By KANAKO TAKAHARA
The increasing demand for biofuel, which is derived from biomass — usually plants — has taken a bite out of supplies of crops and other farm products worldwide. The redirection of crops from mouths to fuel tanks is reflected in the rise of prices of ordinary food items in Japan.
For the first time in 17 years, Q.P. Corp., Japan's biggest mayonnaise maker, will raise the price of its main product by about 10 percent, starting with Friday's shipment.
"It's because the price of the ingredients, mainly rapeseed and soybeans, rose," said Shunsuke Horiike, spokesman for Q.P., citing stronger demand in China. But he also blamed the price hike on biomass fuel.
"Rapeseed oil is used for biodiesel in Europe," Horiike said. "In the United States, corn is used to produce ethanol, and because of that, soybean acreage has been decreased."
Many countries, including Japan, see biofuel, mainly ethanol, as an eco-friendly replacement for petroleum, but experts doubt it can be a sustainable alternative energy resource.
Masatoshi Matsumura, a professor of life and environment sciences at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture, said using food resources to produce biofuel is meaningless because it would cause unnecessary agricultural competition and lead to higher crop prices.
When U.S. President George W. Bush pledged in January to increase the supply of alternative fuels to 35 billion gallons (132.5 billion liters) a year in 2017, six times the amount in 2006, corn futures topped $ 4 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade, or about twice as high as the same period last year.
"We need to produce fuel from new resources that are not food," Matsumura said.
Matsumura is currently working on a project to produce biodiesel from sunflower oil and is seeking ways to increase its production. Making biofuel from resources not widely used for food is one of the most sustainable ways to produce alternative fuels, he said.
Sunflowers can be imported from many parts of the world, including Russia, South America and Southeast Asia, that would diversify sources of fuel, Matsumura said.
However, most biofuel currently produced in Japan is a mix of gasoline and ethanol derived from crops.
In April, Japanese oil companies started selling bio-gasoline — a mixture of imported ethanol produced from sugar cane and corn, and gasoline — at 50 gas stations in the Kanto region.
The fuel appears to be off to a good start, partly because retail prices are the same as regular gasoline thanks to government subsidies.
"Apparently because the name bio-gasoline appeals to people, we are seeing pretty good sales," said Fumiaki Watari, president of the Petroleum Association of Japan.
Watari, who is also chairman of Nippon Oil Corp., said the industry intends to increase the number of gas stations selling bio-gasoline to 100 by the end of March 2009.
Japan has been keen on fighting global warming under the Kyoto Protocol by committing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.
But observers say Japan lags behind Brazil, the U.S. and Europe in promoting biofuel.
In February, a government panel on biofuel announced Japan should aim to boost production to an annual 6 million kiloliters in fiscal 2030 — a big leap from the approximately 30 kiloliters per year in fiscal 2005.
It was the first time the government has come up with a numerical target.
But Miyuki Tomari, chairman of the nonprofit organization Biomass Industrial Society Network, said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is merely promoting biofuel, currently focused on ethanol, to win support for the ruling bloc in the runup to the July Upper House election.
"He's using it to gain support from rural areas" where farmers, who are strong supporters of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, believe his policy will increase production of crops and additional subsidies from the project, she said.
In a campaign speech in April in Okinawa, Abe praised ethanol as a state-of-the-art fuel that is environmentally friendly.
"What the government actually needs to do is create a framework in which individuals and businesses will be motivated" to reduce gas emissions, she said.
Introducing a carbon tax, raising prices of electricity sold to utilities and promoting emissions trading — which allows high-emission companies to purchase credits from others — are among the key policies the government should promote, Tomari said.
"Producing biofuel may be a good option for Europe and the U.S., where their food self-sufficiency rate is high," Tomari said. "But for countries like Japan with a 40 percent food self-sufficiency rate, the priority should be placed on providing food for humans and livestock."
The Japan Times: Tuesday, May 29, 2007
(C) All rights reserved
Monday, May 28, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Biofuel seen biting into food supply
Biofuel seen biting into food supply
Kyodo News
The country should raise its food self-sufficiency rate as the global balance of food supply and demand is expected to get tighter as biofuel production increases, according to a government white paper approved Friday by the Cabinet.
The balance is also likely to tighten due to increases in the world population that will boost grain consumption, according to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry's fiscal 2006 report.
Japan may "face rising food prices and difficulties in securing sufficient amounts of foods," the report warns.
Demand for corn has been increasing rapidly. More plants have been built in the United States to produce ethanol, a renewable fuel distilled from crops such as sugar cane, corn and wheat. This has led to higher prices for food and animal feed there, the white paper says.
Demand for corn for biofuel production is expected to rise to 31 percent of overall U.S. demand for corn in 10 years, from 18 percent in 2006, making the amount for export inevitably lower, which will affect food-importing nations like Japan.
The world's population will continue to grow, with particularly notable increases in developing economies, the report says. The global population is expected to top 9 billion in 2050, compared with 6.5 billion in 2006, and grain consumption will rise as a result.
Grain consumption in developing countries is seen doubling in 2050 from the annual average of 1.1 billion tons between 1999 and 2001.
To address the tightening supply and demand situation, some members of the government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy have proposed Japan strengthen relations with food-exporting nations to secure a stable food supply and conclude more economic partnership agreements with them that would include trade liberalization of farm products.
But the white paper also points to risks of depending on imports, saying that in a crisis exporting countries would supply food to their own populations first.
On measures to improve the food self-sufficiency rate in Japan, the paper calls for creating large-scale farming with an eye to reducing production costs.
It calls for revitalizing agriculture by encouraging residents in urban areas to start farming as populations in farming communities are aging and declining. It also suggests growing rice on abandoned farmland to stockpile for emergencies.
The Japan Times: Saturday, May 26, 2007
(C) All rights reserved
Kyodo News
The country should raise its food self-sufficiency rate as the global balance of food supply and demand is expected to get tighter as biofuel production increases, according to a government white paper approved Friday by the Cabinet.
The balance is also likely to tighten due to increases in the world population that will boost grain consumption, according to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry's fiscal 2006 report.
Japan may "face rising food prices and difficulties in securing sufficient amounts of foods," the report warns.
Demand for corn has been increasing rapidly. More plants have been built in the United States to produce ethanol, a renewable fuel distilled from crops such as sugar cane, corn and wheat. This has led to higher prices for food and animal feed there, the white paper says.
Demand for corn for biofuel production is expected to rise to 31 percent of overall U.S. demand for corn in 10 years, from 18 percent in 2006, making the amount for export inevitably lower, which will affect food-importing nations like Japan.
The world's population will continue to grow, with particularly notable increases in developing economies, the report says. The global population is expected to top 9 billion in 2050, compared with 6.5 billion in 2006, and grain consumption will rise as a result.
Grain consumption in developing countries is seen doubling in 2050 from the annual average of 1.1 billion tons between 1999 and 2001.
To address the tightening supply and demand situation, some members of the government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy have proposed Japan strengthen relations with food-exporting nations to secure a stable food supply and conclude more economic partnership agreements with them that would include trade liberalization of farm products.
But the white paper also points to risks of depending on imports, saying that in a crisis exporting countries would supply food to their own populations first.
On measures to improve the food self-sufficiency rate in Japan, the paper calls for creating large-scale farming with an eye to reducing production costs.
It calls for revitalizing agriculture by encouraging residents in urban areas to start farming as populations in farming communities are aging and declining. It also suggests growing rice on abandoned farmland to stockpile for emergencies.
The Japan Times: Saturday, May 26, 2007
(C) All rights reserved
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Schwarzenegger attacks ethanol tariffs, subsidies
Schwarzenegger attacks ethanol tariffs, subsidies
Fri May 18, 2007 7:08PM EDT
By Bernie Woodall
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Friday he wants markets to set policies on low carbon fuels, and called for eliminating subsidies and tariffs related to ethanol.
"We need to take down the barriers we have created," Schwarzenegger said at a symposium on low carbon fuels at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, California.
The United States, he said, subsidizes domestic corn-based ethanol and imposes a 54-cents-per-gallon tariff to limit cheap ethanol imports from Brazil.
"It makes absolutely no sense. It's crazy, and it's definitely not in the best interest of the customers," said Schwarzenegger.
Brazil, which uses sugar-based ethanol, is the No. 2 producer of the biofuel after the United States and its corn-based fuel.
He did not offer specific alternatives to the tariffs and subsidies, but said the market should be allowed to come up with the best solutions after targets are set by governments like California's.
"We set the targets. The market decides how best to get there," Schwarzenegger said.
The booming U.S. ethanol production has increased corn costs and in turn feed costs for chickens, hogs and cattle. The result is a $47-per-person increase since last July in the average U.S. grocery bill, a study issued last week by Iowa State University found.
U.S. fuel ethanol gets a 51-cents-per-gallon tax subsidy.
The low carbon fuel symposium held Friday is a method to allow the markets to decide the best way forward on alternative fuels, the governor said. The governor in January called for California to set a "low carbon fuel standard" meant to cut carbon emissions in transportation fuels by 10 percent by 2020.
Schwarzenegger on Friday said the federal government's help is essential in establishing standards that stakeholders -- from industry to scientists to environmentalists -- can then strive to meet.
He called on the U.S. Congress "to adopt a fuel policy that works."
Transportation accounts for about 40 percent of the climate changing carbon emissions in California, and the state now relies on petroleum-based fuels for 96 percent of its transportation fuels.
Record gasoline prices can also be helped by less reliance on oil-based fuels and more on alternatives that cut carbon emissions, Schwarzenegger said.
Travel and motor club AAA on Friday said the U.S. average for regular gasoline was $3.13 per gallon, and $3.46 per gallon in California.
"The low carbon fuel standard is our best weapon against rising oil prices and gas prices," Schwarzenegger said.
"A vibrant market in alternative fuels and alternative vehicles and alternative engines give customers a great choice, and that empowers the customers to say, 'No,' to these high fuel prices. To say, 'Hasta la vista, baby,' "
Fri May 18, 2007 7:08PM EDT
By Bernie Woodall
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Friday he wants markets to set policies on low carbon fuels, and called for eliminating subsidies and tariffs related to ethanol.
"We need to take down the barriers we have created," Schwarzenegger said at a symposium on low carbon fuels at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, California.
The United States, he said, subsidizes domestic corn-based ethanol and imposes a 54-cents-per-gallon tariff to limit cheap ethanol imports from Brazil.
"It makes absolutely no sense. It's crazy, and it's definitely not in the best interest of the customers," said Schwarzenegger.
Brazil, which uses sugar-based ethanol, is the No. 2 producer of the biofuel after the United States and its corn-based fuel.
He did not offer specific alternatives to the tariffs and subsidies, but said the market should be allowed to come up with the best solutions after targets are set by governments like California's.
"We set the targets. The market decides how best to get there," Schwarzenegger said.
The booming U.S. ethanol production has increased corn costs and in turn feed costs for chickens, hogs and cattle. The result is a $47-per-person increase since last July in the average U.S. grocery bill, a study issued last week by Iowa State University found.
U.S. fuel ethanol gets a 51-cents-per-gallon tax subsidy.
The low carbon fuel symposium held Friday is a method to allow the markets to decide the best way forward on alternative fuels, the governor said. The governor in January called for California to set a "low carbon fuel standard" meant to cut carbon emissions in transportation fuels by 10 percent by 2020.
Schwarzenegger on Friday said the federal government's help is essential in establishing standards that stakeholders -- from industry to scientists to environmentalists -- can then strive to meet.
He called on the U.S. Congress "to adopt a fuel policy that works."
Transportation accounts for about 40 percent of the climate changing carbon emissions in California, and the state now relies on petroleum-based fuels for 96 percent of its transportation fuels.
Record gasoline prices can also be helped by less reliance on oil-based fuels and more on alternatives that cut carbon emissions, Schwarzenegger said.
Travel and motor club AAA on Friday said the U.S. average for regular gasoline was $3.13 per gallon, and $3.46 per gallon in California.
"The low carbon fuel standard is our best weapon against rising oil prices and gas prices," Schwarzenegger said.
"A vibrant market in alternative fuels and alternative vehicles and alternative engines give customers a great choice, and that empowers the customers to say, 'No,' to these high fuel prices. To say, 'Hasta la vista, baby,' "
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Green-tech pros eye cash in carbon
By Martin LaMonica
Story last modified Wed May 09 06:05:41 PDT 2007
The first electric vehicles to roll off Phoenix Motorcars' manufacturing lines will have a hidden, but potentially lucrative, asset embedded in them.
The company's battery-powered trucks, set for delivery this summer, will generate "zero-emission credits" from the state of California that could add up to serious money for the start-up if it can sell those credits to bigger automakers.
If that happens, Phoenix will need only a fraction of what it would otherwise cost to get its business going, said Bryon Bliss, the Ontario, Calif., company's vice president of sales. "It's the difference in how much venture capital money we need--something like $100 million versus $10 million."
Put another way, the credits could help the company be profitable in one year rather than five or six, Bliss said.
Phoenix Motorcars has hit upon a particularly scarce--and thus valuable--environmental credit. The state of California requires all automakers to produce a set number of zero-emission vehicles--or buy credits to offset the gas guzzlers they do make. Because it specializes in clean vehicles, Phoenix Motorcars expects to have an excess of these credits, which it could sell to auto manufacturers who don't meet the state's requirements.
But zero-emission credits aren't the only ones making their way into companies' business models. A number of forward-looking green-tech entrepreneurs and investors are betting on the growing value of other credits, notably those based on carbon.
As government policies that address global warming build steam, companies could start to generate revenue from offsetting greenhouse gases.
It's a novel business model, but one that is actively being explored, said Rob Day, a principal at the clean-tech investment arm of @Ventures.
"Some (entrepreneurs) have been writing into contracts that they own the carbon credits created by the products they manufacture," said Day, who said that carbon-restraining policies are likely to come to the U.S. in the next few years. "You can see the writing on the wall now."
Carbon finance
As an investor, Day favors companies that don't need to rely solely on revenue from carbon credits, or other forms of market-based environmental controls.
But others view them as a sound business model. A company called Planktos is building its entire revenue plan around sequestering carbon.
Later in May, Planktos employees will set sail for the Galapagos Islands, where they plan to seed a large area of the ocean with iron to stimulate the growth of plankton, which it says is in decline.
A portion of that plankton will die and sink, keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, said David Kubiak, the company's director of communications.
"We're mostly concerned with plankton that get below 500 meters. It puts them in deep enough ocean currents that they are out of the atmosphere for centuries," he said.
To make money, it intends to sell the carbon reduction that the plankton bloom causes. Kubiak said the company originally conceived of the idea as a research project to mitigate climate change but found that business people were willing to back the venture based on anticipated revenue from selling carbon credits, which were made possible by the Kyoto Protocol.
Planktos also has a subsidiary called KlimaFa, which plans to do essentially the same thing but with forest management. Its first project in Hungary has gained government approval, said Kubiak.
"What we're basically doing is ecorestoration...and the funding mechanism is the carbon credits generated by it," he said.
Credits designed to restrict emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are being discussed in the context of climate change regulation.
But trading in emissions for different types of pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, has been going on for years. Renewable Energy Credits are another type of green trading program, driven by government mandates for utilities to generate a certain amount of renewable energy.
Regulations will definitely accelerate (carbon management)...We're a little bit in the Wild West right now.
--Dan Pullman, vice president, McNamee Lawrence
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative will use a cap-and-trade system set to go online in 2009. It will give electricity generators a cap on the amount of greenhouse gases they can emit. If they stay below that allowance, they get credits for those offset emissions, which can be exchanged with other polluters.
Carbon trading has already taken hold in Europe, where about 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide were transacted last year on the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, at a value of more than 18 billion euros (or $24.41 billion), according to carbon finance research firm Point Carbon.
Many of these exchanged credits are generated through project finance deals and voluntary carbon offset arrangements. In one example, carbon credits were generated in a solar power project in Malaysia, said Dan Pullman, vice president of investment bank McNamee Lawrence, which advises alternative energy companies, including voluntary carbon offset company Carbon Neutral.
Because the solar power replaced a dirtier form of power generation, the financiers of the project gained carbon credits, which could be sold on a carbon exchange.
How policies are shaped has a significant impact on the price of credits. Emissions limits that are not stringent will results in a surplus of allowances, according to experts.
Phoenix Motorcars, for example, can get carbon credits in addition to its zero-emissions vehicle credits, which are part of a $25 million California clean energy incentive program (click here for PDF).
But the company isn't doing anything with the carbon credits because they "have almost no value," said Bliss. By contrast, the California state zero-emission credits will likely be in high demand from other automakers, he said.
Planktos' Kubiak has also found that the price for carbon emissions is very low, particularly in the regulated European market because of a surplus of allowances. But he anticipates prices will go up over time and said that the company, which intends to sell credits directly, "can do quite well" at $5 per ton of carbon.
Pullman said that the arrival of federal U.S. regulations will help drive more trading. Also required are more certification authorities to evaluate carbon offset schemes, he said. There have been complaints that carbon offsets are not adequately vetted or certified.
"Regulations will definitely accelerate (carbon management). It creates a much more active environment for trading and exchanging carbon credits," Pullman said. "We're a little bit in the Wild West right now."
Copyright ©1995-2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.
Story last modified Wed May 09 06:05:41 PDT 2007
The first electric vehicles to roll off Phoenix Motorcars' manufacturing lines will have a hidden, but potentially lucrative, asset embedded in them.
The company's battery-powered trucks, set for delivery this summer, will generate "zero-emission credits" from the state of California that could add up to serious money for the start-up if it can sell those credits to bigger automakers.
If that happens, Phoenix will need only a fraction of what it would otherwise cost to get its business going, said Bryon Bliss, the Ontario, Calif., company's vice president of sales. "It's the difference in how much venture capital money we need--something like $100 million versus $10 million."
Put another way, the credits could help the company be profitable in one year rather than five or six, Bliss said.
Phoenix Motorcars has hit upon a particularly scarce--and thus valuable--environmental credit. The state of California requires all automakers to produce a set number of zero-emission vehicles--or buy credits to offset the gas guzzlers they do make. Because it specializes in clean vehicles, Phoenix Motorcars expects to have an excess of these credits, which it could sell to auto manufacturers who don't meet the state's requirements.
But zero-emission credits aren't the only ones making their way into companies' business models. A number of forward-looking green-tech entrepreneurs and investors are betting on the growing value of other credits, notably those based on carbon.
As government policies that address global warming build steam, companies could start to generate revenue from offsetting greenhouse gases.
It's a novel business model, but one that is actively being explored, said Rob Day, a principal at the clean-tech investment arm of @Ventures.
"Some (entrepreneurs) have been writing into contracts that they own the carbon credits created by the products they manufacture," said Day, who said that carbon-restraining policies are likely to come to the U.S. in the next few years. "You can see the writing on the wall now."
Carbon finance
As an investor, Day favors companies that don't need to rely solely on revenue from carbon credits, or other forms of market-based environmental controls.
But others view them as a sound business model. A company called Planktos is building its entire revenue plan around sequestering carbon.
Later in May, Planktos employees will set sail for the Galapagos Islands, where they plan to seed a large area of the ocean with iron to stimulate the growth of plankton, which it says is in decline.
A portion of that plankton will die and sink, keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, said David Kubiak, the company's director of communications.
"We're mostly concerned with plankton that get below 500 meters. It puts them in deep enough ocean currents that they are out of the atmosphere for centuries," he said.
To make money, it intends to sell the carbon reduction that the plankton bloom causes. Kubiak said the company originally conceived of the idea as a research project to mitigate climate change but found that business people were willing to back the venture based on anticipated revenue from selling carbon credits, which were made possible by the Kyoto Protocol.
Planktos also has a subsidiary called KlimaFa, which plans to do essentially the same thing but with forest management. Its first project in Hungary has gained government approval, said Kubiak.
"What we're basically doing is ecorestoration...and the funding mechanism is the carbon credits generated by it," he said.
Credits designed to restrict emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are being discussed in the context of climate change regulation.
But trading in emissions for different types of pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, has been going on for years. Renewable Energy Credits are another type of green trading program, driven by government mandates for utilities to generate a certain amount of renewable energy.
Regulations will definitely accelerate (carbon management)...We're a little bit in the Wild West right now.
--Dan Pullman, vice president, McNamee Lawrence
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative will use a cap-and-trade system set to go online in 2009. It will give electricity generators a cap on the amount of greenhouse gases they can emit. If they stay below that allowance, they get credits for those offset emissions, which can be exchanged with other polluters.
Carbon trading has already taken hold in Europe, where about 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide were transacted last year on the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, at a value of more than 18 billion euros (or $24.41 billion), according to carbon finance research firm Point Carbon.
Many of these exchanged credits are generated through project finance deals and voluntary carbon offset arrangements. In one example, carbon credits were generated in a solar power project in Malaysia, said Dan Pullman, vice president of investment bank McNamee Lawrence, which advises alternative energy companies, including voluntary carbon offset company Carbon Neutral.
Because the solar power replaced a dirtier form of power generation, the financiers of the project gained carbon credits, which could be sold on a carbon exchange.
How policies are shaped has a significant impact on the price of credits. Emissions limits that are not stringent will results in a surplus of allowances, according to experts.
Phoenix Motorcars, for example, can get carbon credits in addition to its zero-emissions vehicle credits, which are part of a $25 million California clean energy incentive program (click here for PDF).
But the company isn't doing anything with the carbon credits because they "have almost no value," said Bliss. By contrast, the California state zero-emission credits will likely be in high demand from other automakers, he said.
Planktos' Kubiak has also found that the price for carbon emissions is very low, particularly in the regulated European market because of a surplus of allowances. But he anticipates prices will go up over time and said that the company, which intends to sell credits directly, "can do quite well" at $5 per ton of carbon.
Pullman said that the arrival of federal U.S. regulations will help drive more trading. Also required are more certification authorities to evaluate carbon offset schemes, he said. There have been complaints that carbon offsets are not adequately vetted or certified.
"Regulations will definitely accelerate (carbon management). It creates a much more active environment for trading and exchanging carbon credits," Pullman said. "We're a little bit in the Wild West right now."
Copyright ©1995-2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.
Plastic goods for your compost heap
By Martin LaMonica
Story last modified Tue Apr 24 10:48:43 PDT 2007
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Biotech firm Metabolix and agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland plan to sell a plastic that could benefit everyone from backyard composters to marine animals.
At a press conference here Monday, Metabolix announced the brand name--Mirel--for its biodegradable plastic made from corn and said it will be used in several consumer products including razor holders and gift cards.
The plastic pellets will be produced through a joint venture called Telles between Cambridge, Mass.-based Metabolix and ADM, which expects to have a corn-processing plant in Clinton, Iowa, operating in the second half of 2008.
The idea behind Mirel is to brand products or their packaging as a greener alternative to conventional plastics, which are made from petroleum, said Metabolix CEO James Barber. Like a growing number of "green," or so-called clean tech, companies, Metabolix is appealing to consumers' growing concerns over the environment and sustainability.
Companies can use the Mirel logo to indicate that it's an Earth-friendly plastic that can decompose within a few months, depending on the circumstance.
By contrast, things like plastic bags--part of the 350 million pounds of plastic created every year--remain in the environment "virtually forever," Barber said. The petroleum to make these plastics accounts for 10 percent of the oil the U.S. consumes, he said.
Metabolix expects that consumer-goods packagers will charge slightly more because they are "premium" goods. A coffee sold in Mirel packaging, for example, would cost consumers a few cents more, Barber said.
Metabolix is in talks with 40 prospective customers for 60 different applications including coffee cups and lids and plastic bags, he said.
Plastic microbes
American Excelsior has already developed a line of plastic stakes to hold down its erosion prevention blankets. The plastic stakes are better than metal stakes because they will not rust in seawater and don't require crews to retrieve them at the end of their use, said Jerry Bohannon, director of earth science at American Excelsior.
The company will also upgrade its software so that engineers can design systems around biodegradable products, a move that will allow "engineers to create products with the environment in mind," Bohannon said.
Mirel will initially be made from corn starch, but other sources of sugar can be used as well.
Meanwhile, Metabolix is already at work on a second generation of plastics grown within plants.
The company is developing a method by which the microbes that make up its biodegradeable plastic can be produced within switchgrass, Barber said.
The microbes, which are innocuous to the switchgrass they're growing in, can be extracted and made into plastic pellets. Residual biomass also could be converted into biofuels. "It'll be huge," he said, adding that the process will be available in about five years.
Mirel plastic stems from genetic research started at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology nearly 20 years ago.
The plastic is made by combining genes of several naturally occurring substances and making them function together, said Oliver Peoples, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Metabolix.
Genetic engineering is well understood but hasn't been widely applied to plastics, he said. Mirel uses many of the same techniques that pharmaceutical companies do.
"We are interested in using a number of genes to assemble teams of genes and make them work in living cells," Peoples said.
There are already biodegradable packaging products created with polyactic acid (PLA), also typically made from corn starch.
Metabolix executives said PLA does not stand up as well to heat as Mirel and can be composted only in industrial composting facilities.
Mirel plastic can biodegrade in soil or any type of compost pile. It will also break down in septic systems and waste treatment facilities or in wetlands and marine environments.
"The key thing with Mirel is that it opens up a range of options for the end-of-life fate," Barber said. "Now plastics last hundreds or thousands of years."
On the other hand, PLA is clearer than Mirel, so most likely it will be used to package products that will be chilled, like produce or sandwiches, Barber said.
Another company called Cereplast is also making biodegradeable goods, such as food packaging and utensils, from corn starch.
In contrast to Metablox, Cereplast said that with rising petroleum prices, its corn-based products will be the same price or cheaper than traditional plastics.
ADM chose to partner with Metabolix because its patented technology makes it a leader in the field, said Terry Stoa, vice president of technology assessment at ADM.
He said that the production plant, now under construction, will be capable of making 110 million pounds of Mirel per year.
Although the company is betting that consumers will be willing to pay more for Mirel as a green product, company executives concede there isn't a great awareness of how plastics are produced today.
A study commissioned by Telles found that 72 percent of the American public does not know that conventional plastic is made from petroleum.
Copyright ©1995-2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.
Story last modified Tue Apr 24 10:48:43 PDT 2007
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Biotech firm Metabolix and agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland plan to sell a plastic that could benefit everyone from backyard composters to marine animals.
At a press conference here Monday, Metabolix announced the brand name--Mirel--for its biodegradable plastic made from corn and said it will be used in several consumer products including razor holders and gift cards.
The plastic pellets will be produced through a joint venture called Telles between Cambridge, Mass.-based Metabolix and ADM, which expects to have a corn-processing plant in Clinton, Iowa, operating in the second half of 2008.
The idea behind Mirel is to brand products or their packaging as a greener alternative to conventional plastics, which are made from petroleum, said Metabolix CEO James Barber. Like a growing number of "green," or so-called clean tech, companies, Metabolix is appealing to consumers' growing concerns over the environment and sustainability.
Companies can use the Mirel logo to indicate that it's an Earth-friendly plastic that can decompose within a few months, depending on the circumstance.
By contrast, things like plastic bags--part of the 350 million pounds of plastic created every year--remain in the environment "virtually forever," Barber said. The petroleum to make these plastics accounts for 10 percent of the oil the U.S. consumes, he said.
Metabolix expects that consumer-goods packagers will charge slightly more because they are "premium" goods. A coffee sold in Mirel packaging, for example, would cost consumers a few cents more, Barber said.
Metabolix is in talks with 40 prospective customers for 60 different applications including coffee cups and lids and plastic bags, he said.
Plastic microbes
American Excelsior has already developed a line of plastic stakes to hold down its erosion prevention blankets. The plastic stakes are better than metal stakes because they will not rust in seawater and don't require crews to retrieve them at the end of their use, said Jerry Bohannon, director of earth science at American Excelsior.
The company will also upgrade its software so that engineers can design systems around biodegradable products, a move that will allow "engineers to create products with the environment in mind," Bohannon said.
Mirel will initially be made from corn starch, but other sources of sugar can be used as well.
Meanwhile, Metabolix is already at work on a second generation of plastics grown within plants.
The company is developing a method by which the microbes that make up its biodegradeable plastic can be produced within switchgrass, Barber said.
The microbes, which are innocuous to the switchgrass they're growing in, can be extracted and made into plastic pellets. Residual biomass also could be converted into biofuels. "It'll be huge," he said, adding that the process will be available in about five years.
Mirel plastic stems from genetic research started at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology nearly 20 years ago.
The plastic is made by combining genes of several naturally occurring substances and making them function together, said Oliver Peoples, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Metabolix.
Genetic engineering is well understood but hasn't been widely applied to plastics, he said. Mirel uses many of the same techniques that pharmaceutical companies do.
"We are interested in using a number of genes to assemble teams of genes and make them work in living cells," Peoples said.
There are already biodegradable packaging products created with polyactic acid (PLA), also typically made from corn starch.
Metabolix executives said PLA does not stand up as well to heat as Mirel and can be composted only in industrial composting facilities.
Mirel plastic can biodegrade in soil or any type of compost pile. It will also break down in septic systems and waste treatment facilities or in wetlands and marine environments.
"The key thing with Mirel is that it opens up a range of options for the end-of-life fate," Barber said. "Now plastics last hundreds or thousands of years."
On the other hand, PLA is clearer than Mirel, so most likely it will be used to package products that will be chilled, like produce or sandwiches, Barber said.
Another company called Cereplast is also making biodegradeable goods, such as food packaging and utensils, from corn starch.
In contrast to Metablox, Cereplast said that with rising petroleum prices, its corn-based products will be the same price or cheaper than traditional plastics.
ADM chose to partner with Metabolix because its patented technology makes it a leader in the field, said Terry Stoa, vice president of technology assessment at ADM.
He said that the production plant, now under construction, will be capable of making 110 million pounds of Mirel per year.
Although the company is betting that consumers will be willing to pay more for Mirel as a green product, company executives concede there isn't a great awareness of how plastics are produced today.
A study commissioned by Telles found that 72 percent of the American public does not know that conventional plastic is made from petroleum.
Copyright ©1995-2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
The math on turning algae into fuel
May 10, 2007 9:06 AM PDT
Posted by Michael Kanellos
Half Moon Bay, Calif--A number of companies have sketched out plans to convert algae into a feedstock for transportation fuel, but GreenFuel Technologies is farther along in bringing the concept to market than most.
And the Cambridge, Mass.-based company trotted out numbers at the Think Tomorrow Today conference sponsored by ThinkEquity Partners here (say that three times fast) to illuminate why the idea is getting so much attention.
First off, algae grows rapidly and grows constantly, which means that algae ponds can produce more oil per hectare in a year than traditional plant crops, said GreenFuel CFO Guilllermo Espiga.
A hectare pond filled with algae can produce 15,000 to 80,000 liters of vegetable oil a year. Only about 6,000 liters of palm oil can be squeezed out of an acre a year. Corn is only good for 120 acres of oil a year.
Algae can also be converted into a variety of materials, insulating producers from changes in commodity prices to some degree. It can be turned into alcohol for ethanol, biomass that can be burned in a furnace, or animal feed (which can also be sold under the Soylent Green brand name in grocery stores). A single hectare can generate 8,000 gallons of oil, 2,400 gallons of ethanol a year and 2.6 tons of glycerin, a material bought by the cosmetics industry, he said.
But there's more. GreenFuel plans to produce algae in ponds next to coal-fired power plants. The carbon dioxide from the plants is captured and provides the food for growing the algae. At a 100 megawatt coal-burning power plant, 100 acres of algae ponds, optimized with species that grow well in that particular environment, will consume 90 percent of the CO2 from the plant.
Thus, power plants that deploy the technology will generate revenue from carbon credits as well as make money from selling feedstocks. Espiga estimates that there are 1,750 power plants in the U.S. that sit next to spare real estate that could accommodate some of GreenFuel's algae ponds. The standard size of the algae facilities will be around 250 acres, he said.
Algae can smell, but most of these power plants will be located in isolated areas. "Most people don't want to live next to a coal-burning power plant," he noted.
So far, GreenFuel has only opened demonstration plant but expects to open a full fledged power plant in Arizona this year. By 2012, the company hopes to hit revenues of $100 million. It will license the technology as well as build its own power plant/algae facilities.
Posted by Michael Kanellos
Half Moon Bay, Calif--A number of companies have sketched out plans to convert algae into a feedstock for transportation fuel, but GreenFuel Technologies is farther along in bringing the concept to market than most.
And the Cambridge, Mass.-based company trotted out numbers at the Think Tomorrow Today conference sponsored by ThinkEquity Partners here (say that three times fast) to illuminate why the idea is getting so much attention.
First off, algae grows rapidly and grows constantly, which means that algae ponds can produce more oil per hectare in a year than traditional plant crops, said GreenFuel CFO Guilllermo Espiga.
A hectare pond filled with algae can produce 15,000 to 80,000 liters of vegetable oil a year. Only about 6,000 liters of palm oil can be squeezed out of an acre a year. Corn is only good for 120 acres of oil a year.
Algae can also be converted into a variety of materials, insulating producers from changes in commodity prices to some degree. It can be turned into alcohol for ethanol, biomass that can be burned in a furnace, or animal feed (which can also be sold under the Soylent Green brand name in grocery stores). A single hectare can generate 8,000 gallons of oil, 2,400 gallons of ethanol a year and 2.6 tons of glycerin, a material bought by the cosmetics industry, he said.
But there's more. GreenFuel plans to produce algae in ponds next to coal-fired power plants. The carbon dioxide from the plants is captured and provides the food for growing the algae. At a 100 megawatt coal-burning power plant, 100 acres of algae ponds, optimized with species that grow well in that particular environment, will consume 90 percent of the CO2 from the plant.
Thus, power plants that deploy the technology will generate revenue from carbon credits as well as make money from selling feedstocks. Espiga estimates that there are 1,750 power plants in the U.S. that sit next to spare real estate that could accommodate some of GreenFuel's algae ponds. The standard size of the algae facilities will be around 250 acres, he said.
Algae can smell, but most of these power plants will be located in isolated areas. "Most people don't want to live next to a coal-burning power plant," he noted.
So far, GreenFuel has only opened demonstration plant but expects to open a full fledged power plant in Arizona this year. By 2012, the company hopes to hit revenues of $100 million. It will license the technology as well as build its own power plant/algae facilities.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Biofuel strikes oil in eateries
Restaurants could put biodiesel firm in fat city
San Francisco Business Times - May 26, 2006
by Ryan Tate
Martin Wahl is a greasy businessman with a slimy operation -- and he's proud to say so.
Fueled by a new partnership with 150 of San Francisco's oil-rich restaurateurs, Wahl's Bay Area Biofuel Inc. pumps close to 12,000 gallons of biodiesel automobile fuel each month, up from virtually none six months ago.
At its current rate of growth, the Richmond company should be profitable by the end of the year. And that's only the beginning: Wahl estimates there is room to grow his customer base fivefold in San Francisco alone, to say nothing of the rest of the Bay Area.
"When (regular) diesel hits more than $3 a gallon, (biodiesel) becomes an attractive economic alternative, and it certainly does boost interest," Wahl said.
For restaurant owners, turning over used grease for biodiesel is more about principles than profits. A typical owner saves just $50 per month in collection fees by having used oil hauled away to make biodiesel instead of the traditional animal feed and cosmetics.
"We're a restaurant that recycles," said John Clark, a partner and an executive chef at Foreign Cinema. "So it came into our conscience as another way of using a substance we produce in a greener situation."
Cleaning up
A restaurant like Foreign Cinema will produce 100 to 150 gallons of spent cooking oil per month. After the sludge is collected from fryers, griddles, stoves and pots, it is stored for pickup. Bay Area Biofuel usually comes every two weeks using its own biodiesel-powered truck.
Prompt, reliable grease pickup is key. Chefs do not want to be cited for health code violations or have to pester Bay Area Biodiesel to come by.
After pickup, the grease is trucked to Bay Area Biodiesel's facility in Richmond, which is as much like a warehouse as a refinery. Cooking oil is considered safer for the environment than table salt, according to Wahl, so facilities like his are only lightly regulated.
Bay Area Biodiesel then removes naturally occurring glycerin from the oil through a process known as transesterification. This is typically performed by adding an acid or base -- for example, lye and alcohol compound or methanol and sodium hydroxide.
Removing glycerin allows the fuel to work smoothly in a normal diesel engine, in part by making it more fluid. Various schemes also exist to power diesel engines from unprocessed vegetable oil, either by mixing it with petroleum diesel or by heating it to increase fluidity.
Once biodiesel is created from the cooking oil, Bay Area Biofuel sells it in 55-gallon and 250-gallon increments to individuals and groups. Clark, the chef, buys some for his 1977 Mercedes 300 after an unhappy experiment brewing biodiesel in his home bathtub. The fuel also goes to contractors, farmers and consumer groups like the San Francisco Biofuels Cooperative.
Direct from Bay Area Biofuel, biodiesel costs $3.25 per gallon. Retail price from the cooperative is $3.90 per gallon.
Pushing toward profit
The company will not be profitable until it reaches 220 customers, and then only thanks to a 50-cent-per-gallon subsidy the federal government enacted last year. It could reach profitability by the end of the year, given that Bay Area Biofuel has added 90 customers over the past six months, thanks to a special agreement with the Golden Gate Restaurant Association.
"It is an emerging industry and there is competition," said association executive director Kevin Westlye. "We wanted to partner with someone who has all the right stuff."
Ryan Tate covers hospitality for the San Francisco Business Times.
San Francisco Business Times - May 26, 2006
by Ryan Tate
Martin Wahl is a greasy businessman with a slimy operation -- and he's proud to say so.
Fueled by a new partnership with 150 of San Francisco's oil-rich restaurateurs, Wahl's Bay Area Biofuel Inc. pumps close to 12,000 gallons of biodiesel automobile fuel each month, up from virtually none six months ago.
At its current rate of growth, the Richmond company should be profitable by the end of the year. And that's only the beginning: Wahl estimates there is room to grow his customer base fivefold in San Francisco alone, to say nothing of the rest of the Bay Area.
"When (regular) diesel hits more than $3 a gallon, (biodiesel) becomes an attractive economic alternative, and it certainly does boost interest," Wahl said.
For restaurant owners, turning over used grease for biodiesel is more about principles than profits. A typical owner saves just $50 per month in collection fees by having used oil hauled away to make biodiesel instead of the traditional animal feed and cosmetics.
"We're a restaurant that recycles," said John Clark, a partner and an executive chef at Foreign Cinema. "So it came into our conscience as another way of using a substance we produce in a greener situation."
Cleaning up
A restaurant like Foreign Cinema will produce 100 to 150 gallons of spent cooking oil per month. After the sludge is collected from fryers, griddles, stoves and pots, it is stored for pickup. Bay Area Biofuel usually comes every two weeks using its own biodiesel-powered truck.
Prompt, reliable grease pickup is key. Chefs do not want to be cited for health code violations or have to pester Bay Area Biodiesel to come by.
After pickup, the grease is trucked to Bay Area Biodiesel's facility in Richmond, which is as much like a warehouse as a refinery. Cooking oil is considered safer for the environment than table salt, according to Wahl, so facilities like his are only lightly regulated.
Bay Area Biodiesel then removes naturally occurring glycerin from the oil through a process known as transesterification. This is typically performed by adding an acid or base -- for example, lye and alcohol compound or methanol and sodium hydroxide.
Removing glycerin allows the fuel to work smoothly in a normal diesel engine, in part by making it more fluid. Various schemes also exist to power diesel engines from unprocessed vegetable oil, either by mixing it with petroleum diesel or by heating it to increase fluidity.
Once biodiesel is created from the cooking oil, Bay Area Biofuel sells it in 55-gallon and 250-gallon increments to individuals and groups. Clark, the chef, buys some for his 1977 Mercedes 300 after an unhappy experiment brewing biodiesel in his home bathtub. The fuel also goes to contractors, farmers and consumer groups like the San Francisco Biofuels Cooperative.
Direct from Bay Area Biofuel, biodiesel costs $3.25 per gallon. Retail price from the cooperative is $3.90 per gallon.
Pushing toward profit
The company will not be profitable until it reaches 220 customers, and then only thanks to a 50-cent-per-gallon subsidy the federal government enacted last year. It could reach profitability by the end of the year, given that Bay Area Biofuel has added 90 customers over the past six months, thanks to a special agreement with the Golden Gate Restaurant Association.
"It is an emerging industry and there is competition," said association executive director Kevin Westlye. "We wanted to partner with someone who has all the right stuff."
Ryan Tate covers hospitality for the San Francisco Business Times.
Diesel dealers provide a pipeline to rare, green cars
To serve a growing demand for greener, cheaper transportation, a new class of used car dealers has found a niche selling biodiesel-ready autos.
Around the country, dealerships hawking "green" diesel cars are attracting middle-class drivers motivated by high gas prices and the threat of global warming. More than a dozen of these businesses are concentrated along the West Coast, where the biodiesel subculture is breaking into the mainstream.
Most of these clean-diesel entrepreneurs rely exclusively on the Internet for advertising, using their own Web sites and Craigslist classifieds to lure potential buyers, while a minority also showcase their wheels from streetside auto lots.
"In 2003, I came out of the closet and became a full-blown car dealer," said Steve Ahl, a former recycled-lumber salesman who is outfitting his used diesel car lot in Ukiah, Calif., with solar panels. "This isn't the typical suede shoe used car lot operation."
Ahl Motors TDI Cars has sold some 700 Volkswagen Turbo Direct Injection (TDI) diesels as well as Ford and Honda trucks, and currently stocks 25 models priced between $10,000 and $35,000. Ahl said most customers tell him they want to kick the fossil-fuel habit by using biodiesel.
This thing is so pimp; I feel like Barry White when I'm driving.--Colette Brooks, founder, BioBling
After undergoing modifications that cost as little as $50 or as much as $2,000, diesel cars can chug either petroleum-based diesel, crop-based biodiesel, vegetable oil from the deep-fryers of fast-food kitchens, or even a combination of the three.
Ahl Motors' models can accept biodiesel after minimal modifications. When oil prices spiked more than two years ago, sales took off and have grown steadily since then, fluctuating with the rise and fall of the cost of diesel, according to Ahl. Although the Northern California lot attracts mostly politically progressive customers--including actor Peter Coyote, who bought a 2006 Volkswagen Jetta TDI last fall--Ahl also sees a fair share of shoppers who vote to the right.
"I have sold to conservative Republicans just because these cars make economical sense," he said. (Ahl Motors' only other salesman has a mobile phone ringtone that exclaims, "Democrats piss me off," whenever Ahl calls.)
Whatever the political motivation of buyers, the longevity and fuel-efficiency of diesel cars is a key selling point for Ahl's customers. An odometer clocking 100,000 miles may indicate old age for a gasoline engine, but that's a sign of youth for diesel cars like Volkswagen TDIs, which are built to last half a million miles.
"I have never seen such passion for an automobile that was not a limited edition sports car or a collector's edition," Ahl said. "They're sporty, economical and they go forever."
In tests by AutoWeek magazine last year, a Volkswagen Jetta TDI achieved 49.9 miles per gallon, besting the 42 miles per gallon of a Toyota Prius. With or without biodiesel, which hovers around $3.50 per gallon in California, such fuel economy can translate to savings at the pump. Some of Ahl's customers have come from as far as San Diego and Seattle intending to replace a hybrid Toyota or Honda with a Volkswagen TDI and run it on biodiesel.
"It's not an ivory-tower environmentalism; it's very real," Sienna Wildwind said of using biodiesel. In 2005 she launched Green Means Go, a one-woman brokerage that helps people in the Bay Area locate and purchase used diesel Volkswagens. She broke even last year with earnings from sales of cars as well as the tongue-and-cheek "Women of Biodiesel 2007" calendar she published.
"A lot of people find that driving in this culture is their only way of getting around, and using biodiesel or straight vegetable oil makes a big difference in our carbon dioxide output," she said. "It's a real solution that people can do without a big change in lifestyle."
Although diesel sedans and station wagons may be practical and fuel-efficient workhorses, other models attract a glitzier following. In Los Angeles, publicist Colette Brooks has built a business gussying up vintage diesel cars.
"I have a 1984, rare Lincoln Continental Bill Blass edition that is gold on gold, baby," she said. "This thing is so pimp; I feel like Barry White when I'm driving. There's an old-English-meets-gang typeface on the back that says 'ecology,' and tinted windows."
Brooks' company, BioBling, acquires rare Cadillac, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen models from around the country, modifies each one for biodiesel and offers customizations such as fake fur interiors, glittery paint jobs and flat-screen televisions. She has sold 20 vehicles so far and receives about two calls or e-mails each day from potential customers--the same number of requests that trickled in monthly when BioBling launched in 2005.
Brooks, who can be found cruising Los Angeles in a 1979 Cadillac El Dorado Biarritz or one of her seven other biodiesel whips, noted that business grew after the release of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth global warming film last year.
Thanks in part to Brooks' eco-evangelism, more glammed-up biodiesel cars are poised to hit Hollywood. She convinced Toyota to supply Prius hybrids to chauffeur A-list celebrities including Harrison Ford and Cameron Diaz to the 2003 Academy Awards. Brooks is in the process of negotiating with more automakers to supply biodiesel limousines to deliver stars to next year's Oscars.
Her timing comes as a new generation of diesel cars could clean up the dirty reputation of their predecessors from three decades ago. Diesel "land yachts" produced by Detroit in the wake of the 1970s oil crisis spewed nitrogen oxides found in smog and acid rain.
"We're going to go through a period of thrashing about in a positive way, seeing what works best...But one way or another, we're going to end up electrified." --Mike Millikin, editor, Green Car Congress
Yet those states are likely to allow the sale of new diesels within the year. Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen and other car manufacturers will introduce more-efficient diesel models for 2008 just as lower-sulfur diesel fuels reach more gas stations. Passenger diesels comprise only 3.2 percent of the U.S. auto market but will surpass 10 percent by 2015, if predictions by JD Power and Associates hold true.
In the meantime, however, classic used diesel cars continue to attract a cult following. In some cases, Kelley Blue Book values have risen for highly sought-after Volkswagen TDIs and Mercedes 300 and 240 models. Bay Area dealers suggest that prices on Reagan-era Mercedes have shot up by as much as 30 percent in several years. For instance, a 1981 Mercedes 300D in great shape and with less than 200,000 miles of wear may have sold for $3,000 in 2004 but could fetch about $4,000 today. After a vegetable oil conversion, the same car could sell for $6,000. That's bad news for drivers looking for a deal on an old, green car, but good news for those in the business of reselling them.
One drawback to biodiesel is the scarcity of fueling pumps. However, green fuel makers are ramping up production. The National Biodiesel Board counts more than 1,100 biodiesel stations that meet the white-glove standards of the 1990 Clean Air Act; Seattle's Imperium Renewables is building four new biodiesel plants; and Willie Nelson's BioWillie blend is spreading through Texas.
The government gives biofuel producers a 10 cent per gallon tax credit and a refund of 30 percent off the cost of installing a 20 percent biodiesel pumping station. However, those savings don't translate to lower prices for consumers. Biodiesel often costs more than the petroleum-based standard.
Vegetable oil, on the other hand, is less expensive for drivers who arrange to pick it up for free from willing restaurants that would otherwise pay to dispose of it. The green-car dealerships run by Ahl, Wildwind and Brooks don't deal with vegetable-oil cars, but a growing number of car mechanics specialize in converting and reselling older Mercedes to run on french fry grease. Unlike biodiesel, there are no national standards for the quality of vegetable oil. However, its fans argue that it's greener than biodiesel blends that include fossil fuel.
Green Eye Autos in Eugene, Ore., is among the small businesses converting and reselling diesel cars for either vegetable oil or biodiesel. The lot has sold 100 diesel, flex-fuel and electric cars since it opened a year ago. Thirty vehicles currently on sale at the shop include 1980s Mercedes Benz models, newer Volkswagens and even a couple of ZAP electric cars.
"We're trying to make the world a better place," said office manager Toby Gamberoni.
In San Francisco, the two-man VegRev converts old Mercedes Benz to dual-tank systems that can take vegetable oil in addition to biodiesel or regular diesel, and it sells filtered vegetable oil for $1.50 per gallon. VegRev's founders order conversion kits from Greasecar in Massachusetts, which offers online classified ads for many dozens of diesel cars around the country. The Los Angeles-based Lovecraft Biofuels' single-tank vegetable-oil conversion shop is opening branches nationally.
For now, some 10.5 million alternative-fuel cars roll along America's roads--an assortment of gasoline-electric hybrid, flex-fuel and biofuel diesels, according to research firm R.L. Polk. The Department of Energy considers biodiesel the most popular alternative fuel.
However, critics charge that a massive adoption of biofuels would make cooking oil and food more expensive, while spoiling millions of acres of delicate farmland. Potential alternatives to soy- and corn-based biofuels include sustainable crops like switchgrass or kenaf, algae and even garbage.
No matter how many more cleaner diesel cars hit the road in the near term, many green car enthusiasts agree that the use of biofuel is just a temporary development on the path to a petroleum-free future for transportation.
Nevertheless, Mike Millikin, editor of online magazine Green Car Congress, finds the passion for biodiesel cars favorable.
"We're going to go through a period of thrashing about in a positive way, seeing what works best," he said. "But one way or another, we're going to end up electrified. The thing that people need to understand and apply is that it isn't just the fuel economy of your car, it's what goes into making the fuel, what's shipping the fuel. We're at a point when the whole lifecycle or system view is critical to our long-term prosperity and survival."
Around the country, dealerships hawking "green" diesel cars are attracting middle-class drivers motivated by high gas prices and the threat of global warming. More than a dozen of these businesses are concentrated along the West Coast, where the biodiesel subculture is breaking into the mainstream.
Most of these clean-diesel entrepreneurs rely exclusively on the Internet for advertising, using their own Web sites and Craigslist classifieds to lure potential buyers, while a minority also showcase their wheels from streetside auto lots.
"In 2003, I came out of the closet and became a full-blown car dealer," said Steve Ahl, a former recycled-lumber salesman who is outfitting his used diesel car lot in Ukiah, Calif., with solar panels. "This isn't the typical suede shoe used car lot operation."
Ahl Motors TDI Cars has sold some 700 Volkswagen Turbo Direct Injection (TDI) diesels as well as Ford and Honda trucks, and currently stocks 25 models priced between $10,000 and $35,000. Ahl said most customers tell him they want to kick the fossil-fuel habit by using biodiesel.
This thing is so pimp; I feel like Barry White when I'm driving.--Colette Brooks, founder, BioBling
After undergoing modifications that cost as little as $50 or as much as $2,000, diesel cars can chug either petroleum-based diesel, crop-based biodiesel, vegetable oil from the deep-fryers of fast-food kitchens, or even a combination of the three.
Ahl Motors' models can accept biodiesel after minimal modifications. When oil prices spiked more than two years ago, sales took off and have grown steadily since then, fluctuating with the rise and fall of the cost of diesel, according to Ahl. Although the Northern California lot attracts mostly politically progressive customers--including actor Peter Coyote, who bought a 2006 Volkswagen Jetta TDI last fall--Ahl also sees a fair share of shoppers who vote to the right.
"I have sold to conservative Republicans just because these cars make economical sense," he said. (Ahl Motors' only other salesman has a mobile phone ringtone that exclaims, "Democrats piss me off," whenever Ahl calls.)
Whatever the political motivation of buyers, the longevity and fuel-efficiency of diesel cars is a key selling point for Ahl's customers. An odometer clocking 100,000 miles may indicate old age for a gasoline engine, but that's a sign of youth for diesel cars like Volkswagen TDIs, which are built to last half a million miles.
"I have never seen such passion for an automobile that was not a limited edition sports car or a collector's edition," Ahl said. "They're sporty, economical and they go forever."
In tests by AutoWeek magazine last year, a Volkswagen Jetta TDI achieved 49.9 miles per gallon, besting the 42 miles per gallon of a Toyota Prius. With or without biodiesel, which hovers around $3.50 per gallon in California, such fuel economy can translate to savings at the pump. Some of Ahl's customers have come from as far as San Diego and Seattle intending to replace a hybrid Toyota or Honda with a Volkswagen TDI and run it on biodiesel.
"It's not an ivory-tower environmentalism; it's very real," Sienna Wildwind said of using biodiesel. In 2005 she launched Green Means Go, a one-woman brokerage that helps people in the Bay Area locate and purchase used diesel Volkswagens. She broke even last year with earnings from sales of cars as well as the tongue-and-cheek "Women of Biodiesel 2007" calendar she published.
"A lot of people find that driving in this culture is their only way of getting around, and using biodiesel or straight vegetable oil makes a big difference in our carbon dioxide output," she said. "It's a real solution that people can do without a big change in lifestyle."
Although diesel sedans and station wagons may be practical and fuel-efficient workhorses, other models attract a glitzier following. In Los Angeles, publicist Colette Brooks has built a business gussying up vintage diesel cars.
"I have a 1984, rare Lincoln Continental Bill Blass edition that is gold on gold, baby," she said. "This thing is so pimp; I feel like Barry White when I'm driving. There's an old-English-meets-gang typeface on the back that says 'ecology,' and tinted windows."
Brooks' company, BioBling, acquires rare Cadillac, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen models from around the country, modifies each one for biodiesel and offers customizations such as fake fur interiors, glittery paint jobs and flat-screen televisions. She has sold 20 vehicles so far and receives about two calls or e-mails each day from potential customers--the same number of requests that trickled in monthly when BioBling launched in 2005.
Brooks, who can be found cruising Los Angeles in a 1979 Cadillac El Dorado Biarritz or one of her seven other biodiesel whips, noted that business grew after the release of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth global warming film last year.
Thanks in part to Brooks' eco-evangelism, more glammed-up biodiesel cars are poised to hit Hollywood. She convinced Toyota to supply Prius hybrids to chauffeur A-list celebrities including Harrison Ford and Cameron Diaz to the 2003 Academy Awards. Brooks is in the process of negotiating with more automakers to supply biodiesel limousines to deliver stars to next year's Oscars.
Her timing comes as a new generation of diesel cars could clean up the dirty reputation of their predecessors from three decades ago. Diesel "land yachts" produced by Detroit in the wake of the 1970s oil crisis spewed nitrogen oxides found in smog and acid rain.
"We're going to go through a period of thrashing about in a positive way, seeing what works best...But one way or another, we're going to end up electrified." --Mike Millikin, editor, Green Car Congress
Yet those states are likely to allow the sale of new diesels within the year. Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen and other car manufacturers will introduce more-efficient diesel models for 2008 just as lower-sulfur diesel fuels reach more gas stations. Passenger diesels comprise only 3.2 percent of the U.S. auto market but will surpass 10 percent by 2015, if predictions by JD Power and Associates hold true.
In the meantime, however, classic used diesel cars continue to attract a cult following. In some cases, Kelley Blue Book values have risen for highly sought-after Volkswagen TDIs and Mercedes 300 and 240 models. Bay Area dealers suggest that prices on Reagan-era Mercedes have shot up by as much as 30 percent in several years. For instance, a 1981 Mercedes 300D in great shape and with less than 200,000 miles of wear may have sold for $3,000 in 2004 but could fetch about $4,000 today. After a vegetable oil conversion, the same car could sell for $6,000. That's bad news for drivers looking for a deal on an old, green car, but good news for those in the business of reselling them.
One drawback to biodiesel is the scarcity of fueling pumps. However, green fuel makers are ramping up production. The National Biodiesel Board counts more than 1,100 biodiesel stations that meet the white-glove standards of the 1990 Clean Air Act; Seattle's Imperium Renewables is building four new biodiesel plants; and Willie Nelson's BioWillie blend is spreading through Texas.
The government gives biofuel producers a 10 cent per gallon tax credit and a refund of 30 percent off the cost of installing a 20 percent biodiesel pumping station. However, those savings don't translate to lower prices for consumers. Biodiesel often costs more than the petroleum-based standard.
Vegetable oil, on the other hand, is less expensive for drivers who arrange to pick it up for free from willing restaurants that would otherwise pay to dispose of it. The green-car dealerships run by Ahl, Wildwind and Brooks don't deal with vegetable-oil cars, but a growing number of car mechanics specialize in converting and reselling older Mercedes to run on french fry grease. Unlike biodiesel, there are no national standards for the quality of vegetable oil. However, its fans argue that it's greener than biodiesel blends that include fossil fuel.
Green Eye Autos in Eugene, Ore., is among the small businesses converting and reselling diesel cars for either vegetable oil or biodiesel. The lot has sold 100 diesel, flex-fuel and electric cars since it opened a year ago. Thirty vehicles currently on sale at the shop include 1980s Mercedes Benz models, newer Volkswagens and even a couple of ZAP electric cars.
"We're trying to make the world a better place," said office manager Toby Gamberoni.
In San Francisco, the two-man VegRev converts old Mercedes Benz to dual-tank systems that can take vegetable oil in addition to biodiesel or regular diesel, and it sells filtered vegetable oil for $1.50 per gallon. VegRev's founders order conversion kits from Greasecar in Massachusetts, which offers online classified ads for many dozens of diesel cars around the country. The Los Angeles-based Lovecraft Biofuels' single-tank vegetable-oil conversion shop is opening branches nationally.
For now, some 10.5 million alternative-fuel cars roll along America's roads--an assortment of gasoline-electric hybrid, flex-fuel and biofuel diesels, according to research firm R.L. Polk. The Department of Energy considers biodiesel the most popular alternative fuel.
However, critics charge that a massive adoption of biofuels would make cooking oil and food more expensive, while spoiling millions of acres of delicate farmland. Potential alternatives to soy- and corn-based biofuels include sustainable crops like switchgrass or kenaf, algae and even garbage.
No matter how many more cleaner diesel cars hit the road in the near term, many green car enthusiasts agree that the use of biofuel is just a temporary development on the path to a petroleum-free future for transportation.
Nevertheless, Mike Millikin, editor of online magazine Green Car Congress, finds the passion for biodiesel cars favorable.
"We're going to go through a period of thrashing about in a positive way, seeing what works best," he said. "But one way or another, we're going to end up electrified. The thing that people need to understand and apply is that it isn't just the fuel economy of your car, it's what goes into making the fuel, what's shipping the fuel. We're at a point when the whole lifecycle or system view is critical to our long-term prosperity and survival."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
