The Lycoming County landfill in Pennsylvania may one day refuel some of the trucks that deliver waste, using methane gas made from that waste. The ambitious project will run parallel to the production of methane gas for an electric plant on site. About 33 percent of the methane produced is dedicated to electricity. Building an adjacent liquid-methane truck-fuel production facility would cost between $8 million and $30 million. Up to 5,000 gallons of liquid methane could be produced a day, or enough to satisfy the appetite of 30 trucks. About 230 trucks deliver waste to the landfill each day.

[Source: David Thompson / Williamsport Sun-Gazette]

The San Diego Supercomputer Center is crunching a few billion numbers to help scientists produce a virtual look into producing ethanol from cellulose. We know that making ethanol from cellulose feedstocks is more efficient in the long run than corn, and cellulose feedstocks won't bother the world's food supply. But engineers have a tough time breaking down the cellulose into sugars, which are then fermented into ethanol. Scientists are conducting molecular simulations to improve the conversion.

This virtual microscope allows scientists to see a process that occurs far too fast to capture visually. According to the center, the simulation runs about 6 million time steps over a 12-nanosecond timeframe. This is considered long in molecular terms but requires some 80,000 processor hours on the computer.

[Source: San Diego Supercomputer Center]

A study from the Canadian Trucking Alliance says it confirms that double trailer towing can reduce climate-change emissions and improve highway safety.

The two-year study compared data from 10 fleets that operate both single trailers and what is commonly referred to as a "turnpike double." Conclusions from the study say turnpike doubles:

• Are safer based on per-vehicle-kilometer-of-travel comparisons.
• Can save average of 28.8 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers of travel compared single trailers moving same volume of weight.
• Can reduce the number of trucks on the road by 6-10 percent.

If, the study reports, the use turnpike doubles expanded, more than 260 million liters of fuel would be saved and 730 kilotons of greenhouse gases would not be spewed into the atmosphere.

All I can go on is information found in a news releases. Critics haven't responded or had time to review the study's data. But most motorists have an opinion on turnpike doubles based on their own experiences. From a strictly environmental standpoint, they make sense. They reduce the number of vehicles on the road, so there is a possibility that the overall effect is safer. But I've been to Australia a couple times and encountered "road trains" in the bush country, and it's absolutely frightening to see a massive tractor pulling three huge trailers coming at you on a two-lane road.

If they're kept on Interstates, turnpike trailers may have a legitimate role in helping reduce emissions. I would suggest that any diesel pulling a double trailer must be 2007 or later and running some form of biodiesel as a gesture that it's the cleanest possible method of transportation and an incentive to fleets to modernize their inventory and truck stops to offer biofuels. Despite the benefits, there will be considerable emotion playing into any regulatory decision that might open up more highways to double trailers or allow expanded use.

[Source: Webwire]

Just watch.

Obvious comments need not be posted. Let's be kind to the feeble minded who generated this insipid video developed in cooperation between Pacific Gas & Electric and the city of San Francisco.

But I do think the dull-witted braintrust behind this video has been drinking water from Hinkley (Google Erin Brockovich if you don't understand the connection). I'm trying to figure out the motive: are they making fun of farmers and exploiting stereotypes? Or did they develop these characters after looking in a mirror? What do Laurie David and Sheryl Crow have to say after putting so much effort in promoting biodiesel recently?

Just ask yourself; what does vandalism and animal abuse have to do with biodiesel? I have a liberal sense of humor, but come on; this is just plain stupid and insulting to anyone who cares about alternative fuels. Let's hope marketers with more intelligence are in charge of biodiesel promotions elsewhere. Any more clueless PSAs like this and I'll be second-guessing biodiesel.

On second thought, maybe you should comment.

[Source: LetsGreenThisCity.com]

San Francisco has plans to covert the city's entire fleet of diesel vehicles to run on B20 biodiesel by the end of this year. Now there's a commercial gas station ready to sell B20 to any vehicle that can digest the fuel. Located in the industrial neighborhood known as Dogpatch, the Olympian station sells the fuel partially made out of grease collected from city restaurants. So far, about 39 percent of city's fleet have made the switch to B20. The city also wants to convert the public bus system to B20. The Olympian station was the first station to in North America to offer B100 and also one of the first to offer ultra-low sulfur diesel.

[Source: Erica Ogg / CNET News]

This time it's a wounded engine that has sidelined the round-the-world record attempt of the Earthrace boat. The starboard engine started failing in the Marshall Islands when a fuel injector broke and damaged the No. 1 cylinder of the Cummins engine. An engineering team is flying out of Hawaii with repair parts, but the boat is in an isolated location in the Caroline Islands.

Earthrace started in Barbados on March 10 but lost about 20 days to early repairs and when it was held near Guatemala following a collision at sea where a local fisherman was killed. Earthrace probably can't set the world marine circumnavigation record of 75 days with a Caribbean to Caribbean route. But if the team doesn't have any more problems and goes past its original starting point on to San Diego, then it has a chance with a California to California route.

[Source: Stuff]

Related:
Earthrace boat cleared to retry record run

We introduced you to the EVette last year. It's a homebuilt electric 2-seat, 3-wheeler. Builder Tom Sines over the weekend posted a couple of videos on YouTube. One demonstrates the vehicle's zero turn radius and the other is a report from a local TV station that includes an electric pickup doing a burnout. The car does not have a steering wheel; instead a joystick controls braking and steering via drive-by-wire to the rear wheels. The front wheel is not a load-bearing wheel, so Sines can back a lot of batteries under the Countach-style replica body. Sines is still looking for investors.

[Source: electricevette.com]

Car-share programs, those unique memberships with around-the-clock access to cars parked throughout urban neighborhoods, is starting to look good as a profit enterprise. I-GO was started five years ago by a Chicago non-profit as an experiment. Now it has 80 vehicles and adds more than 200 new members a month.

But there's also a for-profit car-sharing program called Zipcar that recently rolled into Chicago. Zipcar already has 110 cars in rotation and will double that number soon.

The competition in Chicago reflects a small but growing opportunity for car-share programs across the country. One researcher estimates just over 100,000 people share about 2,600 vehicles. Zipcar claims its members can save more than $435 month by using car sharing and not purchasing a car.

[Source: Lori Rackl / Chicago Sun Times]

First, tortillas in Mexico, now beer in Germany will cost more as crop yields shift toward biofuel production. Brewers say they have no choice but to pass along the higher costs of barley, which has nearly doubled in price in a year. There was a poor harvest last year but many fields have been dedicated to biofuel production this year. Experts say the amount of land for barley is decreasing about five percent. With so much land going to biofuels, the beer makers want the government to stop offering subsidies.

[Source: AFP via servihoo.com]

We had the story yesterday about ConocoPhillips and Tyson teaming up to produce biodiesel in Europe from leftover pig fat. Undoubtedly animal rights activists would be upset, and we raised the possibility of religious implications. From a purely academic angle, however, is using animal waste unethical for producing fuel?

Eco-ethicist Ethan Greenhart answered the question in his column at spiked-online, and took 959 words to say no rather colorfully to pork power.

"What on Gaia's good earth were you thinking of when you applauded the further enslavement of animals and the exploitation of their bodily fluids and residue just so the likes of eco-criminal Jeremy Clarkson and other 'lads' (an acronym for 'lazy and dangerous scum', perhaps?) can do 200 miles per hour on an A-road?!" screams Greenhart in the opening paragraph, and his voice gets louder from there.

Greenhart quickly blames all of the world's problems on SUVs and oil.

"Forget butterflies flapping their wings and causing hurricanes. When you fill your car with petrol in London it causes a nightclub to explode in Karachi. Just think about that," growls Greenhart.

And it doesn't take long to equate using animal waste to the Nazi death camps.

"Please, Harold, tell me what the difference is between using dead animal blubber to power cars and the Nazis' use of the skin of death-camp victims to make lampshades?" asks Greenhart.

Greenhart tells his readers that he has a pig friend named Dubya and talks to him often. He says pigs are "beautiful, peaceful and courteous creatures."

Greenhart closes with a plea for readers not to use soaps or pet food with animal fat even though the stink from pet poo will increase.

I think many readers are over-reacting to this story. The idea, as I see it, is redirecting resources. Instead of using leftover pig fat, or any animal fat, for soaps, glue and pet food, the waste can be used for a cleaner fuel. I don't foresee animal-based biofuels generating dedicated factory farms just to feed new refineries. The pig-to-tank costs and possible negative energy return may rule out economic advantages of using swine as a specific feedstock. I think the goal is just to make better use of existing animal waste. And we're already using animal waste in myriad ways that most people are unaware. I remember writing a story on slaughterhouses for a business magazine a while back. The plant manager told me every part of the cow except the horns was used in some way, many of which we don't always recognize, or don't want to know about. Before getting all righteous over animal waste that will continue to be generated, whether biodiesel is produced or not, let's look at this issue from an economic and energy standpoint first.

[Source: Ethan Greenhart / spiked-online.com]