EV and Alt Fuel Vehicles, Part 5

Welcome Back Darell. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif
Ya might want to search for some "new" pictures. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nana.gif

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Beamhead said:
Welcome Back Darell. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif
Ya might want to search for some "new" pictures. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nana.gif

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Links! I need links!

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Darell said:
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Beamhead said:
Welcome Back Darell. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif
Ya might want to search for some "new" pictures. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nana.gif

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Links! I need links!

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Link...What's a link? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleye11.gif Look closely now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/str.gif

OK, so.... if anybody has ever wondered what they can do about our sad state of automotive affairs - this site is just getting up and running to answer just those questions.

http://www.dontcrush.com/

The idea of destroying these cars is such crazyness as to defy description.

Thank goodness I own my biodiesel car!
I just drove 9 hours round trip from Iowa to Chicago (500 miles) on a business trip...and still had a 1/4 tank of biodiesel when I got back! Can't beat that biodiesel for renewable energy density!

Still wish I had an EV for commuting though!

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ikendu said:
The idea of destroying these cars is such crazyness as to defy description.

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Indeed. Saving us from ourselves, of course.

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Thank goodness I own my biodiesel car!

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Yeah, thank goodness they LET you buy it. But aren't they also trying to tell you that you shouldn't use Biodiesel? Of did I just dream that up?

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Can't beat that biodiesel for renewable energy density!

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Liquid fuels are the king of density, that's for certain! That some of it can be made renewably is almost like having that elusive free lunch. We're getting closer and closer to having them available here in CA!

OK, about biodiesel... what can it be made from?

I'm familiar with only a few sources - used fryer oil is the one solid source. Others I'm aware of are vague references to agricultural waste, soy, and some pilot programs launched by the meat-processing industry to convert animal remains into oil, or possibly directly into biodiesel.

Any specifics out there? Ikendu?

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Darell said:...aren't they also trying to tell you that you shouldn't use Biodiesel?

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If you mean the auto manufacturer (in my case VW), VW has signed a partnership with ADM which means they are more interested in biodiesel now. They have warranteed 5% (B5) and are "working on" certifying 20%. At least some progress. In Europe, they already warranty 100%.

There is a link on my web page to that.

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idleprocess said:
OK, about biodiesel... what can it be made from?

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...Soy (what I've been using for over 2 years)...43,000+ miles (49 gal/acre)
...Used fryer oil (I have friends doing that here in Iowa)
...Canola oil (rape seed), most of Europe's comes from that (127 gal/acre)
...Algae (400 gal/acre)...perhaps as high as 10,000 gal/acre
...Turkey waste (Thermal De-Polymerization), 1st plant in Missouri

Those are just few. Actually, any crop with significant oil content in the seeds or plant (of which there are many). There is more information on my web page.

Here is an article that I wrote recently for our Iowa Renewable Energy Association (I-Renew) newsletter:

Transportation roadmap for renewability

Can the U.S. really kick the petroleum habit for our transportation needs? It sure seems like a long way off from our modest amounts of renewable fuels we have today. In 2004, the U.S. produced enough ethanol to displace 2.8% of the petroleum used for gasoline and enough soy biodiesel for .5% (one half of one percent) of the petroleum used for diesel fuel. Wow! All this effort going into building ethanol and biodiesel plants here in Iowa but so far achieving less than 4% displacement of the petroleum we use for transportation.

Is there enough crop production to get even close to getting off of petroleum? Every year, we plant about 75 million acres in corn and about 75 million acres of soybeans. If every bit of corn were used for ethanol, at a rate of about 300 gallons per acre that would be 22.5 billion gallons of ethanol or about 19% of what is needed to displace gasoline usage. If every acre of soybeans was used for biodiesel, at a rate of 49 gallons per acre, that would be about 3.7 billion gallons of soy biodiesel or about 6.2% of what is needed to displace petroleum diesel. By the way, both crops still produce food products even after the fuels are extracted.

Wow! Only enough corn ethanol for 19% of our gasoline and only enough soy biodiesel for 6.2% of the diesel fuel. Can we ever get off of petroleum fuels?

Yes! I believe we can. But if we do, we will have to use today's situation only as a starting point for new ideas about our transportation. Here is my three step "road map" for getting off of petroleum:

1. Conservation

Conservation alone will never get us off of oil. We will continue to guzzle it up until it is all gone or until the remaining oil left in the ground is so expensive to extract that we simply abandon it. However, conservation and efficiency can drastically reduce the amount we need to create so that we can still have all of our transportation but at reduced levels of consumption.

The current CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standard is sitting at 27.5 mpg. That means that the fleet of cars that each automaker sells in the U.S. has to average 27.5 mpg across the entire mix of vehicles sold. If we sell more gas guzzling luxury cars, then the automakers have to make the high mileage cars more attractive to purchase either with features or cash incentives to get people to buy them. If we increase the CAFE limit to 30 mpg, that would be a 9% improvement in fuel usage. My VW Golf TDI is EPA rated at 49 mpg; a VW Passat Wagon TDI is rated at 38 mpg. The Ford Escape Hybrid is rated at 31 mpg combined hwy/city. Considering the advances we've made in recent years, it sure seems like we could raise the CAFE limit to 30 mpg. The SUVs that so many people drive aren't even covered by the law. SUVs are considered "light trucks" and don't figure in. The standard for light trucks is 20.7 mpg. If this were rasied by 9%, we'd be at 22.6 mpg. That seems achieveable with our newer technologies.

So...seems like conservation and efficiency can get us at least a 9% reduction before we even start talking about other fuels.

2. The partial switch to electricity for transportation

The Electric Propulsion Research Institute (EPRI) did a study of battery powered vehicles for using electricity for transportation. A quote from their article is... "For example, Plug-In Hybrids with a battery providing a 40-mile electric range could accommodate more than 60% of the total annual miles traveled by the average U.S. vehicle in the all electric mode." A Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle (PHEV) is one that can run on its fuel engine (either gasoline or diesel) when needed, but operate on battery electricity for some large portion of its miles. In the past, people were reluctant to consider a battery powered car because the range was so short but today's hybrids (like the Prius with real world mpg in the mid-40s) are becoming well accepted in the market place. It is only a small technical step to increase the battery size to deliver a 40 mile range in cars like the Prius. One company in California has already experimented with a Prius in this way and achieved close to 200 mpg on gasoline by supplimenting the gasoline power with charged electricity from the home. The car still has the long range associated with a liquid fueled car...but a significant part of its driving can be all-electric.

The municipal electric utility of Austin, Texas is already discussing offering $1000 rebates on its electrical customer's bills when they purchase a PHEV if they become available. This utility has estimated that the cost for electricity would be the equivalent of paying 56 cents/gallon for gasoline for the electric part of the propulsion.

Does using electricity really help anything? Yes, it does. It is much easier to clean the emissions at one, fixed, stationary point of a power generator than it is on millions of individual engines driving around our roads. Also, as our cars age, the emissions controls do to, often getting worse mile by mile, year by year. At a single, central power plant, it is much easier to inspect and maintain the controls to keep them operating at peak efficiency over time. As technology improves, the controls can get even better (whereas older cars never do). Even though much of our electricity comes from coal or nuclear, some comes from clean hydro-electric dams and an increasing amount comes from clean, renewable wind energy every year. A friend of mine in California owns an electric Toyota Rav4 and charges it entirely off of his roof mounted solar panels at his home. So, more and more, electricity for transportation could be renewable.

Wouldn't we have to build many new generators and hugely upgrade the electrical grid? No, not really. PHEVs are used during the day...and charged at night. Our generating capacity is sized for daytime industrial and air conditioning loads. So is the grid. At night, the grid is hugley under utilized and generating stations often simply waste power. You can't just shut down or mostly throttle back a huge coal burning generating station. Low night time electrical demand has been a problem for utilities for years.

So...switching some of our transportation needs to electricity can get us another 60% reduction in oil needed.

3. Expanded potential for renewables

Ethanol from corn (produces 300 gallons/acre) may be the most ineffiecient way to get ethanol. A farmer in Knoxville, Iowa has invented a new process for harvesting and processing sweet sorghum that promises to deliver 900 gallons/acre (with much lower inputs for fertilizer required and much less need for energy to convert to ethanol). New enzymes have been developed to convert cellulose waste (like corn stalks, straw, husks, etc.) into ethanol, further reducing the overall energy to make ethanol and greatly expanding its potential yield.

The same is true for soy biodiesel. Biodiesel from soy beans delivers 49 gallons/acre. If you harvest canola oil instead (from the rape seed plant), you get 127 gallons/acre. Biodiesel from algae farming delivers 400 gallons/acre today (from dry desert climates using salty water). The University of New Hampshire is studying new algae production methods that may deliver as high as 10,000 gallons/acre. Further, the Conagra Butterball Turkey plant in Carthage, Missouri is converting turkey processing waste into #1 diesel fuel using Thermal De-Polymerization (TDP). The TDP process works with any organic waste including old plastic bottles, field waste, old rubber tires, waste from hog farms, etc.

Clearly, ethanol from corn and biodiesel from soy beans is only a place to get started. Biofuels have hugely higher potential with new approaches and technologies.

So...how soon can our society get off of petroleum?

Most of these technologies are here today and work today. It isn't as though we need amazing new breakthroughs to get started. If we start now, and really focus our policies on energy independence, I believe we could be off of imported oil (currently 55% of our oil is imported) in 10-15 years. We could be off of the rest of it in another 10 years after that.

What if you personally want to get started now?

Well, I've been using 100% soy biodiesel in my VW Golf TDI most of the year since March of 2003. It works fine and I've been getting 44 mpg that whole time on fuel we grow! E85 vehicles (85% ethanol) are readily available both new and used although E85 stations are not so commonly available yet. You can already do a lot right now, today, to cut your connection to petroleum and start using renewable fuels.

To find out more, visit my web site at www.itsgood4.us.

And...come to the I-Renew Expo in September (www.irenew.org). This year, I intend to build my workshop around the technologies to get us off of petroleum; imports first...then off of petroleum entirely!

Marc Franke
Ely, Iowa
VP I-Renew

Sidebar for article:

120 billion gallons of gasoline/yr
60 billion gallons of diesel fuel/yr
3.41 billion gallons of ethanol
32 million gallon of biodiesel

OK, as much as I agree with the philosophy of becoming energy indepent as a country,,, I am not ready to spend the time and effort to make my own biodiesel at this time. Not to mention that my tractor is the only vehicle that is diesel right now.

I am going to seriously consider a Hybrid when we buy our next vehicle. I need to get a replacement for my minivan, so that will seriously limit me to what I can get. Maybe when I replace MY car, we can get a Prius, or whatever looks best when that time comes. But for right now, the Highlander might be our only hybrid option and we really like some of the other models available better.

I really like that this technology is finally becoming at least possible for me to consider though.

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Bright Scouter said:
OK, as much as I agree with the philosophy of becoming energy indepent as a country,,, I am not ready to spend the time and effort to make my own biodiesel at this time. Not to mention that my tractor is the only vehicle that is diesel right now.

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Well, the energy independence thing won't happen by itself - at least not without pain. That said, we have many places around here where you can buy biodiesel right from the pump just like all the other liquid fuels. In Europe it is subsidized, as I think it should be here as well.

Toyota has a hybrid minivan on sale in Japan. If / when it goes on sale here is unknown at this time.

I would like to see a hybrid + Ford Mustang. Maybe a variable displacement 6 cylinder with turbo and all wheel drive. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Hello Marc,

Excellent article! I really admire the work you and Darell are doing to educate everyone.

Yes, conservation- a concept we seem to have forgotten since the gas lines from not so long ago.
Good points on corporate mpg figures. I have felt for a long time that Detroit could do better.
I heard about a program here in Texas to get some of the truckers going on a partial biodiesel mix.
It seems like Texas should have quite a bit of space to grow alternate fuel crops.
Austin has some very progressive programs.

*NOT* taking this down the political path, but do want to point out that Ikendu and I aren't the only ones harping on this issue:

""Our dependence on foreign oil is like a foreign tax on the American Dream, and that tax is growing every year," Bush told the friendly crowd.

Now, if we can just figure out how to convince our government (both parties, mind you) AND the American motoring public that lower gasoline prices are not the answer to curbing our dependence on foreign energy, we'll be on our way...

Yes, in isolation, bush said The Right Thing, but bush also said that conservation was not the answer, but that increased oil production was. I think I'd be much more impressed if he'd simply said "We need to use less oil". But that's not what he said. Hmmm. I'm not even sure what he said.

I can't help but think that things would be quite different if the governments of the two largest (most populous) states mandated more energy efficiency.

The current hybrids were a direct result of the state of California (representing 10% of the US population) demanding that cars sold there must meet certain standards. All the major car makers came up with something that could be mass produced. Toyota and Honda then took it to the next level by making and (poorly) marketing them.

I consume gobs of petrolium products each day. The plastic milk jugs, the gas in my car, the plastics in my gadgets.... all come from oil even if I don't drive anywhere.

I have cut my personal gas usage a lot in the last two years. My truck gets less than 14 MPG, and my Prius gets more than 45. I now drive the truck to the hardware store, dump and car wash, generally less than 10 miles per month. The rest of the driving is done quite well with the Prius or my Wife's Camry. Even the Camry is getting used only a few times a week, since the Prius is easier to maneuver, park, etc. In all, we've reduced our gas usage by about 50%.

And that was with no down side. I was buying a new car anyway, so the cost of the Prius was not a factor. It was competing with more expensive cars as well as less expensive cars. I'm glad I chose the Prius.

So if you are in California, Texas, New York or Florida, it might do some good to loby your STATE government. If GM stands to lose 25% of it's possible sales (just Texas and Calif) it's likely to change it's ways.

Daniel

Lobbying for anything that's found to be exceptionally popular in California is a losing proposition in Texas.

OK, so I'm not being entirely serious, but arguing for efficiency isn't going to be popular. Texans would rather that "something be done" about the high price of gas at the pump instead of change their lifestyles.

Big trucks, walking with a swagger, looking down on other states - it's part of life in Texas, it would seem...

Hey Idle. You can start the process there in Texas.

You start by convincing folks that it's good for the economy to conserve. Selling less for more money is a time honored tradition in just about every
state. In Calif during the energy shortages, the power companies charged more per unit, claiming that they needed to in order to survive. I don't see why the oil companies would not do the same.

Cut oil production in half, add an oil import tarrif to balance the demand, increase CAFE numbers by 70% and Texas can double the productive life of their oil resources while sticking it to Californians!

What's not to love?

Daniel

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gadget_lover said:
I consume gobs of petrolium products each day. The plastic milk jugs...the plastics in my gadgets.... all come from oil even if I don't drive anywhere.

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Indeed. In fact, this is one of the reasons I want to stop buring oil for our transportation. We need oil. Oil is good. Oil makes great feedstock for the plastics that we need for our current lifestyle. Allows us to build strong, light-weight vehicles. Serves up the energy we need to be building wind generators and PV panels. That we're burning it to drive Buffy to her soccer practice, and to pick up our groceries at Safeway is what sticks in my craw (though I'm not really sure where my craw is, there's lots of stuff stuck there).