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There is something idyllic and old-worldish about Isobel Davies‘ collection of knitwear. Which seems fitting considering its beginnings. Several years ago, Davies discovered two harsh realities in the world of sheep: first, that sheep in Britain were slaughtered for being lame, too small, or missing a pregnancy, etc. and the second, farmers were burning wool rather than selling it because it wouldn’t make any profit. Davies wondered how the industry that helped to push British industrialization had practically been eliminated. So in 2002, she saved her first 4 sheep, and since then has worked to build a business focused on animal friendliness and sustainable practices. Today, Davies’ UK-based label, Izzy Lane, offers wonderfully classic, yet still contemporary, knitwear collections that are also oh so ethically conscious.

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Firm turns to biodiesel to cut 'scary' fuel costs
Orlando Sentinel, FL - 15 minutes ago
That's the reason Fischer is buying a small plant from a Groveland firm, Raptor Fabrication & Equipment, that will make up to 1 million gallons of biodiesel ...

Hürriyet
Three killed, five injured in biodiesel facility fire in southern ...
Hürriyet, Turkey - 1 hour ago
Three people were killed and five people were injured in a fire that erupted in a biodiesel production facility in the southern province of Hatay, ...

Search on to get food crops out of biofuels
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA - 1 hour ago
He says his mini-refinery, loaded into a 40-foot shipping container on a flatbed truck, roams South Africa making biodiesel fuel from used cooking oil, ...

Biodiesel Maker Hits The Brakes
Tampa Tribune, FL - 4 hours ago
The price of the materials that go into biodiesel hasn't fallen as fast as the price the company can get for its end product, Higdon said. ...

Investors buy biodiesel plant
Kankakee Daily Journal, IL - 4 hours ago
AP An investment group has bought a stalled eastern Illinois biodiesel plant and plans to begin production by early next year. Blackhawk Biofuels says it ...

Biodiesel company plans expansion
News Courier, AL - 7 hours ago
BioEnergy conducts biodiesel research and development. It received $1.1 million in tax abatements to locate in Athens with an option to buy additional ...

It’s one thing when environmental art brings you out into the field, up into the trees, and reaches beyond our usual expectations, but The Omi International Art Center in Columbia County, NY does all of this and then some with its new LEED-certified visitors center and gallery space. The Charles B. Benenson Visitors Center & Gallery opened its doors this past June and was celebrated as a perfect marriage between green building and the environmental sculpture projects that the site is world-renowned for. Designed by Hudson Valley based FT:Architecture, the new visitor building is consistent with the art center’s objective of melding art, architecture, and a landscaped environment that fosters creative residencies and installation projects for some of the world’s most provocative sculptors and enviro-artists.

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by Jack Rosebro World Health Organization estimation of deaths caused by anthropogenic climate change up to 2000. Click to enlarge. A policy brief from the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia entitled “The Sting of Climate Change”[1] argues that global climate... Mike Millikin

Today Matt Rudolf is giving a speech in Charlotte to a bunch of NC farmers.  I think it is an excellent overview that reads like “Feedstock 101.”  Here is what he is going to say:

When I talk to the public about biodiesel a common question I get is:  When will biodiesel become ubiquitous?  When will it really take off?

To which I usually respond, it already has taken off, are you wondering at what point it will replace petroleum?  Because that is a different question, and the answer is probably never.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to the continued growth of the biodiesel industry today is the lack of affordable feedstocks.  When soybean oil was $0.15/lb, it was easy to make money at biodiesel.  When soybean oil hit $0.60/lb commercial producers switched to animal fat and imported feedstocks like palm oil.  And when the cost of those feedstocks also became prohibitive the commercial biodiesel industry stalled.  All that happened in the past two years.

These days the successful biodiesel plant is either selling its fuel overseas, where the cost of diesel fuel is much higher, or has developed a niche market for low cost feedstocks, such as through a waste vegetable oil collections program, or by harnessing some other under-utilized oil resource.  These days the single most important question you can ask a biodiesel producer is:  What is your feedstock?

So what are the best feedstocks?
For those in the agricultural community looking to grow their own crops the three most common crops are canola, sunflower and soybeans.  Of these, soybeans have lower oil content than either canola or sunflower, however the protein content is higher.   When we press oil from oilseed crops we normally are left with two products:  oil and meal.  The oil may be used to make biodiesel, and the meal is used as an animal feed.  When you press soybeans expect to end up with about 10-12% oil by weight and with canola and sunflower expect to get about 25-30% oil extracted by weight.  The meal from soybeans is higher value however, due to the higher protein content.

Another good potential crop is Camelina Sativa, an undomesticated plant in the same family as Canola.  In addition to excellent cold flow properties, Camelina is high in essential fatty acids and may be quite valuable as an animal feed.  It is now possible to get Camelina seeds for planting though too much hype has caused the cost of the seeds to be high.  The best advice is to purchase a small amount, and save the seeds from your first harvest for a second planting.  Mercer seeds can provide you with Camelina seeds and advice on planting.   Be sure to set your combine to the smallest possible setting as Camelina seeds are very small and have a tendency to fall out of the combine during harvesting.

Another crop you will hear a lot about is Jatropha Curcas, a tropical crop with good oil content and low nutrient requirements.  Many of the proponents of Jatropha have pointed out that like Camelina, Jatropha will grow on marginal or otherwise unused lands.  In the real world, however, it seems that most Jatropha growers have sought out good soils and land to ensure a healthy Jatropha crop yield, so the promise of using marginal lands does not appear to be supported at this time.  Also, Jatropha is toxic, so the meal cannot be safely used as an animal feed, which greatly hurts its viability as a biodiesel feedstock crop.   Like Camelina, the hype has caused Jatropha seeds to be worth more as a novelty than as an actual biodiesel feedstock crop.  Jatropha is best adapted to the tropical world, and cannot survive the cold North Carolina winters, so it would not be an appropriate feedstock for our area.

A newly rediscovered potential biodiesel crop generating some attention now is Moringa Oleifera.  Moringa is a tree native to Africa.  As Shaine Tyson of Rocky Mountain Biodiesel Consulting has pointed out, Moringa seeds have higher protein content than soybeans, and higher oil content than canola.   Additionally, the oil is mostly mono-unsaturated, meaning that the oil has a good compromise of shelf life and good cold weather properties.  Finally, unlike Jatropha, Moringa is a healthy crop for consumption by both animals and humans.  It can be grown in poor soils and is drought tolerant, though it cannot tolerate extreme cold temperatures.

Another crop that bears mentioning is the African Oil Palm tree.  Oil palm is a tree that produces large spiked balls with edible fruits on it that are very high in oil content.  Oil palm holds the distinction of being the highest oil yielding land crop currently known.   Oil palm also holds the unsavory distinction as being a contributor to deforestation of tropical rain forest in areas such as Borneo and Indonesia, where high oil prices have driven the palm industry to cut down virgin forest to plant more palm oil tree plantations.  African palm can only be grown in tropical climates and the oil produced from it has poor cold weather performance.

Finally, no talk about the future of feedstocks would be complete without the algae update.  For years we have been hearing that aquatic plants with high oil content will be the feedstock of the future, and as of today we still have seen very little actual progress on algae-based biodiesel fuels.  To be sure, there are a number of credible companies working on developing algae-to-biodiesel technology: Live Fuels, along with the Sandia National Laboratories is one group.  Solazyme, out of San Francisco, CA is another group that has generated a lot of hype. Inventure Chemical and Seambiotic out of Israel is another reputable group that has generated some waves, and Aquaflow Bionomic out of New Zealand is another group with promising technology.  Despite all the research, very few people have actually seen substantial amounts of algae oil in real life, and this technology is for the moment still in the research and development stage, with no clear deadline as to when or if the technology will be ready for commercialization.  Three weeks ago a group in eastern North Carolina sent me a small sample of high oil content algae that they had grown for oil extraction.  I ran the algae through our oilseed press but unfortunately it only gummed the thing up and made everything smell like seaweed.  I still have not seen more than a vial of algae oil or biodiesel made from it.

In the search for the perfect biodiesel feedstock we should remember that most feedstocks may be brought to either fuel or food grade.  As it turns out, the value for food-grade oil will always be much higher than for fuel grade oil, so the best option for a farmer may be to have the ability to do both fuel and food grade, as a way to diversify and reach multiple markets.  One of the cleverest options is to use the same oil for both food and fuel, through the concept known as “renting the oil.”  In a rent-the-oil paradigm food grade oil is extracted from the oilseed crop, settled, filtered and bottled, and then “rented” to restaurants for frying.  After the oil has been used it is returned to the farmer, who then converts the used cooking oil into biodiesel.  One of the great things about biodiesel is we don’t need to use first-use products.

Finally, of all the many different potential feedstocks for biodiesel, the undisputed Holy Grail is trap grease, also known as brown grease.  Of all the biodiesel feedstocks, brown grease is the only one someone will actually pay you to haul away.  It stinks, is loaded with water, has near 100% free fatty acid content, and is contaminated with sulphur, making it a very difficult feedstock to work with.  But for those that can figure out the technology, making biodiesel from trap grease would be truly converting a low-value waste product into a high value fuel.

Over the past month we have witnessed a feedstock collapse, as the value of all fats and oils has plummeted along with other commodities.  For current pricing of feedstocks such as soybean oil the Chicago Board of Trade (www.cbot.com) offers continuously updated soybean oil prices that can be used to gauge the market and determine feedstock pricing.

Altair Nanotechnologies Inc.’s one megawatt (MW), 250 kWh lithium-ion battery storage system has met requirements to participate in the PJM Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) control area. This marks the first commercial acceptance of an advanced Lithium-Titanate battery to provide grid... Mike Millikin

The 2009 Ecotec 2.0L VVT DI Turbo. Click to enlarge. Fisker Automotive, Inc. will use a GM 2.0-liter, direct injection, turbocharged four-cylinder Ecotec engine in the Fisker Karma, its Extended Range Electric Vehicle. (Earlier post.) Fisker will obtain the engines... Mike Millikin

The Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE announced that 22 contenders have been elevated to Registered Team status in the $10-million competition designed to inspire a new generation of viable, super fuel-efficient vehicles. Mike Millikin

Sectional view across a typical lithium cell electrode pair modeling hypothetical electrical and ionic resistances with electrolyte solution/gel filling pore spaces. More porous components improve conductivity levels throughout the cell and directly affect power and capacity. Click to enlarge. Source:... Mike Millikin

There’s something about the shock of red in a forest that makes it ethereal and otherworldly. That’s part of Finnish artist Lea Turto’s point. In 2005, she covered a series of tree stumps in Helsinki’s central park with red felt in order to highlight and celebrate their natural forms. The piece is called The Sacred Realm of the Forest Elf, in deference to an old Finnish word and spirit: Hiisi.

The word Hiisi has meant a variety of things: a scared grove of trees, a place between worlds, a guardian spirit or goblin. In all of its incarnations, however, it denotes a connection to the natural world that has faded from modern culture. The tree stumps, as amputated natural forms, serve as excellent reminders of this lost culture.

The felt is held in place with upholstery tacks and in some places is decorated with ribbons. Interrupting the landscape, the felt’s bright color is intended to accentuate forms we might have otherwise overlooked. In this manner, tree stumps become things of wonder: mystical objects with forms demanding of contemplation.

+ EnvironmentalArt.net

Questions about biodiesel plant proposal
Tasley Eastern Shore News, VA - 23 hours ago
I feel that if you are going to bring a major industrial project like a biodiesel refinery to a great little town like Exmore, there is a right way and a ...

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is accepting applications for loan guarantees under the Biorefinery Assistance Program (Section 9003), authorized by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, (the Farm Bill). The Biorefinery Assistance Program is designed to promote... Mike Millikin

Uganda set to be major producer of bio-diesel
East African Business Week, Uganda - 49 minutes ago
Jatropha seeds are crushed, to gives jatropha oil that is processed to produce a high-quality biodiesel that can be used in a standard diesel car or engine. ...

Unit to educate on producing biodiesel safely
Arizona Republic, AZ - 2 hours ago
They alerted authorities, who later uncovered an unregulated biodiesel-fuel factory. The chemicals used to heat and process used cooking oil into a green ...

Minnesota Offers Biodiesel Blending Grants
Domestic Fuel, MO - 5 hours ago
The facilities should be located on or near a petroleum terminal and have an infrastructure that can be designed to blend cold weather biodiesel with ...