BrevardBioDiesel Blog

We noted back in August that homebrew biodiesel classes were coming to Florida. The time has come, they are here this weekend. Girl Mark is on a tour stop in our state.
For details on the two classes read her message.

Recent nightly temperatures in Brevard County FL, which dipped into record setting ranges, have caused problems for some local biodiesel users. There are reports of at least 4 VW TDI's with problems this week. Each was running B95-B99 biodiesel derived from palm oil and stalled with no ability to immediately restart. At least two of the cars are now running again after warming up in the sun for a while.

We're working on updating the interactive map hosted here to work with the Google Maps version 2 API. (Version 1 support was dropped recently, and the tricks we used before are no longer supported.) Hopefully the map will be even more useful when complete - any suggestions readers have on features are welcome.

On Friday 27 October the 11-day Farm to Fuel tour of Florida Agricultural Commissioner Charles Bronson kicked off with a biodiesel fueling operation in Melbourne, FL.

B20 provided by Glover Oil of Melbourne was pumped in to the streamlined green bus which commenced the first biodiesel powered tour of its type in Florida.

Commissioner Bronson pointed out the benefits of biofuels to Florida - he hopes to see up to 30% of the petroleum usage in the state replaced with biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel) by 2010.

Chris Marshall, President of Glover Oil, was on hand to oversee the fueling operation.

Four Hands Farm, a Rockledge, FL area mini-farm, with a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, uses biodiesel in their tractor.
. Farmer Morgan reports no problems with running biodiesel in the Mitsubishi tractor. Biodiesel integrates into their misson of using "holistic and sustainable practices".
Their farm stand grand opening at Rockledge Gardens happens October 28th.

Since February 2004, Florida Power and Light has been offering the Sunshine Energy program to residential customers.

Customers pay an additional $9.75 per month. There is no difference in the power delivered to the resident.

Why would a customer pay more for the same? The extra money goes toward the purchase of renewable resources (and nominal administrative costs).

A year ago I was tempted to drop out of the program. FPL contracts thru Green Mountain to purchase the energy purchased thru this program. The 2004 report from Green Mountain stated that the power used in the Florida program came 90% from Biomass and 10% from Wind. The high Biomass component bothered me as that is most likely incineration / landfill gas burning. I noted *no* Solar power to for the Sunshine State. I had also seen this site urging customers to boycott Green Mountain. FPL itself has downplayed Solar as an option stating that:

"Though nicknamed the “sunshine state,” Florida has too much cloud cover to make large-scale solar power production a cost effective alternative."

I decided to stay in the program and am encouraged to see progress in the areas I was concerned about a year ago. The 2005 Green Mountain report lists the Florida sources of power as 56% Biomass and 44% Wind. Moving from 10% to 44% in one year is a nice improvement. (For comparison, the normal Florida power supply sources are something like 1.9% Renewable, 51.7% Coal, 2.8% Oil, 15.8% Natural Gas, 19.8% Nuclear and 8% Other.)

FPL is also building a 250 kilowatt Solar Array in Sarasota. This array will have 1200 panels and offset 680,000 pounds of CO2 each year.

There are about 25,000 consumers in the program at this time who have offset 82,000+ tons of CO2. This is one of the same goals we users of biodiesel have. For every 10,000 customers who sign up for Sunshine Energy, an additional 150 kilowatts of solar will be built in Florida. This news item from FPL notes:

The program was recently ranked No. 4 in the country for sales volume and No. 6 for total customer participation by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Additionally, the program was recognized by the U.S. EPA and DOE as a 2005 Green Power Leadership Award Recipient.

If you're an FPL customer, do your own research to see if you think this program is a positive. Comments welcome! If you do decide to join you can choose to use the code 0129HPU at www.FPLSunshineEnergy.com to get a $20 Amazon.com certificate. (I will get one also).

Thanks to a heads-up from GreenerMiami this story caught the attention of biodiesel users in Florida.

Jacksonville city government plans to start making its own fuel for its fire trucks, garbage trucks and other vehicles in the next couple of months

The city could save about $150,000 a year by making about 2,000 gallons a week

A report is available at MSNBC about the biodiesel powered Earthrace speedboat. The 78 foot boat holds 2500 gallons of B100 and can travel over 3000 miles on a tank at speeds up to 45 knots.
Video blogs are available at the Earthrace website.

The "100% Biodiesel" Maori graphic on the back of their t-shirts is pretty awesome looking!

Scott Davies posted a report on the recently held Farm to Fuel Summit to the North Florida Biofuels Network. He says:

Overall, I give this first FTF a C- for Florida

The summit was also noted in the Orlando Sentinel here.

Back in April, we posted a graph of the number of retail stations carrying biodiesel in the U.S. Continuing very close to the linear trend noted then - today on our interactive map of biodiesel locations there are now over 1000 stations listed.

Others have noted the difficulty in finding other alternative fuels.

Mr. Beck said he found the Springfield station only after doing some research, because the E-85 Web site run by the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition lists pumps only by city, with a limited mapping function that fails to show drivers their location in relation to each other.

Also of note are two recent Florida providers of biodiesel - Aztech Energy in Tampa and Glover Oil in Melbourne.

Girl Mark, the unofficial leader of grassroots open-source biodiesel, continues putting on classes in various parts of the country including one in Ft. Lauderdale area December 2-3.

She has been doing this since 2001 and is author of the book Biodiesel Homebrew Guide.

For an idea of what people think of the classes, see the third party reviews linked to here.

Recently, someone pointed out that a Florida Statute (206.877 to be precise) mentions the need for a special decal required for use of an Alternative Fueled Vehicle licensed in the State of Florida. They thought this might apply to biodiesel.

Seeking the answer, we sent the question off to the State of Florida. Their answer leads us to believe biodiesel users do not need this decal as biodiesel is a "diesel fuel" in Florida, and not an "alternative fuel". So the road tax we pay for our biodiesel already covers us.

Section 206.877, Florida Statutes, contains the manner under which alternative fuels are taxed in Florida. By definition, alternative fuels include liquefied petroleum gas, compressed natural gas, butane gas, propane gas, or any other form of liquefied petroleum gas. Though the Internal Revenue Service defines biodiesel as an alternative fuel, Florida fuel tax defines biodiesel, in s. 206.86(1), F.S., as "diesel fuel." Under this taxing scheme, biodiesel is taxed in the same manner as diesel fuel under s. 206.87(1), F.S.

We note that that "[email] communications are not binding on the Department" - so as with anything of this ilk, contact your own legal advisors for their version of the truth.

You can read the statutes mentioned above here.

The concluding part of our biodiesel post for greenerMIAMI features a Question & Answer section.

Brevard Biodiesel will have a table at the SpaceCoast Progressive Alliance (SCPA) Progressive Fest on Saturday July 29th at Kiwanis Island Park in Merritt Island FL from 5pm-8pm.

Come on out to see biodiesel cars and chat with us about biodiesel!

of note:

• workshop in Orlando on Friday July 21st 10:00 A.M.
  Location: Herndon Library, Room #2, 4324 East Colonial Drive, Orlando, Florida 32803.
• $4/watt Photovoltaic solar rebate money
• grant program for bioenergy

from announcement:

...[N]ew funding opportunities under the Florida Renewable Energy Technologies and Energy Efficiency Act which was signed into law last month.

With respect to renewable energy technologies, the Act creates two grant programs (totaling $15M in funds) along with corporate income tax credits, sales tax refunds, and a solar rebate program. (There is also an Energy Star sales tax holiday scheduled for early October.) Proposed guidance and applications forms can be found online at: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/energy/fla_energy/energyact.htm.

The Department is hosting two public workshops this week (July 19 & 21) to provide a general description of the new programs and allow for public comment. If you are unable to attend, you can submit comments via email or by mail. Visit the website for more details.

Applications for the two grant programs may be due as early as August 31, 2006, so the clock has started. Good luck!

- Michael
_______
Michael Ohlsen, Project Manager
Energy Efficiency & Biomass Programs
Florida Energy Office
Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Road, MS-19
Tallahassee, FL 32399-2400
(850) 245-8279 / (850) 412-0523 fax

Co-op America features an article The Benefits of Biodiesel in their latest issue of RealMoney.

A highlight:

Studies show that biodiesel outperforms gasoline, ethanol, and conventional diesel in reducing climate-altering carbon dioxide emissions and in overall fuel-efficiency

Brevard Biodiesel is happy to have contributed a multi-part article to the GreenerMiami blog. (Link to part 2.)
There are lots of wide-ranging posts at this site concerning green news in Florida.

As of 1 June 2006, the city of Melbourne Florida is using a more convenient "one-bin" system for their recyling program. Residents no longer are required to separate glass/cans/newspapers into different bins for pickup. Any of the bins can now be used for any of the recyclable materials. The allowable materials now includes everything previously accepted, such as aluminum and steel cans, newspapers, plastic bottles, glass and adds as
acceptable:

• magazines
• phone books
• paper bags
• envelopes
• junk mail
• catalogs
• cereal boxes
• milk and juice cartons

Note that corrugated cardboard still must be deposited in bins at various local pick-up points for recycling.

Here is a snapshot from a week or so ago showing Biodiesel for sale in Germany.
.

Note that Biodiesel at that station is 20-25% cheaper than diesel and 30-45% cheaper than gasoline. The prices are in Euros per litre - 0.94 Euros per litre for biodiesel is about $4.50 per gallon.

Picture courtesy of Kyle Fricker.

Last week Maria Sonnenberg interviewed some of the local users of biodiesel for Florida Today. The article is up at the Florida Today website and also in the print edition today June 12th. We're glad to see more interest in biodiesel and hope the article helps raise awareness of biodiesel in this area. Thanks to Florida Today and Maria Sonnenberg!

June 1st marks the phasing in of Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel fuel (ULSD) due to EPA regulations. 80% of the diesel produced for highway use must now be ULSD compliant (15 ppm sulfur - down from 500 ppm). By October, retailers will also be required to carry ULSD.

ULSD will allow different emission control traps to be used on vehicles which will drastically improve pollution levels of diesel vehicles. This technology will benefit biodiesel users too.

Also in the news, Chrysler announced the end of the diesel Jeep Liberty in the United States - for now. They sold many more than they had anticipated, but need to retool exhaust systems to meet newer emission standards coming in 2007.

The "Technology" section of the June 2006 issue of Florida Trend has a story on biodiesel. (Free registration required at their site to see the entire article).
Highlights:

• Freedom Fuels of Gainesville is now in business selling B99 [99.98 according to company sources ] Contact info: (352/215-7265, 352/226-4877)
• Mentioned as Florida biodiesel users: University of South Florida, Pinellas County Government, Florida Power & Light, Florida Department of Enviromental Protection, and the City of Coconut Creek.
• An update is present in there about the palm oil issue with McMullen Oil of Clearwater who will sell some form of biodiesel again - soy or peanut based and with a cold weather additive.

The HometownNews reports that Brevard Public Schools (BPS) is initiating a pilot program to use biodiesel in its fleet of 500 buses and other vehicles.
Chris Marshall of Glover Oil in Melbourne FL is working to deliver the biodiesel at a 20% blend with petroleum diesel (B20).
No modifications will be needed for any of the diesel powered vehicles to use the B20 biodiesel fuel.
Brevard County will look to join other Florida counties such as Manatee and Seminole in the use of biodiesel in school buses.

WQCS, a public radio station out of Ft. Pierce, Florida will broadcast an interview with Jim Woodfin of Brevard Biodiesel on 2 May 2006 at 5:45 pm during the Community Focus segment in All Things Considered with Jill Roberts.
This precedes that evenings Indian River County Turtle Coast Sierra Club meeting where an introductory presentation about biodiesel will be given. 7-9pm at the North IRC Library.

I put together a graph based on the total number of retail sources of biodiesel being displayed on our interactive map over the past 8-9 months.

Note that the steady increase (red line) is pretty much spot on with a linear growth trend line (black line). The increase looks to be about 1 retail station per calendar day coming on board.

(Note that the total current number of stations on our map is the number in the map icon on our home page.)

Some odds and ends:

Interest is rising in making the next Brevard area end user biodiesel order. If you are new to wanting biodiesel in the area, send us an email and we'll get you on the list. Our last order ended up at $3.09/gallon delivered.

Brevard Biodiesel recently provided a presentation on biodiesel to Frank Leslie's Renewable Energy Course at FIT. Some photos from our presentation:

Jay W. opens the presentation

Jay W. points to two things at once

Here is a page at Oregon State University describing their Microreactor Biodiesel Project.
From their description:

The microreactor was designed, with the help of 
Goran Jovanovic, by this student team. The micro reactor 
was designed to be a plug flow reactor where two separate 
phase fluids react by diffusion. The reaction between 
the two fluids occurs at the interface. The microreactor 
is favorable over a traditional batch reactor because 
the small microchannels require significantly less time 
for diffusion.

There are two biodiesel presentations in the agenda of items for this Saturday 22nd April including one by Brevard Biodiesel from 12:00 - 12:30 pm in Olin Auditorim EC-118.

Information on the fair/stage proper locations:

Florida Tech (a.k.a. the Florida Institute of Technology) is 
located at 150 West University Blvd., Melbourne, Florida. 
The event venue is south of the Clemente Center, accessible 
from University Blvd. or from Country Club Rd., one block 
west of Babcock St. Parking is available on the southwest 
side of Clemente Center (Building 33). Parking is between 
buildings 32 & 41 on the campus map. 
Overflow parking is south of the Physical Sciences Bldg. 
(the one with the telescope dome on top).

Brevard Biodiesel will be one of the exhibitors at the 2nd annual Florida Institute of Technology held in Melbourne Florida on Earth Day, April 22, 2006, 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

FAQs for the event including map/directions.

Stop by and say hi and chat us up about biodiesel.

See you there!

* * *

Brevard Biodiesel will also be providing a presentation to the Transportation Class at FIT on 11 April.

Real Goods devotes the cover of their latest catalog to biodiesel. They are selling two processors I had not heard of before - the AGR BioHome 150 and the AGR BioPro 190.

It looks to me like the dude on the catalog cover is wearing one of the nice Piedmont Biofuels t-shirts.

* * *
UPDATE: cart wheel bent after using with full drum - DO NOT USE!
Local biodieseler Eric F. reports successful use of a hand truck to move 55g drums available from Harbour Freight for a low price.

The March 2006 issue of the Florida Market Bulletion headlines its front page with "Program encourages biofuel production in Florida".

Quotes from the article I found of interest:

"A biofuel production facility in Florida would allow farmers to salvage crops damaged by storms or disease"

"A recent study ranked Florida first in the nation in the availability of biomass production area."

"Crops such as sugarcane, citrus, vegetables, cotton, field corn, wheat, and potatoes can be used to produce ethanol and biodiesel."

Looks like another group order coming up in the next week or two - send a line if you're interested.

George sent a neat ad from March 2006 issue of Outside magazine.

Seth and Tyler are kayakers *and* biodiesel users with a Blog here that describes their tour in kayaks/biodiesel truck from Alaska to Chile.

Our friend Elias has made the switch to Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) as a catalyst instead of Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH aka Lye) when making biodiesel. Others note a faster reaction with KOH vs. NaOH, easier mixing with Methanol, and better wash results - although KOH is more expensive than NaOH. The photo shows the separation between biodiesel (top) and glycerol (bottom) layers in a minibatch made using KOH.

Elias made these process notes:

1. Made some titrant concentrate: 10 grams of KOH
   dissolved in 1000 mL (1 liter) of distilled water.
2. Made some titrant solution from the titrant concentrate: pour 50 mL of titrant concentrate into a 1000 mL beaker and then top it off with distilled water up to 500 mL. This solution is what I used to run the titrations.
3. Made some KOH-based Methoxide concentrate:
   dissolved 50 grams of KOH + 10% (5 grams) more because
   the KOH I bought is 90% pure = 55 grams into 1000 mL
   of Methanol.
4. Ran three consecutive titrations and settled on 4.8 titration result. Note that this was the same oil I used when I did the titration for the last NaOH based minibatch which gave a titration result of 3.4. So, KOH resulted in a larger titration result.
5. Catalyst amount formula: 1 liter oil * (4.9g KOH (base) + 4.8g KOH (titration)) = 9.7g KOH needed for minibatch.
6. Added 9.7 x 20 = 194 mL of the Methoxide concentrate and 26 mL of Methanol to reach at a 220 mL methoxide mixture as recommended by girl Mark to add to the heated WVO.
7. Heated 1 liter of the oil to 130 F.
8. Added the 220 mL of Methoxide and Methanol mixture to 1 liter of heated oil and mixed for 15 minutes in mixer.

Here is a good thread with sources of KOH.

Here is a thread on KOH vs. NaOH.

What does eating a banana, driving a car, and tying a shoe have in common? These are all everyday events for most of us. Many of us don't need to engage many brain cells to perform these acts - muscle memory kicks in and takes over the job.

But as an engineer, I want to maximize the efficiency and efficacy of my actions. In the last few years I've changed the way I do each of these actions trying to be more efficient and effective.

Using biodiesel in my personal vehicle is probably the most obvious change to readers of a biodiesel blog, so I'm not going to spend time in this post covering the efficiency and effectiveness of that fuel vs. gasoline or other petroleum based fuels - on to the fun stuff.

For the longest time, I had hiking shoes or similar with round laces that were always coming untied. I had treated this as just a way of life and continued tying my shoes with the bow method I had learned as a child. Why did I tie my shoes this way? I can't say I spent much time thinking about it, it was "just the way it was always done". While reading about various rope knots, I came across one called the "Turquoise Turtle". Said to be an improvement over the simple bow knot, I tried it on my own shoes. Wow! I've never had a shoe accidently come untied since then, and have trouble remembering how to tie a bow knot. The Turquoise Turtle is a better way to tie your shoes.

Enter the banana. To eat a banana, I peeled it from the stem end. Sometimes it was harder to get the peel started on a green banana, but that was just normal, right? Why did I eat a banana that way? Again, it was "just the way it was always done". Turns out that monkeys peel their bananas from the other end. Amazingly, when I tried that the light bulb(compact fluorescent type) went on! Of course - the stem is the handle. Hold the handle, pinch the end and peel away. No more crushed end and the string pieces peel away better. Peeling a banana from the "other" end is a better way to eat it.

So do you drive your gasoline car thinking it is normal because it is "just the way it was always done"? Pass the word - there is a better way to drive, tie, and eat - you'll know the converts grasping their bananas by the handle!

P.S.
Thanks to Elias Victor for his continuing efforts to share what he has learning about making biodiesel. Pete and Storm, Ed, Kim, Jessica, Paula, and Dan (with his cool VW Rabbit biodiesel pickup) among others saw a successful mini-batch demonstration yesterday.

Elias Victor (who has constructed an Appleseed Processor which we just wrote about) will be demonstrating making small "mini-batches" of biodiesel this Sunday February 5th at 2pm at his house. Location is 5085 Areca Palm St. Cocoa FL.
Plans are to make 2 small batches using slightly different "recipies" including performing titrations etc.

This weekend, I visited with Elias Victor who was demonstrating his Appleseed type biodiesel processor in Cocoa FL. Elias is a NASA engineer who became excited about the possibilities of making his own biodiesel when his co-worker Ed pointed out the Trucks episode to him in the Fall of 2005.
Since then Elias has made tremendous progress - making many mini-batches and his first full-sized batch. I was there to see his second full batch underway and describe it in detail with photos here.

First up, here is an 11 minute video from Trucks demonstrating making biodiesel. They used the Fuelmeister system (theirs was from Freedom Fuel America). We prefer the open source Appleseed system.

Secondly, some information about producing biodiesel from biowaste (such as sawdust) using gasification and Fischer/Tropsch process. This story mentions that, for Canada,

"biodiesel produced from just 10 percent of the country's agricultural wastes would satisfy 16.7 percent of its appetite for diesel."

"studies that account for each joule of energy consumed in growing or pumping feedstock and fuel production show motoring on gasification biodiesel produces 85-90 percent less climate-changing carbon dioxide than using fossil diesel, while conventional biodiesel offers only a 50 percent reduction."

Using waste is a great feedstock vs. virgin palm trees!

Third - another movie link, this time with guys from the Hudson River Valley Biodiesel Co-Op chat about biodiesel.

And some recent Florida related news links:
Gainesville meetings about biodiesel
Pensacola biodiesel business
Florida's Energy Plan was recently submitted to Gov. Bush. The plan recommends among other things:

Raise public awareness for alternative fuel vehicles through public programs. Encourage public entities, including school districts and local governments, to use biofuels in fleets.

and

Provide corporate sales and income tax incentives to improve production, develop distribution infrastructure and increase availability of clean fuels, including biodiesel and ethanol.

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again."
Thomas Paine

Lyle Estill documents his journeys into the future of biofuels with his recent work "Biodiesel Power" published by New Society Publishers. Peppered with anecdotes and entries from his Energy Blog, he describes the landscape of the biodiesel movement including the production, people, and policies encountered.

Read more!

Here is a recap of the two day's of biodiesel related events held in Gainesville, FL 11 && 12 January 2006.
The first two events were classroom talks given to full houses at Santa Fe Community College and the University of Florida. Lyle and Evan from Piedmont Biofuels in North Carolina were the feature attraction at these events and really got into depth at the second talk.
That evening Evan brought the two blender sized batches of B100 he had brewed at the days talks to a table at the Union Street Farmer's Market in downtown Gainesville. Biodiesel fit right in between local organic produce (paper bag of kumquats for $1!), compact fluorescent lights, drum troupes, grass fed milk, Friends of Paynes Prairie, jewelry, orange blossom honey, baked goods, herbs and incense. I met Kiara, Mark, Joanne, Doug, and lots of other good people here for the first time. With a local artist singing Kris Kristofferson's words "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose" in the background it was a pleasant Florida January evening.
The next day brought a car show and talk at Sweet Dreams Ice Cream shop.
Cars included a FlexFuel pickup with computer exposition, a Suburban GreaseCar conversion , 1987 Mercedes sedan driven by Mark of FreedomFuels,
biodiesel powered VW Jetta and Passat wagons, and the one of a kind "Creampuff" - a Mercedes gasser converted with a 300SD diesel engine to run biodiesel - on her maiden voyage from North Carolina.

After the show, Goering's bookstore hosted a book talk and question/answer by Lyle on "Biodiesel Power". Tom from the bookstore was receptive and kind to the group and joined in the discussion.

You can read Lyle's take on the events at his Energy Blog here and here.

Thanks to Kiara for organizing the events! It is obvious Gainesville has the right "environment" for biodiesel activity along with an abundance of energetic, bright, and kind people.

While chatting with some of the biodiesel folks here in Florida, talk surfaced that a recent large shipment of palm oil feedstock based biodiesel from Ecuador arriving at the port of Tampa has been completely rejected due to high glycerine content.
I had not heard of these large shipments before, but had just had not been paying attention. "EarthFirst Americas" brought in over 250,000 gallons into Tampa in November 2005. Possibly it is this shipment involved, we'll try and flesh it out...

All Things Considered covered BioDiesel today in a story titled "Popularity of Biodiesel Grows Amid High Gas Prices".

They were in Santa Fe NM and talked to Blue Sun Biodiesel co-founder John Long.

They mentioned use by New Mexico Public Service, Department of Defense, and Denver Public Schools who have recently expanded use in school buses to the entire 450 vehicle fleet. A spokesman there noted that biodiesel was 11-14% cheaper for them.

An NREL spokesman refuted the lone complaint that biodiesel production is not a net positive gain noted that at least 6 other studies showed that it indeed was a net positive energy gain.

Also noted was that overall biodiesel production was 30 million gallons last year and expected to grow to 800 million gallons in a few years.