Pure Energy - Biodiesel Starting To Catch On

Gasoline at more than $3 a gallon, and no prospect of any significant reduction anytime soon.

Consider Neven Christensen. The fuel he pumps into his 1990 Mercedes and much of the machinery on his farm, Flamig Farm in Simsbury, costs as little as 70 cents a gallon. He makes it himself.

He burns biodiesel, a comparatively clean-burning fuel derived from vegetable matter. It is still an unconventional fuel and accounts for a fraction of diesel fuel sales, but it is getting more attention by the day.

"The biggest reason I got big into it was because it is carbon neutral," Christensen said one recent day. "As you burn it, it spews carbon dioxide, but then, as you grow the next batch of plants to make more oil, the plants breathe carbon dioxide, so they take that right back out of the environment. You are not harming any polar bears by burning it."

Biodiesel, typically made from soybean oil, is available commercially from Greenleaf Biofuels in Guilford, which has seen a rapid increase in sales, even though commercial biodiesel fuel at the moment is more expensive than conventional petroleum diesel fuel.

"We sold as much in May as we did in the first three months of the year combined," said Gus Kellogg, Greenleaf's president and founder. "And June, we expect to be another 50 percent increase over May."

Kellogg said some drivers are willing to pay a premium to know they are burning a cleaner, renewable fuel, and one that is not dependent on foreign sources.

Noxious gas emissions are 25 percent less with biodiesel, and the fuel contains no sulfur, which contributes to acid rain, said James D. Stuart, emeritus professor of analytical and environmental chemistry at the University of Connecticut and a member of its Biodiesel Consortium.

"It is catching on, especially in Europe. The use of biodiesel there is big," he said.

Greenleaf's biodiesel sold last week for $3.49 a gallon, or $3.39 a gallon for more than 250 gallons, about 30 cents a gallon more than petroleum diesel. But Kellogg said the biodiesel price does not fluctuate as widely, and there already have been times when the vegetable fuel was almost the same price as petroleum diesel. If petroleum diesel prices continue to rise, the two may be competitive shortly, he said.

Homemade biodiesel can be much cheaper, if you don't mind the work involved in making it.

"I take 50 gallons of rotten old vegetable oil you get from restaurants. They're happy to give it to you because otherwise they have to pay to have it taken away," Christensen said.

Necessary equipment is fairly simple. You can buy a machine for several thousand dollars that will manufacture the biodiesel conveniently. Or you can make your own biodiesel refinery, using a hot water heater and a conversion kit. Christensen said he kept his cost to about $500 total because he was given a usable hot water heater to start with.

Here's the recipe: Pour the 50 gallons of oil into the electric hot water heater. Heat the oil, add a mix of 10 gallons of ethanol and 3 pounds of lye, and let it circulate. Wait about a day, until glycerin settles to the bottom. Remove the glycerin, run the liquid through a filter, and it's ready to pump.

"It's around 70 cents a gallon to make the stuff, if you get the free oil," Christensen said. "The price is lovely," he said, but what really motivated him was the opportunity to help make a renewable energy source viable.

Besides what he makes himself, Christensen sometimes buys biodiesel from Greenleaf Biofuels.

Christensen was born and raised at Flamig Farm, earned an undergraduate degree at what was then Southern Connecticut State College and followed that with a master's degree from the school in environmental science. Flamig Farm is now an educational resource farm that includes a petting zoo and summer camp for children. And it is well known for its fresh eggs.

Christensen fuels his John Deere tractor, a payloader, two trucks and a rototiller with biodiesel, as he does his Mercedes sedan.

It was only about three years ago that he first tried biodiesel. He bought 5 gallons, poured it into his tractor's tank and worried that it might ruin the engine.

"One of the first things I noticed was that little puff of dark stuff as I stepped on the throttle didn't exist any more," he said. "Particulate matter was dramatically reduced. And the tractor ran great. It was quieter, smoother. So then I bought a couple of hundred gallons. And a couple of hundred more. And eventually I started making it."

And he's not stopping with biodiesel. He is planning to install a solar photovoltaic system to convert sunlight into electricity, with panels on the barn and a pavilion.

He's just doing his part, he said, to live up to the spirit of the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that called for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the damaging effects of global warming. The United States has not ratified the agreement.

Coming tomorrow: Imagine, heating your house with corn power.