After Gutenberg

Cost savings from reduced engine maintenance engine may equal or slightly outweigh the higher cost of biodiesel, which has been lowered by subsidization. The prices shown above are in the UK and per liter; it still is unusual for a biodiesel blend to cost less than regular diesel.

This blog repeatedly has extolled the virtue of San Francisco, when it comes to electric vehicles; usage is approaching 50% of transit provided by San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Philadelphian Treehugger John Laumer reports on another major green milestone for San Francisco.

Earlier this week when Mayor Gavin Newsom announced that the city had converted its fleet of approximately 1,500 diesel vehicles to run on biodiesel – a month earlier than the goal it had set in 2006. Fire engines, ambulances and MUNI buses, amongst others, will now run on B20, a blend of 20% biofuel and 80% diesel fuel. The city estimates the conversion will have the effect of displacing the equivalent of 1.2m gallons of diesel fuels every year.

Because Cincinnati Metro got a sweet (crude) deal, they use B50 in months, when the average temperature is higher than 40º F (April to October), then switch to a B20 blend during the colder months. The city of Bramptom in Ontario does likewise. More recently, Autoblog Green reported that biodiesel is being tested in the fleet for the city of Orlando, Florida.

TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) is another urban transit authority that approves of biodiesel use. The record states, “Originally staff considered the use of a B20 Bio-Diesel mixture (20% Bio Fuel/80% No. 1 Diesel) in the warmer months (April to October) of each year and a B5 Bio-Diesel mixture in the colder months (November to March).” However, the manufacturers of the diesel engines discourage such use in the bus fleet.

Cummins and Detroit Diesel Corp. expressed concerns regarding the use of a B20 Bio-Diesel mixture and stated that its usage would void new engine warranties. The supplier wanted TTC to agree to a waiver that relieves Suncor of liability for any damages or cost incurred by the Commission related to the supply or use of B20 Bio-Fuel until a standard is established. (In April 2006 no Canadian General Standards Board fuel standard for B20 Bio-Fuel existed nor did a general for acceptance exist within the industry. No waiver was required to supply B5 Bio-Fuel.

Managers of urban fleets also need to consider vehicle emissions. A recently published, DOE / USDA study shows overall, life cycle emissions of carbon dioxide from biodiesel to be 78 per cent lower than from petroleum diesel. Which sounds good, howsoever, please note that engines running on a biodiesel blend still require after treatment; and, some other studies have shown a slight increase in NOx emissions.

The experience of fleet managers with biodiesel usage issues, such as fuel filter clogging and cold weather performance, can depend upon whether they are self-blending or relying upon terminal blending. High-quality fuel, properly handled and treated, will perform in cold weather. Société de Transport de Montréal has demonstrated winter performance of 155 buses.

We are likely to see more discussion of the use of diesel and biodiesel in the United States as fuel prices rise and there is a greater concern over supply. Much already has been made of a recent Rand study that indicated better economic performance from modern clean diesels.

The Rand study considered consumer factors, such as fuel savings, technology costs and performance. When societal costs, such as noxious pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions and energy security costs, were considered everything shifted to a more negative result, yet diesel power remained more economically advantageous than hybrids or E85 vehicles for the three vehicle categories compared: a mid-sized car, a mid-sized SUV and a large pickup truck.

“Daimler is promoting measures for drastically reducing the emissions and fuel consumption of commercial vehicles. To mark the launch of the Shaping Future Transportation Initiative, Daimler Trucks and Daimler Buses today presented 16 trucks and buses featuring alternative drive systems and fuels. The vehicles from Freightliner, Mitsubishi Fuso, Mercedes-Benz, Orion and Thomas Built Buses were exhibited at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.” “Shaping Future Transportation Initiative (PDF)“

There also was a flurry of news about winning performance on biodiesel during the 2007 Challenge Bibendum in Shanghai. The Daimler press recognized “ever more restricted access to cities, more stringent emission limits and ever scarcer resources versus the growing demand for individual mobility”.

Still, the same press release went on to exort the role of the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine). [It] “will remain the Number One automotive drive system in the years to come.” While Daimler may be the most blatant about an allegiance to diesel engine, others also were present and extolled their use of cleaner diesel engines, including Nissan-Renault, PSA Peugeot Citroen, and VW / Audi.

Furthermore, promotion of biodiesel seems contrary to some warning signs. For instance, the EC (European Commission) recently qualified its previous position on greater biodiesel usage. It confirmed a target of 10 percent biofuels; and, proposed that the fuels must be sustainable, not just renewable.

Lester Brown favors plug-in hybrids, but these won’t haul the freight or plow the fields.

The reasons for careful management of biodiesel development are simple and complex. Simple from the standpoint: Would you rather have food and water, or biodiesel? And, the reasons are complex since so much machinery runs on diesel and could run on biodiesel.

The Big Gav relayed a report from the Australian that the Australian Biodiesel Group has joined Australian Renewable Fuels in mothballing a number of biodiesel plants, with high feedstock prices outweighing high oil prices. It is the second Australian producer of the fuel to reduce output in a week, amid a surge in feedstock prices.

A similar pattern would seem to be occurring in the United States. An article in The Arkansas-Gazzette (December 2, 2007) asks, “Is biofuel industry boom going bust?” “The fledgling U. S. biodiesel industry,” reports Nancy Cole, “is struggling to cope with soaring soybean-oil prices, a glut of production capacity and a poorly developed distribution system.”

Even simpler from the standpoint that it is impossible to supplant total diesel fuel usage with biodiesel. Robert Rapier attests:

There are approximately 4 billion arable acres in the world. There are many different feed stocks from which to make renewable diesel, but most biodiesel is made from rapeseed oil. Rapeseed is an oilseed crop that is widespread, with relatively high oil production.

Consider how much petroleum could be displaced if all 4 billion acres of arable land were planted in rapeseed, or an energy crop with an oil productivity similar to rapeseed. The average rapeseed oil yield per year is 127 gallons/acre. On 4 billion acres, this works out to be 33 million barrels per day of rapeseed oil. The energy content of rapeseed oil is about 10% less than that of petroleum diesel, so the petroleum equivalent yield from planting all of the world’s arable land in one of the more popular biofuel options is just under 30 million barrels per day. This is just over a third of the world’s present usage of petroleum, 85 million barrels per day. Yet this is the gross yield. Because it takes energy to grow, harvest, and process biomass into fuel, the net yield will be lower.

Biodiesel is a complex issue from the perspective of such a wide distribution of diesel power, the greater efficiency of compression ignition (diesel) over spark ignition (petrol), the possibility of biodiesel as a partial replacement, the advantages of biodiesel over diesel, and the variety of feedstock that can be employed to produce biodiesel.