BrevardBioDiesel Blog

Charles from the Florida Electric Auto Association will be bringing a brand new Vectrix Electric Maxi-Scooter to the Summer Fest event (that Brevard Biodiesel is also part of) on July 22nd at the Eau Gallie Civic Center.
While waiting for plug-in biodiesel hybrids to arrive, the Vectrix is available today.

Max Speed 62 mph / 100 km/h
Acceleration 0-50 mph (80 km/h) - 6.8 seconds
Range 68 miles (110 km) @ 25 mph (40 km/h) Simulated urban driving - 5 hours
Regenerative braking
Recharge Time 2 hours (80% charge)
Bluetooth wireless sytems diagnostics and communication
Weight 462lb
Cost $11k
Emissions Zero

YouTube vid
Review

Florida Governor Crist is expected to sign an Executive Order this week at the Climate Change Summit that include among other directives:

• Reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions for state agencies:
  "a 10 percent reduction from current emission levels by 2012, a 25 percent reduction from current emission levels by 2017, and a 40 percent reduction from current emission levels by 2025"
• Reduction in state Greenhouse Gas emissions: "by 2017, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels; by 2025, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels; by 2050, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% of 1990 levels"
• "All state agencies and departments under the direction of the Governor shall use ethanol and biodiesel fuels when locally available."

Biodiesel provides a 78% lifecycle reduction in CO2 emissions. United States CO2 emissions data shows that diesel fuel used for transportation contributes 7% (or 110 million metric tons per year) of overall CO2 emission totals.

We* can knock out 78% of that using B100 (or 16% using B20) which would get us halfway (or one tenth using B20) of the way to a ten percent total reduction by 2012.

Fire up those Algae ponds and Jatropha farms!

*(Assumes Florida energy usage ratios are similar to overall national energy ratios).

Update 13 July:
Nice summary with some vids and notes on the summit at GreenerMiami.com.

The July/Aug 2007 issue #89 of BackHome magazine features a nice article by Ray Holan with the title of "Vegetable Oil as Diesel Fuel". Ray is the president of Biodiesel Cleveland and author of "Sliding Home: A Complete Guide to Driving your Diesel on Straight Vegetable Oil".

The article starts out with a good introduction to biodiesel and vegetable oil used as fuel. It then has a section with details on using vegetable oil with additives. The next section talks about the Elsbett Single-Tank adaptation (featuring a diagram originally produced by Brevard Biodiesel). This is followed by a section on two-tank diesel/SVO systems.

Overall a clear and informative article that shows that the author has had years of experience with the topic. Recommended!

Thanks to co-founder Jim W. for the heads-up on this piece.