BrevardBioDiesel Blog

As part of the StopGlobalWarming project - Sheryl Crow is headlining a college concert tour in the southeast including a stop on April 16th at UF in Gainesville FL.

The tour arrives on a biodiesel powered bus. Refueling is coordinated by the non-profit organization Reverb.

National Public Radio ran a story yesterday by Martin Kaste about biodiesel that was well put together.

The story highlighted Seattle Biodiesel, who is putting together a 100 MMgy (million gallon per year) biodiesel refinery on the Pacific coast (with 3 more to come).

Also mentioned are various viewpoints on feedstock choices, including sustainable palm oil,

Professor Tim Dittmer says the biodiesel industry is likely to make money *if* it stays eco-friendly.

Calvert Chief Social Investment Strategist Dr. Julie Gorte comments on feedstock choices at the end of the piece.

Brevard Biodiesel presented information on biodiesel to the Renewable Energy class of Professor Frank Leslie at the Florida Institute of Technology today. Elias and Jay concentrated on the practicality and chemistry of making biodiesel. There were lots of good comments and questions from the class of 17. Students from a mix of disciplines were represented - most in engineering fields. It was great to hear about another professor investigating algae strains - in raceways that are currently under construction. Thank you to Frank and the class for their hospitality and interest.

The powerpoint used today is available here:
2007 Class PDF [2MB]

NYTimes reports on founders of LiveFuels Inc. that are part of a wave of green energy companies searching for startup money.
Mike Briggs at University of New Hampshire originally produced some numbers regarding the amount of land necessary to produce enough algae to turn into biodiesel to replace all petroleum transportation fuels in the US.
The founders of LiveFuels didn't think wave energy, hydrogen fuel cells, wind energy, solar energy, cellulosic ethanol, or cow manure to methanol made good business sense - but biodiesel from algae piqued their interest.

The company projects that in three years it can produce some biofuel, which theoretically could eventually be produced in quantities of as much as 20,000 gallons of fuel a year per acre of algae.

Much of the interest was spurred by the previously abandoned DOE Aquatic Species Program. It closed in 1998 saying algae-to-biodiesel could only be effective if petro-diesel prices rose to 2x the current levels. 2006 levels are 3x then

Click link for story. This is the kind of red tape that awaits some homebrewers!

The Sunday business section of Florida Today featured several articles on alternative fueled vehicles. Along with
an article on Electric Cars, and Hybrid Cars, Brevard Biodiesel was mentioned in the biodiesel article.

Volkswagen is running a "VW Heritage Search Contest" looking for the oldest VW diesel still in service, and the VW diesel with highest mileage.

Winners will have the use of a Touareg V10 TDI for 6 months.

Freedom Fuels is a 49 minute documentary movie about alternative fuels, including biodiesel, now available as a FREE download.
This movie won the Environmental Preservation Award at the 2006 Artivist Film Festival.

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The National Biodiesel Board has spun up a web site (AllThingsBiodiesel) offering a store, classifieds and a directory.