT LIABLE IF A CONSUMER MISFUELS AND PLACES ETHANOL BLEND E85 IN A NONFLEXIBLE FUEL VEHICLE.

Note that ARS Section 41-2083 already includes some requirements applicable to biodiesel producers and distributors:

K. A person shall not sell or offer or expose for sale biodiesel that is not tested or does not meet the specifications established by ASTM D6751 or any blend of biodiesel and diesel fuel that is not tested or does not meet the specifications established by ASTM D975 and that contains sulfur in excess of five hundred parts per million for use in area A as defined in section 49-541.

Plus the statute includes some detailed reporting requirements for biodiesel distributors... presumably these reports would be avilable via a public records act request.

[1/17: post edited to remove the reporting section of the statute; made the post too long and boring!]

Arizona Biodiesel Board's policy recommendations

2008-01-17T08:38:00.000-08:00

The Tuscon-based Arizona Biodiesel Board (ABB) appears to have done some careful thinking on the legislative policy front. They describe their list of top policy priorities for the AZ state legislature here; very roughly summarized, they are:

Eliminate road tax remittance requirements for WVO-based biodiesel homebrewers
Allocate state funding for alternative feedstock research
Create an investment tax credit for feedstock cultivation on tribal lands
Mandate that all diesel fuel sold in Arizona contain at least 5% biodiesel
Include info on alternative fuels with MVD registration renewals
Tax incentives for the creation of biodiesel distribution infrastucture

There are some very thoughtful ideas here, that I'd like to explore in more depth in future posts. But one thing that strikes me is that there are no "legislative showstoppers" on the list -- that is, judging from this list I would conclude that there are no state-level legislative barriers that are fundamental obstacles to biofuels development -- i.e., ultimately this seems like a list of "nice-to-haves" (perhaps very nice to have) and not "must haves."

I understand that there have been some state-level showstoppers in the past. This article [alt. link here] describes (among other things) that state legislative action was necessary to "classify biodiesel and ethanol as motor fuels, making it legal for them to be sold in Arizona."

Certainly the state is not the only relevant regulating entity, though. We have seen an example where an innovative biofuel company was stymied by local zoning regulations -- more on this soon. And there is no doubt that federal policy has a massive impact on biofuels (one small example: nobody sells B100 in the Valley; the best you can do is B99, because of federal tax policy).

Navigating through this complex policy environment is one critical piece of the local biofuels puzzle.

"Rough consensus and running code"

2008-01-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

I think that Eric's open source biodiesel post really nailed the spirit of what we're trying to do. Along these same lines, a phrase from the Internet development community that I love is "rough consensus and running code." I think our approach will have a strong emphasis on "running code" -- that is, we'll focus on practical results, even if imperfect. I think we can measure success in tangible ways: e.g., I will be very happy the day that I can ditch my Prius and buy a diesel, knowing that I have a reliable, high-quality supply of locally-produced biodiesel available to put in the tank (I'm too mechanically inept to be a successful homebrewer, but I would happily be a customer of a co-op or commercial venture that sold biodiesel). If we can do something to help facilitate this result, I'll be thrilled.

I think one of the most immediate practical results of this effort that we can offer is a careful assessment of the state of biofuels in the Valley. Even something as simple of the list of Arizona biofuels entities listed in the right navbar of this page can be useful, I hope -- I know that many of these entities were not aware of others, for example. We're in the midst of reaching out and trying to talk to everyone we can who is active in this space, and we'll document our thoughts on this site.

Another key short term goal is to hold an informal summit or workshop where we get key Valley stakeholders together to discuss promoting a more robust biodiesel infrastructure in the region. Planning is underway for such a summit -- watch this space for more detail soon.

Who's who post #4: Ken Costello

2008-01-16T19:59:00.000-08:00

Ken Costello leads a sustainability group at Mesa Community College and maintains a biodiesel page on small scale biodiesel production here. Ken and his brother Jerry have been teaching Community Ed classes on small-scale production; many of their previous students are making biodiesel for their vehicles. Jerry coordinated a Biodiesel Interest Group that has met in the East Valley.

Ken also teaches a chemistry class at Chandler-Gilbert Community College that addresses biodiesel and other environmental issues.

As Eric and I have been making the rounds, we've been thrilled with the level of interest various ASU entities have shown in biofuels. In many ways, however, the community colleges are even better positioned to have an immediate, practical impact on local biofuel development in the Valley. We're hopeful that MCC will expand its biofuel efforts and continue to be a leader among the Valley community colleges. Go Ken!

Open Source Biodiesel

2008-01-16T08:01:00.000-08:00

The other problem with the straight proprietary commercial startup for us was a matter of choices. We wanted to do something that would assist in the development of a biofuels infrastructure in the Valley. A successful coop was already in place, which I had joined, and it seemed unnecessary and certainly divisive to duplicate that established effort. A straight commercial venture was underway as well, in fact there were a couple. None of them as yet were selling fuel to the general public, but Brad and I had a similar response regarding this as well.

We want to foster an open environment to help enable the biofuels stakeholders in the Valley to work together for their mutual success, and we believe there is a lot of common ground. Our goal is to have biofuels widely available in the Valley, and that broad mission gives us a lot of latitude when discussing these issues. There is no particular 'turf' we are trying to protect.

Our operating procedure is straight out of the Open Source software playbook: put something together and throw it out there, even if it isn't perfect, and see what kind of response we get. Like-minded folks can join in and participate at whatever level they feel comfortable, and by being open with everyone we hope to establish credibility with all the stakeholders working in this space: coop, commercial, educational, policy makers, what have you.

The Brother-in-law Test

2008-01-15T08:10:00.000-08:00

Brad was very interested in hearing about my progress with homebrewing, and we discussed the possible reasons why biodiesel and biofuels generally weren't widely available here in the Valley. Lyle has an entire chapter in his book about the 'lure of the producer', how there is a predictable arc of discovery, enthusiasm, development and then the desire to commercialize. Some of our initial discussions were centered on a traditional start-up model, the idea of raising money to make and sell biodiesel and subsequently get rich. Why not?

So I made an appointment to talk to my brother-in-law, Luke, who founded a technology company here in Scottsdale, My Computer Works. One morning in December I made my way over to his offices, and once we settled into our chairs he asked me a question: how do you plan to make money? It's a legitimate question. He grabbed his laptop and we started putting together a pro forma profit/loss spreadsheet. It quickly became clear, based on our number WAGs, that feedstock costs were the key component in any discussion about biodiesel profitability. WVO is certainly the most attractive feedstock from that perspective.

But crunching some numbers and doing some hard thinking made me realize something else. There are tangible benefits from fostering and encouraging a local biofuels infrastructure, even if the immediate commercial opportunities are unclear. Brad's initial interest in my 'biodiesel project' was from a policy and legal perspective. Perhaps that was where the most immediate impact could be generated.

Who's who post #3: Dave Conz

2008-01-15T06:42:00.000-08:00

At the risk of interrupting the flow of Eric's story, let me add another in the planned series of "who's who" posts.

Dave Conz is a professor at ASU, where he is core faculty in the Interdisciplinary Studies program and affiliated with the Center for Nanotechnology in Society and the Biodesign Institute. He's also a particularly experienced and sophisticated biodiesel homebrewer, and an expert on the history and sociology of the biodiesel homebrew movement. His Ph.D. dissertation “Citizen Technoscience: Amateur Networks in the International Grassroots Biodiesel Movement” provides a fascinating and very readable account of his personal biodiesel experience (in addition to deep sociological analysis). His short article "The Beautiful Smell of French Fries" (pdf) is a must-read as an introduction to biodiesel and some of the obstacles that must be overcome in order for biodiesel to thrive.

[Post edited by Brad 9/17/08 to remove link to outdated article. I'll also use the opportunity to report that DBI's relationship with Dave has deepened since our original post, and we're very pleased to count Dave among our key strategic advisors. We're still working on trying to convince him to guest blog and provide some of his always-trenchant insights about biofuels in this forum. :-)]

Infecting others

2008-01-14T17:45:00.000-08:00

It was also about this time that I stated buying fuel from Western States Petroleum. They sell virgin soy-based biodiesel, made in IOWA and shipped in via rail (at about $.20/gal) and then blended at B99 (99% biodiesel and 1% petrol diesel) to take advantage of a federal $.01 per % blending credit.

WSP is the only Phoenix commercial vendor that I know about that sells biodiesel in the Valley. 3.5 million people and 1, yes ONE, biodiesel pump. (By the way, there are currently NO E85 ethanol pumps, but that's another issue.)

Something is wrong with this picture.

Most Saturday mornings I hang out with my buddy Brad and we talk about family, politics, the meaning of life... all the usual stuff. One Saturday I brought up a new topic: biodiesel. I ranted: how could it be that something so great was effectively unavailable in Phoenix? Tucson has several biodiesel pumps, Winslow has one, even Oracle, a wide-spot in the road on AZ77, has a biodiesel pump.

Brad is a smart guy. He drives a Prius. He wanted to know 'why' too.

[edited 2/1/08: WSP now has a e85 pump! ]