8 replies to this topic

[Chris Haslego]

Imperium Renewables is planning to import palm oil to Port of Grays Harbor (Washington state) next year for use in their new 100 million gallon-per-year biodiesel plant. In the Seattle area, oil-derived diesel is selling for $3.25/gallon compared with $2.99/gallon for biodiesel.

These numbers are based on using soy bean oil as a feedstock. The company believes that using the imported palm oil will lower the price per gallon even further.

[engware]

Hi Chris:

In my opinion, biofuels can for sure help reduce the current dependence on oil and ease transition towards the hydrogen economy, which would result in further reduced dependence on oil.

I do believe that an interesting period of time working on the development of new technologies is ahead of us as well the introduction of the developed technologies into the commercial power generation and transportation arenas.

As a result, affordable energy with stable prices should make America competitive in various business areas.

Thanks,

Gordan

[mr fauzi]

Hi Chris:

In my opinion, biofuels can for sure help reduce the current dependence on oil and ease transition towards the hydrogen economy, which would result in further reduced dependence on oil.

I do believe that an interesting period of time working on the development of new technologies is ahead of us as well the introduction of the developed technologies into the commercial power generation arena.

As a result, affordable energy with stable prices should make America competitive in various business areas.

Thanks,

Gordan

Hi Gordan:

According to the biodiesel, is there any refference or standart in term of production plan.
i heard that...this biodiesel plan really establish in industry...

Thank, fauzi

[engware]

Fauzi:

I do not know about specific plans.

In order to find out about the US Government and industry plans and/or initiatives I would suggest that you check out the following URLs:

http://www.energy.gov -- US Government Initiatives
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com Industry Initiatives

Thanks,

Gordan

[engware]

Hi there:

Good links and corresponding URLs are always welcome.

Thanks,

Gordan

[Adriaan]

While it makes sense to prepare for the time when mineral fuels run out (or at least become too uneconomical to "harvest") I do not think "biodiesel" is an acceptable alternative.

The reason I oppose biodiesel is that it means agricultural production capacity must be used for it, this means that we will need MORE land for agriculture (and that means destroying more rainforests and other natural environments). It is also TOTALLY unacceptable to use farmland to produce fuel while people elsewhere are starving to death!

I think energy conservation should be the first step; lower fuel consumption (ban SUV's and other insane gas guzzling vehicles or at least severely disencourage their use by - for example - a miles per gallon standard for vehicles, any vehicle which exceeds the limit to be taxed annualy based on the amount of excess). At the moment the USA spends about one million dollars A SECOND on energy (according to the oil company Chevron)!

[vicini]

Great instead of being held captive over a barrel of imported crude, its a barrel of import palm oil. Give me a break. As for price, the biodeisel is cheaper because of taxes. So lets play this line out. We stop collecting taxes on diesel whos going to pay for fixing the roads?

[Naimanb]

This may veer away from the intended discussion of this thread, which is the production of biodiesel from palm oil, and if that happens to be the case, I apologize.

I think it is important to note to the above naysayers (yes vicini and Adriaan I'm addressing your concerns) that biodiesel from crop oils (palm, soybean, etc.) are considered first generation biofuel technology. I certainly agree that producing biodiesel from these methods is no more sustainable in the long term than the use of petroleum diesel. Total reliance on crop based biofuels would require massive amounts of land to farm in order to satisfy our insatiable (and wasteful) hunger for energy. Essentially what is required for biodiesel (this applies to ethanol too) to become a sustainable alternative is to find a crop which yields high enough output per acre so that less land is needed to produce the fuel.

An example of this: Research has been/is being done on producing biodiesel from various strains of oil secreting algae. As of yet, the technology seems to be 10+ years off at current levels of research/investment/development.

@Adriaan: The point I'm trying to make is do not be so quick to swear off biodiesel entirely. Yes, I agree that right now it is unsustainable as an alternative due to the fact that oil yields from current crops would require far too much land to be farmed and would likely increase deforestation and water pollution. I would also like to make it clear however that I believe you have hit the nail right on the head when you state that conservation should be the first step. You and I are in complete agreement on this.

To back up my claims, anyone who is interested can view the website linked below. About 1/4 of the way down the page are some links to NREL studies on biodiesel from algae.

http://journeytofore...esel_yield.html