This is in response to John Olver's statement that the NREL grant currently in place for CoopPlus should not be used for any development of waste vegetable oil conversion to biodiesel. I believe Mr. Olver has his data very wrong. He may be referring to studies that show that ethanol production takes as much as or more fossil fuel than it replaces. It is a different situation with biodiesel. The National Biodiesel Board, the University of Iowa, and several other groups have studied the "embodied energy" of biodiesel. The current calculations show that if crops are grown to produce soy oil, and that is subsequently made into biodiesel, the energy return on the investment is 3.2 times.
With the proposed yellow grease as a base for biodiesel production, the raw material is already a waste product, a significant portion of which is diverted from going to the landfills. The proposed biodiesel refinery would be the only market to turn the liability for waste generators that costs them an average of $700 for current disposal services to a resource proposing to pay them approximately $200 for this same grease. Although some current uses may be made for the yellow grease, such as in pet food and cosmetics, the use as a transportation fuel may be the highest and best use for this region of the country. The conversion of yellow grease to biodiesel takes some energy inputs, such as for collection, cleaning, methanol use, drying, filtering, etc. Most of these inputs were outlined in the Home Power article of June, 2002. The total energy inputs per 1000 gallons of fuel output can be converted to an energy equivalent of approximately 124 gallons of fuel, much of which may not actually be fossil based. But even as a fossil fuel input, that yields an 8 fold return on the production. I believe this is far superior to any other form of liquid fuel production, i.e., ethanol, gasoline, diesel, etc. I hope someone here will help Mr. Olver realize that the local production of biodiesel is a major step forward in terms of environmental quality, energy self-sufficiency, global impact, national energy policy, public health, balance of trade, or any other basis for evaluating this project. We in Western Massachusetts need this fuel, the optimum time for this is now, and we are the best qualified local group to do this project. I hope that the government can change its policies to stop hindering the development of biodiesel. Mr. Olver could be a central figure in understanding and assisting this effort if he will take the time to become fully informed. Tom Leue ----------------------------- Homestead Inc. www.yellowbiodiesel.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/9bTolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuels-biz/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
