Vancouver Island University's Newspaper Volume 41

Deep Fried Sizzling Fuel

by Rachelle Stein-Wotten


Weaning North America and the world off oil and gasoline is a monumental task that will take a lot of innovation and cooperation. Some of that innovation is already here.

On a particularly sweltering summer aernoon, you sit in your car at a busy intersection, waiting for the light to change green. Your T-shirt sticks to your hot and sweaty body. e air in your car is suocating—now you really wish you had the extra money to buy one with air conditioning. You need fresh air—unfortunately, the fresh air smells like exhaust, but desperate, you roll the window down anyway. You inhale, wrinkling your nose in anticipation for the worst, but it’s not there. Instead you smell French fries.

Biodiesel, an alternative, clean-burning fuel typically made from a variety of fats and vegetable oils—including used restaurant oils—is the fuel that keeps on giving. It sounds like something a bunch of hippies would use to gas up their VW vans, but in actuality, biodiesel’s roots go farther back than the 1960s. Rudolf Diesel, the dedicated German scientist and father of the diesel car, used peanut oil in his original compressionignition engine back in 1898. It was used over 20 years before the switch to petroleum-based diesel, which is now the most used fuel for diesel-run vehicles. However, unlike regular diesel and its highly polluting relative gasoline, biodiesel burns clean, meaning harmful emissions—like carbon monoxide—are low. According to the National Biodiesel Board in the United States, carbon monoxide emissions from pure biodiesel are 48 percent lower than regular biodiesel, and sulfur emissions, a major component of acid rain, are virtually eliminated. In essence, biodiesel is reducing the ecological footprint of humans. So why aren’t more people using it? e technology has been around for over one hundred years. A growing population is asking the same questions, but instead of waiting for answers from governments and corporations, citizens are taking action with their fuel tanks.

Next time you see a 1990 VW Jetta on the road, take a look at the back bumper. If it has a sticker on it that says “We Smell Better,” chances are it’s Lynn Wytenbroek, a founding member of the Cowichan Bio-diesel Co-op. e community began in 2004 as a small group of people who wanted to start taking some real action against climate change. For Wytenbroek, using biodiesel as opposed to petroleum-based fuels involves ethical as well as environmental concerns—she doesn’t feel right using fossil fuels when climate is in crisis and especially when there is a viable alternative.

Brian Roberts, also a founding member of the co-op and proud driver of a biodiesel-run VW Golf and van, explains why he joined the co-op. “I got tired of being the reactive nger pointer and decided to be proactive; change my world rst and help provide the alternative I wanted for myself to others who felt the same.”

Restaurateurs in the Cowichan Valley supply the co-op with a steady supply of used cooking oil. A few members of the co-op then convert it to biodiesel. Currently, the co-op has no central facility to produce the fuel; instead they make it in their backyards. Members are seeing if it’s possible to have a central operating facility. What started out as fourteen people has now grown to over 130 members as of Feb. 2010. More members are being accepted.

Using biodiesel is not the same as putting pure raw vegetable oil in your car. Doing that would require installing a conversion kit in your car, which can cost over one thousand dollars. Biodiesel, however, can be used in a diesel engine without any modications; it need only be produced. Biodiesel is made in a process called transesteri cation. In this process the glycerin in the fat or oil is separated from the methyl esters. ese methyl esters are what become biodiesel.

Used cooking oil isn’t the only source for producing biodiesel. It can also be made from biomasswaste wood, for example. Certain food crops such as soybeans and corn are another source, but one that not everyone agrees with. Wytenbroek feels that using food crops in this manner is unsuitable, especially during the current global food crisis.

“Whenever you grow food crops for fuel you’re taking that food out of somebody’s mouth,” says Wytenbroek. “We have to look at alternatives.” Roberts notes that biodiesel made from recycled oils is more energy ecient than biodiesel made from other sources.

“Because it’s from a locally recycled waste it has the best energy return of any bio-fuel,” he says. “Approximately 8:1 (eight units of energy out for every one used to produce the fuel) versus 3:1 for industrial soy-based bio-diesel and less than a 1:1 ratio for ethanol.” One of the alternatives to food crops may be another plant: algae. Alga grows all over the world and in various forms—seaweed, for example, is a type of alga. e most familiar alga is the kind that grows and covers ponds. It turns out that pond scum is the most ideal form of alga to produce biodiesel.

About half the body weight of alga is composed of lipid oil. is oil is used to produce the biofuel. Like other plants, algae need water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide. To suck up the most carbon dioxide, algae plants are being built next to manufacturing plants that release a lot of it.

Using algae to produce biodiesel is not a new discovery. In fact, back in 1978 President Jimmy Carter set up the Aquatic Species Program run by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Aer testing more than 3,000 types of algae, the program concluded that algae produced in large amounts could replace fossil fuels for home heating and transportation purposes.

Not only does use of algae prevent food crops from being used, but the byproducts from production can be used for fertilizer and feedstock.

Recent media attention has piqued interest in biodiesel. The film FUEL, which won an award at Sundance, has been viewed across North America, including twice in Nanaimo, courtesy of Cowichan Bio-diesel Co-op and other groups. e lm extols the benets of biodiesel and explains the long history and battles biodiesel proponents have had with governments and oil companies. It’s an informative and upliing message about a grassroots environmental movement. Although biodiesel can be 100 percent clean burning, this is not always the case. at’s because biodiesel is oen cut with petroleum diesel. Reasons for this can be due to low supply levels of biodiesel or because of cold weather conditions.

Ratings for biodiesel concentration can be as low as fivve percent (B5) but as high one hundred percent purity (B100). Wytenbroek runs on B100 as oen as she can.

“When we hit that minus seven weather for a few days in Dec., it was a little sluggish in the morning because [biodiesel] gels faster than regular diesel. All I did was cut it—I put in about 25 percent regular diesel and then I didn’t have any problems at all.”

Roberts cites multiple reasons for why biodiesel is the ultimate alternative fuel. Other than being nearly carbon neutral, biodiesel also biodegrades faster than sugar and is less toxic than table salt. Its use reduces air pollution, the technology for it is already available, and in the case of the Cowichan Co-op, it’s locally made and produced from a recycled product.

With all this praise for biodiesel, it’s a wonder more people aren’t using it. Isn’t it the answer to all our woes at the pump? Wytenbroek, however, doesn’t see it that way.

“Even if we took all the [ethical biomass] used to make biofuel, there still wouldn’t be enough for all the vehicles. I see it as a good stop-gap measure.” Wytenbroek thinks the future is in a combination of solutions, including electric-diesel hybrid cars, solar batteries, and overall fewer vehicles on the road through increased public transportation like buses and rail systems.

In the meantime, the Cowichan Bio-diesel Co-op wants to expand its operations across the Island by increasing fuel availability and introducing new fuel locations. They recently set up a pump at the Nanaimo Recycling Exchange on Kenworth Road as a rst step. ey are also in the process of updating their feasibility study and business plan. Roberts says students doing research projects who may be looking to be involved in this research, which will include everything from a communications plan, biofuels research and processing plant design, to a business and strategic planning, are welcome to contact him through the co-op. The extent of the role biodiesel will have on our current energy problems is uncertain at this point. Small groups like the Cowichan Bio-diesel Co-op will likely become more prevalent, but it may be a while until we see a biodiesel pump at the local gas station. While you’re waiting, try not to breathe in too much exhaust.