On their face, biofuels seem like a pretty good idea: carbon dioxide and sunlight in, carbon dioxide and energy out. Certainly some hobbyists manage to recover waste grease for use in diesel engines, but commercially the field has been dominated by the fermentation of sugars from food crops into ethanol. Unfortunately, due to the large petro-chemical inputs often employed it is unclear whether the result is a net gain. In addition, much attention has been given to the competing interests of fuel vs. food (vs. land conservation).
There is hope that research into the production of cellulosic ethanol, or alcohol from plant fibers, could soon tip the balance decidedly in favor of biofuels. One could use agricultural waste or fast-growing special cover crops however, this material should arguably be composted… [view entry]
Last week, Energy 2.0 received a phone call from Dr. Jesse Reich, CEO of Baystate BioFuels, whose company was recently profiled on NECN and on the pages of Energy 2.0. He provided us with some numbers on the use of BioFuels in the home that will be of interest to anyone who heats their home with oil and wants to reduce their use of non-renewable resources and the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere.
The average home uses approximately 730 gallons of heating oil each year-and each gallon of Number 2 home heating oil releases 22 lbs of CO2 into the atmosphere. Pure Biodiesel reduces the CO2 generated by approximately 85%. As mentioned previously, Massachusetts law now mandates each load of home heating oil contains 2% of biodiesel, which… [view entry]
It’s a little known fact that this winter will be the first in which Massachusetts requires home heating oil to include at least 2% biofuels, rising 1 percentage point each year until it reaches 5% in 2012. In 2009, that creates a 24 million gallon demand, and Baystate Biofuels is here to fill it.
The company has taken over the disused tanks at an old Western Telecom building in North Andover and it plans to utilize solar power Osgood Landing had previously installed on the site, and Baystate Biofuels will tap into excess steam from a nearby waste-to-energy incinerator to heat the tanks to lower the viscosity of the pure biodiesel.
Energy 2.0 is checking on whether Baystate will be delivering to Cambridge this winter. In the meantime, check out… [view entry]
“New diesel engines are more than 90 percent cleaner than a few years ago, far exceeding the emission reductions required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency”
An Environmental Health News story has put context to a new, 158-page report from The Coordinating Research Council on the new standard diesel truck and bus engines that have been in use since 2007.
The new engines, implemented on a large scale, should reduce, smog, airborne carcinogens, and incidents of lung and heart problems.
To see a new short film on the air quality problems in the South Bronx, many of which emanate from heavy diesel traffic, see Breathe Easy by Jesse Ash and Sustainable South Bronx.
