City readies for CNG, biodiesel fuel campaign, Powered By Home Brew

City readies for CNG, biodiesel fuel campaign
Jakarta Post - Jakarta,Indonesia
The city administration is set to push motorists to use biodiesel fuel and compressed natural gas starting May 20. The campaign ...

The city administration is set to push motorists to use biodiesel fuel and compressed natural gas starting May 20.

The campaign is part of the central government's plan to make Jakarta a pilot project for the use of environmentally friendly fuels.

"We'll start with the use of CNG and biodiesel fuels in big vehicles like the busway first, and then gradually move on to other public transportation vehicles like taxis and bajaj," Governor Sutiyoso said Thursday.

The campaign will be launched at a new gas station on Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan in East Jakarta with the symbolic filling up of a busway vehicle with CNG. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to attend the event on Saturday afternoon.

Sutiyoso said the administration fully supported the campaign as it was in line with its 2005 bylaw on air pollution.

Out of 264 gas stations in the city, however, only four will offer biodiesel fuels. They are located on Jl. Industri, Central Jakarta and Jl. TB Simatupang in East Jakarta, as well as on Jl. Kapten Pierre Tendean and Jl. Minangkabau, both in South Jakarta.

Biodiesel is a blend of petroleum diesel with oils extracted from plants such as oil palm or jathropa.

State oil and gas company Pertamina will supply the biodiesel, selling it at a price of Rp 4,500 (50 U.S. cents) per liter. In the preliminary stage it will supply 40,000 liters of biodiesel per day. Each gas station will have a capacity of 10,000 liters.

Sutiyoso said he would instruct all gas stations to provide CNG and biodiesel fuels. "They didn't want to sell it in the past because there was no market for it. Now many people will start buying it," he said.

The use of CNG was introduced in 1987 with the opening of 17 gas stations. However, most of the stations closed as the public response to CNG was lukewarm.

He said he would also instruct officials at the administration to switch to gas or biodiesel. "We'll start using it in our operational vehicles".

 

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New West - Missoula,MT,USA
A Tygh Valley man set up a garage biodiesel refinery that creates fuel — for about 80 cents a gallon. By Susan Hess, 5-18-06. Do ...

 Do fuel prices make you wonder about making your own biodiesel? Maybe see if your favorite restaurant would save their used cooking oil for you?

Gorge-area resident Dick Janz did. Though it might be harder now: Oregon restaurants and kitchens generate about three and a quarter million gallons of used cooking oil a year — and every ounce is spoken for, according to Oregon’s Department of Energy.

 Officials say the oil gets snapped up for Asian markets, for making soap and by Northwest biofuelers small and large.

(Of course, a person could essentially grow biodiesel, as it can be made from most any oil. Squeezed from canola seeds, for instance. An acre of the seed yields between 100 to 400 gallons of oil.)

Janz got in early and now collects used cooking oil from two local restaurants. Janz lives in Tygh Valley, a village about 25 miles south of The Dalles. Like many garage biodiesel producers, he has no background that prepared him for making fuel. And like most others, he makes it only for his own vehicles: a VW Gulf and a one-ton Dodge pickup. In both vehicles, he’s get the same mileage with biodiesel as with regular diesel. He didn’t have to make any modifications to the vehicles.

It’s the side product that makes Janz’s process different: A self-imposed surtax of sorts to support area science education. For each gallon of biodiesel Janz produces, he donates one dollar to Wasco County schools to improve high school science.

“I wasn’t in it to save myself money,” said Janz, “I did it to help the environment. I hope to inspire others so we can reduce our dependence on fuel from the Middle East . Since my home fuel was inexpensive, I felt I should tax myself, and I wanted to get high school students interested in alternate fuel sources.”

If you’ve ever seen an oil refinery, you know pipes twist and turn and cover acres of ground. Janz’s operation, though, would fit in a dining room and still leave room for the dining table. He bought a Fuel Meister kit that cost him $3,400 and spent another $1,600 in tanks, dollies, and other supplies. And then he started in.

He collects the used oil until he has about 50 gallons and then strains it with a household wire mesh strainer to remove the odd French fry and donut crumbs. The tank he stores it in heats the oil to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. He tests it to see how much lye to add. Then Janz pours a mixture into a plastic vat, consisting of 40 gallons of oil, eight gallons of methanol, and however much lye the test indicates. After stirring it, he leaves the mixture overnight to separate.

The next day, glycerin and residue have sunk to the bottom and the biodiesel floats on top. Janz drains the glycerin off (about six gallons per batch). A mist of water washes the biodiesel to take out any remaining impurities. The water sinks and is drained off. The fuel runs through one final filter as it goes into Janz’s 275-gallon tank. From there he pumps it straight into his vehicles.

Not counting the initial capital expense, Janz’s biodiesel costs him about 80 cents a gallon.

Janz gives the vestigial waste grease to a farmer who mixes it with feed for birds he raises. Janz hasn’t come up with a solution for disposing of the glycerin; some people use it to make soap, but he’s just storing it right now.

Janz has been making biodiesel for only about six months, so the money for schools hasn’t added up to a lot – yet. “The big story,” he says, “is to get farmers to grow something that would make them more energy independent. There is a need for the big (biodiesel) producers and the backyarders.”

At 80 cents a gallon? Maybe Janz is talking to me, or you.

 

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