BioDiesel

Earthmark and the Production Alliance hosted a fantastic event today, "BioDiesel, Why it Matters, Why it Works." I was really impressed with who was there and the energy in the room. I didn't talk to everyone and wish I had been able to.

I'm going to skip to what I thought was the best result of the whole event and then recap the presentation the best I can.

As you might have guessed, it was about BioDiesel - NOT BIO FUEL (which is different - corn ethanol) TriState BioDiesel collects used cooking oil from restaurants and processes it into BioDiesel. The ins and outs in a moment because here's what happened. I'm not sure who these guys were, but I know one for sure an Arri rep, a guy from (Caterpillar?) a guy from Haddad's (?), 817 (?) and another who has had a family business forever- I will ask Earthmark who they were and update the blog later.....BUT THEY TALKED. Maybe I'm making a big deal about it, but just having those genny and motorhome rental houses in the same room asking questions and talking to each other is fantastic. A real accomplishment. Kudos!

Here's my notes I scribbled in the dark:

EarthMark is a non-profit Carbon Neutral Consultant. Katie Carpenter, of EarthMark explained quite clearly the effects of Carbon Dioxide, methane, heat and pressure on our atmosphere and the egregious after effects. For example Kilamangaro has mud and no ice. (See pic above) and other scary, awful things. (I know this is terribly simplistic, but I wanted to LISTEN - I was rivited and excited.)

Dana explained the show "24" in 2006 created 1600 metric tons of ....crap, my notes kinds blow I could not keep up...CO2? At any rate, the same as 369 cars.

The hottest 10 years have been within the last 12. Too many too recently.

Greenland ice is melting - you should have seen the graphic.

How does ice melting effect the US? Lower Manhattan and Florida could be under water in the next 2-3 decades.

Then Meredith of EarthMark - a NYU grad with an Urban Planning Degree.

The Academy Awards was green, Sony, Warner Brothers and Universal are making great strides. The movie Syrianna went green with off-sets (buying and planting trees and the like I presume?) As did The Day After Tomorrow.

Then Brent Barker of TriStateDiesel spoke. This was good.

Red Hook will be seeing a processing plant of BioDiesel in 2009. Ha-hoo. The oil is separated into glycerin and .......well, there was just so much information. Click on this link and see the basics for yourself. BioDiesel Basics. The biggest deal to me is you don't have to convert you diesel engine and it cleans it out and you run through filters in the beginning of using it as BioDiesel loosens sediment.

Soy creates the least amount of pounds per acre.
Palm does not perform well in cold climates.
ALGAE (wait for the sky to open and angels sing) can manufacture 10,000 pounds of BioDiesel per acre. It actually uses pollution (co2) to create clean energy. Go algae go. I am now such a fan and feel foolish for not knowing this sooner! I heart algae t-shirts have been ordered.

It's gaining in poopularity - in 2007 450 million gallons of BioDiesel were sold to:

The Military - the biggest buyer of BioDiesel - I never would have guessed.
Parks Department
and many others I could not jot down....

It can be used instead of Heating Oil #2.

Minnesota is leading the way state legislation-wise. Oregon and Missouri, too!

B100 is 100% BioDiesel
B20 is 20% - you get it.

B100 performs better than electric or hybrid cars by far.

BioDiesel is a homegrown fuel source. No War Required.

BTU's used to produce is 1 (to manufacture) to 5.3 (energy created)

That's all - then the folks mentioned above talked about tier 1,2,3 engines and they lost me. BUT they knew what they were talking about and it was a pleasure to listen in on it.

I heart algae.