Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy, Second Edition
Product For anyone who is trying to follow the rapid growth in the biodiesel industry, second edition Addons Biodiesel: Growing New Energy Economy...
Product
For anyone who is trying to follow the rapid growth in the biodiesel industry, second edition Addons Biodiesel: Growing New Energy Economy is the assistance invaluable. Speed hearts with biodiesel has gained acceptance in the market in recent years has been exceeded only by the proliferation of biodiesel production facilities in the United States – and the world – only to face the social challenges and new environments and criticism.
International survey biodiesel industry has been expanded from 40 to more than 80 countries, reflecting the industry’s spectacular growth throughout the world. This section also tracks a dramatic shift in the fate of the industry that occurred in several countries. Detailed chapters covering the industry in the United States also has been rewritten to stay abreast of new developments and growth of many domestic explosion.
An expanded section on a small scale, local biodiesel production has been added to better small but growing part of the industry. Another new section was added to further explore the more controversial issues of deforestation and food versus fuel, as well as GMO crops. The second edition ended with a renewed outlook on where the industry is heading into the coming years from a few major players.
- ISBN13: 9781933392967
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Below is my favourable take on Greg Pahl’s “Biodiesel”:
Diesel-powered vehicles and equipment are everywhere, and are likely to continue to exist for years, if not for generations to come. Buses, trains, trucks, generators, and a growing number of automobiles use diesel fuel. Diesel engines tend to be more fuel-efficient, and last longer, than their gasoline-powered counterparts. Diesel engines get better torque than do gasoline engines, and devote more of their energy to propulsion (what we want), and less to wasted heat (what we don’t want). In summary, diesel engines have a lot going for them.
However, the challenge is that diesel, along with its cousin, gasoline, are fossil fuels, whose supplies are, by most reasonable estimates, finite and declining at rates greater than many of us feel comfortable to acknowledge. Diesel fuel, when burned by an inefficient engine, generates a lot of pollution, both real (e. g. particulate matter) and perceived (i. e. billowing clouds of smoke). Diesel has a bad reputation in some circles, and often this is deserved.
Enter biodiesel, a renewable alternative to traditional “petrodiesel”. Developed over the past several decades from various plant and animal “feedstocks”, biodiesel is a relatively clean-burning fuel that can either supplement or, in some cases, replace the non-renewable petrodiesel. For example, B20 biodiesel, which I use in my 2004 VW Golf, consists of 20% biodiesel and 80% traditional petrodiesel. Overall engine performance is as good as, if not better than, what would be experienced using pure petrodiesel. The greater lubricity of biodiesel prolongs the life of engines that use it; this attribute will grow in importance as diesel suppliers are encouraged or forced to reduce the sulphur content of the fuel. . . the lower the sulphur, the lower the lubricity.
Other big motivations for using biodiesel are that, as a locally-sourced form of energy, it reduces our reliance on oil from other countries; additionally, there is its tendency to emit fewer toxic substances than an equal volume of petrodiesel. Local farmers, supplying the soybeans or switchgrass that constitute the biodiesel feedstock to nearby refiners, stand to benefit financially. Even used vegetable frying oil from restaurants can be salvaged and, with minimal processing, converted to cleanly burning biodiesel.
Greg Pahl makes the technology of biodiesel production accessible to the layperson; those of us who struggled through high school chemistry can grasp the concepts that Pahl presents so clearly. In a nutshell, many plants that are the beneficiaries of photosynthesis, such as soybeans and canola, hold in their cells energy from the sun, in a similar way that oil in the tar sands holds energy from the sun in the form of plant and animal matter that lived millions of years ago, and has been compressed and preserved.
The future of biodiesel depends on a few factors: education of customers, and governments that offer subsidies to suppliers of “green” energy sources; a steady supply of biodiesel feedstocks, such as soybean oil, canola oil, used vegetable fryer oil, and even animal fat from meat renders; a corresponding steady price for such feedstocks, so that biodiesel production capacity planning can be done with lower risk; a relatively attractive price for biodiesel vis-à-vis petrodiesel prices; cooperation between the large and small biodiesel suppliers; and collaboration between biodiesel suppliers of all shapes and sizes with the traditional petrodiesel vertical infrastructure (from the extraction of raw crude oil, all the way to the retail pumps in your neighbourhood).
Unlike hydrogen technology, biodiesel is a relatively clean, renewable energy source that is in successful, widespread use today: entire school bus fleets in the US run on pure biodiesel, with positive performance results and, happily, lower engine maintenance costs. Politically, it is often a no-brainer for state and local governments to embrace biodiesel use, as it puts money in the pockets of local farmers, and the fuel can be used with no need to convert existing diesel-consuming equipment. However, the traditional petrodiesel industry may well balk at moves to support biodiesel proliferation, since this would dilute, figuratively and literally, the concentration of petrodiesel that its customers necessarily need to buy.
I highly recommend Pahl’s book. It provides a balanced view of the benefits and challenges that face biodiesel producers and users. Having said this, Pahl is a cheerleader for biodiesel, and justifiably so. It’s hard not to share his enthusiasm.
The author has done an expert job of building the case for serious exploration of bio-energy based economy. This book has a style that is not too technical-friendly and it was very well researched, well documented and very organized. As an added bonus, biodiesel began with a sharp forward by the famous writer and the environment, Bill McKibben.
After setting the tone for this book by bringing to light the potential crisis of Peak Oil, Pahl began dig up part of the solution as he leads the reader on a journey through the life of a great story (and death) of! Rudolf Diesel, to the early pioneers of biodiesel in an eco-industrial landscape of Europe and returned to the biodiesel industry today when it emerged in the United States. This book is filled with personal interviews with key players who brought this rapidly evolving world of agriculture, science and alternative energy to life. And Greg Pahl doing an excellent job to provide a balanced view of both the possibilities and social and environmental challenges of drawing increasing the amount of energy from the ground.
I’ve been quite involved in sustainable development during many years (and biofuels in particular) and I can only say that the latest book by the author is a real gift and “must read” for anyone interested in or working toward a future of renewable energy.
I’ve learned more about the history of the diesel engine and biodiesel after reading the first chapter of this book than I have in the two years since I started reading about biodiesel. Anyone wanting to know about the complete history of biodiesel should read this book! It’s obvious that the author has done his homework.
Green G
Greg does a great job of explaining what biodiesel is, how/where it came about, and why it is a good additive to our current petrodiesel. He also writes about what other countries are doing with and how they are (currently) ahead of the US in utilizing it. He also discusses other forms of alternative/renewable sources of energy. I would recommend this book as good reading, but I would probably recommend ‘Biodiesel America’ first. . . . as it has a bit more current info than Biodiesel: Growing A New Energy Economy. But good reading nontheless.
I find this to be a very interesting book to read. I knew for sometime that diesel fuel can be made from linseed oil but this book breaks down the walls of ignorance and fill in the blanks with useful examples of what can happen and what is happening around the world. I highly recommend this book as part of a well balanced diet of alternative energy readings. My only real critisicm of this work is that there is no word about the potential of Hemp. The author wrote the entire section on oil-for-weight ratio of seed stock that can be used for fuel. Most noticably missing is the seed that grows in Hemp for each client and abundent produce more heavy oil than the other! Perhaps the author did not know that the first diesel fuel made from vegetable oil. Henry Ford found that Cannabis seed oil is best to make diesel fuel. I wondered, could this be caused by a current hang “Drug War”? It is very shameful that such useful plants Hemp will be removed from a work on the Bio-Diesel. />
This book is fine reading. This is interesting and full of detail carefully sourced but not dry or boring. I really enjoyed it.
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