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Greenlings: What is biodiesel?

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:57:00 +0000

What is biodiesel? In short, biodiesel is a fuel that’s suitable for use in diesel engines that is not based on petroleum. Biodiesel is often made from plant sources. It’s also possible to mix biodiesel with petroleum-based diesel fuel in any ratio. Since most any engine designed to run on diesel fuel can use biodiesel, it would seem that this biofuel could displace a great deal of fuel pumped from the ground. In some cases, it is possible to run diesel engines on straight vegetable oil (often referred to as SVO or WVO), but SVO isn’t the same as biodiesel. There is a bunch of complex chemistry that goes into producing biodiesel from many different sources, and it all has to do with the transesterification of fats and oils. Excuse me? Transester-huh? Yeah, it’s about as complicated as it sounds, but the really short version of the story is that alcohol (methanol, ethanol etc.) is used to modify the chemical makeup of the original oil. Now that we’ve identified what biodiesel is and isn’t, let’s discuss why you should care and whether you can use it in your own vehicle. Car Blog Greenon. Gallery: Austin Alt Car: Biofuel Hummer Continue reading Greenlings: What is biodiesel? Auto Blog: Biodiesel , AutoblogGreen Exclusive , Green Daily Greenlings: What is biodiesel? originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green

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Biodiesel can’t void your warranty?

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:36:00 +0000

Most manufacturers, including heavy-hitters like Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, allow the use of a 5 percent biodiesel blend (aka B5) without violating the terms of the car’s original factory warranty. What happens if you use a higher biodiesel concentration? That’s a good question, and the answer isn’t particularly clear at the moment. According to Steve Keyes, Volkswagen’s director of public relations, “All Volkswagen TDI models are warranted for the use of up to a B5 blend. Blends of biodiesel higher than B5 void the Volkswagen warranty.” Case closed, right? Not so fast, say the Northwest Biofuels Association and the Oregon Auto Dealer’s Association. These two organizations have released a joint statement suggesting that the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act from 1975 doesn’t allow a manufacturer to void a vehicle’s warranty based on the fuel that the owner is using to power it. We’re not so sure it’s a good idea to go against a manufacturer’s stated recommendations without knowing the consequences, regardless of whether it voids the warranty or not. Even if a vehicle seems to run just fine on high biodiesel blends, it’s important to remember that modern diesel engines and emissions systems have computers that may make assumptions about the fuel that’s being used. We’d wager that this is an issue that will continue to be hashed out in the coming months and years. [Source: Green Inc. via Domestic Fuel | Photo: .imelda ] Auto Blog: Biodiesel , Diesel Biodiesel can’t void your warranty? originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green

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World’s first hydrogen fuel cell tractor debuts in Italy

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 10:06:00 +0000

Click above for a gallery of the New Holland NH 2 What fuel will power agricultural equipment in the future? There are a number of alternatives to the tried and true fossil fuels that we’re currently favoring, and many of them use crops that can be gathered right on site by the vehicles that are eventually going to use them. Ethanol (or other alcohol based fuels) and biodiesel stand out as the most commonly cited options, but some still have hydrogen on the brain. Farms may be an ideal source for the electricity needed to extract hydrogen from water since there is often an abundance of wind, sun or both. Still, the question remains: Why not just store that electricity and use it in something electric? The New Holland NH 2 is billed as the world’s first hydrogen-powered tractor, and it’s just debuted in conceptual form in Italy. The zero-emissions tractor gets its power from a fuel cell that sends electrons to a 106-horsepower electric motor powering all four wheels. Problems include a major lack of range and an awfully high price, so New Holland isn’t expecting to put the model into production until 2013. Gallery: New Holland NH2 [Source: New Holland via Farmers Weekly Interactive ] Continue reading World’s first hydrogen fuel cell tractor debuts in Italy Auto Blog: Hydrogen , Green Daily , Europe/EU World’s first hydrogen fuel cell tractor debuts in Italy originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green

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World’s first hydrogen fuel cell tractor debuts in Italy

New Chinese electric bus boasts 186-mile range

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:42:00 +0000

While we have a pretty impressive electric bus here in America, an announcement that a Chinese joint venture will begin building buses with a 300 km (186 miles) range certainly got our attention. The FAW Bus and Coach Company has teamed up with battery maker Tongkun New Energy Technologies Co., Ltd and plan to have their people-carriers on the roads around two different cities in Jilin province by June. They already have 70 on the order book and if they can deliver the range performance promised, we expect they’ll sell more. The 24 passenger bus can not only go far on its lithium iron phosphate ( LiFePO 4 ) batteries but it can also re-charge them in as little as 20 minutes. With a useful life of 2,000 cycles, they could last 300,000 miles. Not bad for a bus with a 500,000 yuan ($73,145) price tag and low running costs. Hopefully the new design will also be a little easier on the eyes than the current baby bus built by FAW, pictured above. [Source: Xinhua ] Auto Blog: EV/Plug-in , Transportation Alternatives , China New Chinese electric bus boasts 186-mile range originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 21 Feb 2009 08:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green

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Naysayers alert: cost of diesel drops below premium gas

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:18:00 +0000

At least one barrier to diesel ownership may be falling by the wayside now that the average price for a gallon of diesel fuel has dropped below that of premium gasoline in the United States. According to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. government, the average price of diesel fuel in this country on February 16th was $2.18. By way of comparison, the average gallon of premium gas: $2.19. Of course, even that isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison because a gallon of diesel fuel contains more potential energy than a gallon of gasoline. Add in the fact that internal combustion engines running on diesel fuel are more efficient than their gas-powered counterparts, and diesel starts making even more sense. Still, it’s not all rosy for diesel engines in America. There are many ways to measure emissions, and in some cases, diesels aren’t so clean. Specifically, oil-burners exhaust higher levels of nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides along with particulate matter (soot) in the form of unburned carbon compounds. All of these issues can be mitigated somewhat, but that costs money. Still, diesel (including biodiesel) is an alternative that is looking more and more practical as time marches on. [Source: Energy Information Administration via The Car Connection ] Auto Blog: Diesel , Green Daily , USA Naysayers alert: cost of diesel drops below premium gas originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green

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Let controversy reign: study says biofuels will speed up global warming

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:15:00 +0000

While the general consensus is clear that corn ethanol isn’t as great as once proclaimed, biodiesel has somewhat escaped the criticism swarm (palm plantation biodiesel being the big exception). That may change now that a new study from the Woods Institute for the Environment has found that crop-based biofuels, any of them, will likely speed up global warming rates. The study found that, overall, biofuels pump “far more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than they could possibly save as a replacement for fossil fuels,” according to the AFP . The study authors looked at 20 years’ worth (1980-2000) of satellite photos of tropical areas and discovered that half of the biofuel cropland came from virgin rainforests. The imbalance of this deforestation means that it’ll take somewhere between 40 and 120 years to pay back the “carbon debt.” Algae and cellulosic biofuel sources can not get here soon enough. [Source: AFP ] Auto Blog: Biodiesel , Ethanol Let controversy reign: study says biofuels will speed up global warming originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green

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Let controversy reign: study says biofuels will speed up global warming

Glenn Beck forgets to keep mouth shut on issues he’s wrong about, like biodiesel

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:02:00 +0000

What’s more exciting, the news that school buses in Minnesota were stalled, and that schools had to shut down, because of biodiesel and way too cold temperatures, or the reality that it wasn’t the biodiesel that was causing the problem after all? The former, obviously, which is why that was what the always lame Fox TV commentator Glenn Beck used to prove a point when he said on air recently that, “Lawmakers put children’s safety at stake because they don’t want their buses to run on a politically incorrect kind of fuel.” The Star-Tribune then editorialized against this sort of nonsense. Remember, it came to light in late January that biodiesel was not at fault in the Bloomington School District closures. Domestic Fuel points out that while Beck may have made his point with gusto, he had “no explanation why this didn’t happen at EVERY other school district that had the exact same [biodiesel] requirement.” [Source: Star-Tribune via Domestic Fuel ] Photo by danakosko . Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0 . Auto Blog: Biodiesel , Etc. , Green Daily Glenn Beck forgets to keep mouth shut on issues he’s wrong about, like biodiesel originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green

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Glenn Beck forgets to keep mouth shut on issues he’s wrong about, like biodiesel

Yes, she did it again: Daryl Hannah shows off her new biodiesel El Camino

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Auto Blog: Biodiesel , Green Daily Click above and scroll down to watch the video If you love something, do it again. After Daryl Hannah sold her first biodiesel El Camino for $15,600 a year ago, she said she would convert the Trans Am she drove in “Kill Bill” to electric power . That never happened, and at the recently-concluded National Biodiesel Conference & Expo, Hannah showed off her new ride: another biodiesel El Camino. Hannah says that her new ride (same as the old ride) only drinks sustainable biodiesel. This makes sense for many reasons, including that she is a big supporter of the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance and that new sustainable biodiesel standards were announced at the Expo.You can see Hannah show off her car as part of the Expo’s Biodiesel Vehicle Showcase in a video after the jump, but be warned that the audio is less than pleasing. [Source: National Biodiesel Conference blog via Ecorazzi ] Continue reading Yes, she did it again: Daryl Hannah shows off her new biodiesel El Camino Yes, she did it again: Daryl Hannah shows off her new biodiesel El Camino originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green|Car Blog Green|Car Blog Green

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Yes, she did it again: Daryl Hannah shows off her new biodiesel El Camino

Yes, she did it again: Daryl Hannah shows off her new biodiesel El Camino

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:44:00 +0000

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Yes, she did it again: Daryl Hannah shows off her new biodiesel El Camino

Yes, she did it again: Daryl Hannah shows off her new biodiesel El Camino

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:44:00 +0000

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Yes, she did it again: Daryl Hannah shows off her new biodiesel El Camino