KU team to test biodiesel / LJWorld.com

Archive for Sunday, July 6, 2008

From left, Llya Tabakh, Kansas University research associate, and Susan Williams, associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, look over KU's biofuel setup on West Campus. As more people are trying to go green, a group at KU is ready to test its biofuel made for less than $1 per gallon, with leftover cooking oil and methanol combined with lye.

By Mark Fagan

July 6, 2008

KU team to test biodiesel

KU researchers are working to quench a portion of the world's thirst for petroleum - by transforming used cooking oil into clean-burning biodiesel. Enlarge video

Susan Williams isn't exactly John D. Rockefeller, but she does hope to exploit what she sees as an opportunity-filled market for alternative fuels.

With her raw materials virtually cost-free - used cooking oil from campus dining facilities, leftover methanol from chemistry researchers and potassium hydroxide (lye) from the hardware store - the associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering and her colleagues can brew up biodiesel for less than $1 a gallon.

And with their biggest customer poised to start burning the fuel, Williams' team is looking beyond Mount Oread and into a market that could use some alternatives to Middle Eastern crude.

"It can make a huge difference," she said. "People don't really have a lot of confidence right now in biofuels, because they're really not familiar with them. The more we can do to educate people and help them understand the impact they can have, it's a good thing."

The project is gaining attention outside Lawrence, among regulators, academics and even fuel marketers themselves. All are angling to find reliable, consistent data that can indicate which alternative fuels might offer the best economic value, mechanical efficiency and environmental benefits.

The KU project aims to do all three, starting with 700 gallons of "B100" - that's 100 percent biodiesel - fuel created so far in Burt Hall on KU's main campus.

Now that making the fuel itself has been accomplished, Williams and other team members are preparing to get it into some test vehicles, starting with a lawnmower or two owned and operated by Facilities and Operations at KU.

The goal: Within a year or two, have every single one of KU's diesel-burning vehicles and pieces of equipment - from KU on Wheels buses to lawnmowers, tractors and anything else - running on a B20 blend of fuel (20 percent biodiesel), rather than the current B5 (5 percent biodiesel).

Economics, environment

Williams figures the goal can be accomplished with relative ease and little expense using the aforementioned raw materials.

Throw in volunteer labor from interested students, plus a handful of workers whose wages are financed through a grant, and Williams figures that the academic exercise will go well beyond establishing benchmarks and performance standards that will be useful for academics and industry advocates alike.

The fuel will be able to save the campus real money, she said, while producing real environmental benefits. Performance data from the equipment one day will be able to help consumers and companies to make informed decisions about what options make the most sense, and why.

Williams is confident the studies will map out a clear path toward environmental sustainability.

"It's a trade-off," she said. "We need to stop solely thinking about our own cars, and starting thinking about what you gain in cleaner skies, better farms, better communities and everything else."

'Revolution' is here

Tom Palace, executive director of the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association of Kansas, said that such research already had come a long way toward helping his industry, and that he was looking forward to more.

Just as Scott Zaremba already has set a high standard for alternative fuels by opening his Zarco 66 Earth Friendly Fuels station at Ninth and Iowa streets, he said, all work toward identifying and promoting fuels remains worthwhile.

Besides, all the momentum building behind so-called "green" fuels has leaders of his organization only half joking that the group soon could be known as the Energy Marketers and Convenience Store Association.

"We want to be behind anything that people will buy," said Palace, whose organization represents 1,200 fuel retailers in Kansas.

Anyone who questions the future of alternative fuels might want to consider this: Since 2000, General Motors alone has put some 4 million vehicles on the road capable of burning flex-fuels such as E85, a blend of gasoline that is 85 percent ethanol.

"We're at another revolution in transportation," said Donna McLallen, a GM spokeswoman, who noted that early automobiles ran on grain-based fuels before petroleum-based gasoline won out.

The revolution is so new, in fact, that plenty of barriers remain in place to the use of some fuels. Even KU's own much-researched fuel still awaits clearance for use in the campus vehicle fleet, as attorneys review licensing requirements, tax implications, environmental documents and other matters to ensure that all necessary rules are being followed.

Ilya Tabakh, research associate for KU's Transportation Research Institute, said that he was looking forward to the B100 fuel blending in with traditional diesel on campus, then accelerating efforts to mass-produce such fuel on a larger scale elsewhere.

"The university is a good representation for a small community," said Tabakh, who serves as associate director of KU's biodiesel initiative. "A small community could pick up what we're doing here, and model it in their own backyard and make it work for them."

Discussion

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6 July 2008
at 7:28 a.m.

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just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…

Biofuels will be an important source of energy in the future, but if it displaces food production, it's a cure worse than the disease.http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/03/biofuels.renewableenergy”Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.”It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House,” said one yesterday.”
6 July 2008
at 7:48 a.m.

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xbusguy (Anonymous) says…

good idea to start with lawn mowers first. With larger vehicles the fuel fileters will need serviced more often. hope it doesn't smell like Mcdonalds.
6 July 2008
at 2:53 p.m.

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compmd (Anonymous) says…

xbusguy,The fuel filters will not require servicing more often. After the first tank or two of B100 the filters will need to be replaced as the biodiesel cleans out the tank. Once the tank is cleaned, the filters will not require any more frequent servicing.Also, this is biodiesel, not waste vegetable oil. It won't smell like french fries.
6 July 2008
at 5:25 p.m.

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cutny (Anonymous) says…

Go Susan!!! Best of luck.
6 July 2008
at 7:12 p.m.

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jaywalker (Anonymous) says…

compmd,You sure it won't smell like you're driving behind a rolling Mickey D's? It does say in the article that they're using used vegetable oil, and any car/truck/bus I've driven behind that's utilizing bio-fuel stinks to high heaven. I had a good friend that attempted to organize wide spread production of bio-diesel last year. He kept at it for almost a year, but the biggest and most problematic issue he couldn't hurdle was how to dispose of the waste by-product. It's incredibly dirty and even landfills won't take it. He spilled a little bit on the grass last October and the stuff was still there in June when he started to mow again. He'd gone to a number of grass roots conferences and some of the farmers who had tried to use bio-diesel were now screwed because they had warehouses full of huge barrels of the waste by-product and they couldn't get rid of it. They were paying costly rent for these warehouses and had no outs. I'm interested to hear how KU is going to dispose of the stuff.
7 July 2008
at 2:30 p.m.

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buffalograss (Anonymous) says…

Jaywalker - what area do you live in? There is a startup group in western Kansas (www.prairiefirecoop.com) that might be able to use the byproduct as a natural gas replacement. They can convert almost anything that has btu value into a green fuel for boilers and even pellets for heating.
7 July 2008
at 6:30 p.m.

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PrairiePride (Anonymous) says…

We have a facility near Fort Scott with a production capacity of thirty million gallons per year of biodiesel and also produce approximately three million gallons of glycerin as a byproduct. Our glycerin is currently sold as a high energy feed supplement. Glycerin is also used in many foods and cosmetics.

11 July 2008
at 4:07 p.m.

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Clean_Burning (Anonymous) says…

In the long run, biodiesel is more expensive than petroleum because the cost of turning raw materials into burnable, energy-producing form is higher than its overall return. Moreover, because biodiesel is typically blended with petroleum diesel, it therefore shares diesel's harmful emissions and remains heavily dependent on foreign petroleum imports.Fortunately, there is Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a viable alternative. Unlike biodiesel, Natural Gas is clean burning with no nitrogen oxide emissions and is suitable at any temperature with no problems due to it solidifying during a severe winter storm, like biodiesel does.Analysts maintain that only few alternative fuels offer the distinct and unquestionable advantages of Natural Gas—It's widely available, renewable, offers greenhouse gas reductions and produces fewer emissions compared to ALL other traditional and alternative fuels.
11 July 2008
at 4:38 p.m.

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Daytrader23 (Anonymous) says…

CU in Boulder did this over 10 years ago. Now half the town is driving VW's with T.D.I (Turbo Diesel Injection) and they even have one or two bio stations. (not imported from the gulf) Nice to see Kansas closing the gap from being 20 years behind to now only 10. Actually this is nothing new as the original diesel engines ran off of peanut oil back in 1900.
11 July 2008
at 4:54 p.m.

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devobrun (Anonymous) says…

Volunteer labor must eat. If they aren't paid, then they don't buy greasy food. If they don't buy greasy food, then there won't be any grease to turn into biodiesel.I have a country in mind, Elbonia. Would you consider moving there if we could tax the biodiesel at 40%?Can your process be operated under water?Can we use our currency to pay the costs and your currency for the income? Must we have a MickyDs or can we just import the fries and squeeze? This is very exciting for my country. Can I get Borat to interview you?
14 July 2008
at 11:17 a.m.

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compmd (Anonymous) says…

jaywalker (Anonymous) says:compmd,You sure it won't smell like you're driving behind a rolling Mickey D's? It does say in the article that they're using used vegetable oil, and any car/truck/bus I've driven behind that's utilizing bio-fuel stinks to high heaven.Yes, I'm sure. I am an engineer and have run a 1984 Mercedes Benz 300SD on numerous types of fuel. In the article, it says they are using waste vegetable oil (WVO) to make the biodiesel. Biodiesel != vegetable oil. They are chemically different. Biodiesel has been chemically “cracked” and the carbon chains have been shortened. The reaction to crack vegetable oil results in methyl esters, glycerin, and heat. The reason this is needed is because of viscosity issues with vegetable oil (work needed to pump it) and combustion point; the engine needs to develop sufficient compression to raise the temperature of the air/fuel mixture sufficiently to its combustion point. Although the heat of combustion of vegetable oil is higher than biodiesel, the engine and fuel system usually cannot take advantage of that due to viscosity and the compression of the engineWhatever vehicle you were driving behind that smelled like McDonalds was burning VO. How do you know what was in the fuel tank of the vehicle ahead of you? Whenever I burned WVO in the Mercedes, it smelled like french fries. When I burned straight vegetable oil (because its cheaper than diesel) it smelled like I was baking bread. Hope that helps!
15 July 2008
at 3:39 p.m.

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steveg (Anonymous) says…

Great discussion. Here are some things to consider:(1) The Grocery Manufacturers Association spent $300K with a marketing and PR firm to manufacture information. This was exposed on the Senate floor by IA Senator Chuck Grassley: “They've outlined their strategy of using environmental, hunger and food aid groups to demonstrate their contrived 'crises'.”(2) The higher cost of food can be attributed to many things including the higher cost of energy and transportation. Most food in the US travels over 1500 miles from cradle to consumer- show me where that makes sense! It's the rising costs of electricity, and transportation fuels (still mostly petroleum!!!) along with other economic drivers such as crop failure, cost of fertilizer, wages, health care, debt service and other costs of doing business that are causing the price of food to rise. http://www.mainstreet.com/eight-reaso… and http://www.economist.com/displaystory…) Biodiesel burns cleaner, period. There are still concerns about NOX emissions still being debated, but in blends with petroleum up to 20% (B20), biodiesel is proven to reduce sulfer by 20%, hydrocarbons by 30%, carbon monoxide by 20%, particulates by 15%, and lifecycle CO2 by 15%. This savings doesn't sound like much on the surface, but considering the amount of total fuel oil that America burns (think about railroads, construction equipment, mining equipment, generators, cruise and cargo ships, home heating oil, and all the other uses for fuel oil- http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet…), 15 to 30% is an enormous savings.(4) CNG is not the best answer. Biodiesel has the hightest BTU content of any alternative fuel. It takes nearly 1.3 units of CNG to match the energy content of 1 unit of biodiesel. The cost of converting our fuel oil infrastructure to CNG, along with the additional fuel needing to be used, makes it a bad choice. (5) Now discuss ethanol. Go to epicinfo.org and do some research. FYI, in estimating that 30% of our corn crops may go to ethanol production, keep in mind that we had a surplus of corn in the US for 2007 of 1.8 million bushels. Seems to me that there was a lot of corn left over! http://epicinfo.org/wp-content/upload…) ICM, a Kansas company, has pioneered a way to extract the protein from the corn kernel for food production prior to extracting the starch for ethanol production. Then, the leftover mash is used back into the food chain as animal feed. This process is now being used in a plant in St. Joseph, MO.The answer isn't to DO or NOT DO something, it is to optimize current infrastructure as a bridge to future technology. We are currently making ethanol and biodiesel in the best way we know how. But we are constantly researching new sources of feedstock and production processes that are more cost effective and efficient on all levels.Cheers.