Alternative Fuels

With petrol prices now over $1.50 per litre, filling the family car is probably costing you more than $70  a figure you would never have believed possible a few months ago. What happens when oil hits US$100 a barrel as now most analysts predict it will? Or if the Kiwi dollar falls fifteen percent against the US dollar, as is expected sometime next year? Either of these events would see petrol surge to a mind-blowing $2.00 per litre. Even the farmers old friend, diesel, is already over $1.00 a litre and climbing. When road user charges are added, diesel no longer is a cheap alternative to petrol.

Lifestyle block owners shoulder an extra burden from these surging fuel costs. Firstly they live further away from schools, shops and services than their urban counterparts and they have to operate gas-hungry machines like four wheel drive vehicles, trucks, ride-on mowers, farm bikes and sometimes tractors, on the larger blocks. And they have to pay higher charges by trucking companies servicing the rural communities. So what can be done to reduce fuel costs for the long-suffering lifestyle block holder? There are some alternative fuels that are now affordable, thanks to the large increases in oil costs, and they are becoming more available. Lets explore the options:

What are alternative fuels?

Most motor vehicles run on petrol or diesel fuel. But there are a number of other ways of powering a motor vehicle and these are labelled alternative fuels. They include the commonly-known ones like electricity and natural gas plus several more that are not so well known as yet like ethanol, and methanol.

What are the benefits of alternative fuels?

Each alternative fuel has their advantages and disadvantages, but all of them have the potential to produce less pollution than petrol or diesel. Even compared with a new car with the latest emission control technology, these alternative fuels can result in reduced pollution. Most lifestyle block owners are already environmentally conscious and will want to explore these alternatives.

Using alternative fuels also reduces the need to import oil. Many of the alternative fuels are produced in New Zealand so increasing their use would mean more jobs and an improved balance of trade. Less dependence on imported crude oil would see more stable fuel prices and less danger of being affected by events overseas like war in Iraq or Cyclone Katrina.

What alternative fuels are available today?

1. Electricity

Electric vehicles

Electric cars have been around for a very long time. In the early 1900s, there were more electric vehicles than there were petrol-powered cars. The reason was that petrol was very expensive in those days. It also was hard to start an internal combustion engine; you had to turn a crank inserted into the front of the engine block to get it to start. Petrol driven vehicles were also noisy and emitted clouds of smoke. Electric vehicles were quiet, efficient, and pollution-free. It is no wonder there were more than 50,000 EVs on the roads of the United States in the early days of the last century.

But EVs soon died like the horse-drawn carriage. Petrol became cheaper and petrol-driven engines became more efficient. Plus the electric starter was invented. A petrol car could go much farther than an electric one. So, petrol-powered vehicles soon became the main method of transporting people. But EVs are making a dramatic comeback.

Today’s improved technology has made electric cars a more practical option. Electric vehicles don’t burn petrol as in an internal combustion engine. EVs have an electric motor that turns the wheels and a battery to run that motor. They use electricity stored in the car in batteries which can be lead acid batteries, like the batteries in regular cars. Or they can be ni-cad (nickel-cadmium) like the kind that run portable electronic devices, only much larger. Sometimes, 12 or even 24 batteries are needed to power the car. Any electric car that uses batteries needs a charging system to recharge the batteries. The charging system has two goals:

1. To pump electricity into the batteries as quickly as the batteries will allow

2. To monitor the batteries and avoid damaging them during the charging process

The most sophisticated charging systems monitor battery voltage, current flow and battery temperature to minimise the charging time. The charger sends as much current as it can without raising the battery temperature too much. Less sophisticated chargers might monitor voltage or amperage only and make certain assumptions about average battery characteristics. A charger like this might apply maximum current to the batteries up through 80 percent of their capacity, and then cut the current back to some preset level for the final 20 percent to avoid overheating the batteries.

The normal household charging system has the advantage of convenience – anywhere you can find an outlet, you can recharge. The disadvantage is the length of the recharging time. It can take 6 to 7 hours to fully charge the vehicle using this technique, using a 240-volt circuit. Simply plugging into the wall with a heavy-duty extension cord starts the charging process. Electric vehicles today can only go about 150 km before needing recharging. But 150 km is plenty for most people who only drive a short distance to and from work, to and from school, or to do some shopping.

Better batteries that hold more energy and last longer are being developed which should be able to go 250 to 300 km before recharging. This new technology improves the range of these vehicles as well as their performance. Electric cars can now travel further and the cost of buying one is coming down. As more and more EVs are made, the price of EVs should come down to about the same as petrol cars. Fuel and maintenance costs are already less than they would be for a comparable petrol-powered vehicle.

Hybrid cars

Many carmakers are working on hybrid vehicles: a combination of a small internal combustion engine and an electric motor. The primary power comes from the petrol engine, but it uses the electric motor when it is accelerating or climbing hills. The electric motor does not need an external power supply for recharging. Its batteries are recharged by regenerative braking. This means that energy from forward momentum is captured during braking. This energy is then used to recharge the batteries. At very slow speeds, the car runs on its electric motor. Driving around the city and at higher and motorway speeds, it shifts to both the gasoline motor and the electric motor, while also recharging the battery. Other automobile companies will also be releasing other types of hybrid vehicles soon. This newer breed of combination electric-petrol cars like the Toyota Prius have proven hugely successful with a big uptake by environmentally-conscious car owners.

Other Fuels

1. Natural gas, or methane, originates in the ground, but can also be made from biomass. While it produces very low levels of pollution, it is not as convenient to refuel. Vehicles may have a limited driving range, since the equivalent amount of natural gas takes up about four times as much space as a litre of petrol. A car that runs solely on natural gas can be more expensive but petrol-powered cars can be converted to run on natural gas in addition to petrol. Commuter vehicles like buses, taxis and police cars are more likely be suited to natural gas, since they often travel the same route every day and return to a central refuelling station.
2. Propane, or liquified petroleum gas (LPG), is actually a mixture of gases and is more commonly used for firing up the good old Kiwi ‘barbie’. It is also used for heating where there are no reticulated supplies of natural gas, like in the South Island. It is less expensive than petrol now, but the cost is likely to rise as demand increases. This is especially so since there is a limited supply with the Maui field due to be exhausted in a few years. Some new gas fields have been discovered but it will be some time before they come into production. Propane is presently more widely available than other alternative fuels but requires refuelling with special equipment and careful attention to safety procedures. Propane vehicles may have a shorter driving range, and all repairs have to be done by a technician who is qualified to work on such pressurised fuel supply systems.
3. Renewable energy is any energy source that can be either replenished continuously or within a moderate timeframe, as a result of natural energy flows. These include solar energy (heat and electricity), wind power, and hydropower. All of these can be used by lifestyle block holders to heat water, pump water or to produce small amounts of electricity.
4. Ethanol is a liquid alcohol fuel produced from biomass such as trees, grasses, grain or agricultural waste. For cars and other light-duty vehicles, ethanol is typically sold as a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% petrol but these are not available in NZ as yet. Ethanol produces lower emissions of ozone-forming compounds and toxic air pollutants. However, mileage is reduced because this fuel has a lower energy content than straight petrol.
5. Methanol is also called wood alcohol or methyl alcohol and is made from natural gas, wood, coal or biomass. The New Plymouth synthetic petrol plant Think Big disaster is based on production of methanol from natural gas. Like ethanol, it usually mixed with 15% petrol for use as a motor fuel for cars and light trucks, while heavier trucks run on straight methanol. The blend produces lower emissions but also reduces mileage to about two-thirds that of a similar petrol-powered vehicle.
6. Biodiesel is a fuel made from vegetable oil and can be used in any conventional, unmodified diesel engine. No engine modifications are necessary to use biodiesel and there is no need for any engine conversion – you just pour it into the fuel tank. You don’t have to convert the engine to run it on biodiesel, but you do need to make some adjustments and check a few things.

Biodiesel

Petroleum diesel leaves a lot of dirt in the tank and the fuel system. Biodiesel is a good solvent; it tends to free the dirt and clean it out. Be sure to check the fuel filters regularly at first and start off with a new fuel filter.Engines running on biodiesel run normally and have similar fuel mileage to engines running on diesel fuel. Auto ignition, fuel consumption, power output, and engine torque are relatively unaffected by biodiesel.

Biodiesel can be used alone (Straight Vegetable Oil or SVO) or mixed in any amount with traditional diesel fuel. Biodiesel is more lubricating than diesel fuel and it increases the engine life. It can be used to replace sulphur, a lubricating agent that, when burned, produces sulphur dioxide – the primary component of acid rain. All diesel fuel sold in France contains 5% biodiesel to replace the undesirable sulphur. One wonders why New Zealand is not doing the same.

Biodiesel can be made from any vegetable oil including oils pressed straight from the seed (virgin oils) such as soy, sunflower, canola, coconut and hemp. The oil is strained and usually “esterified”, by combining the fatty acid molecules in the oil with methanol or ethanol. Vegetable oil esters have been shown to make good-quality clean-burning diesel fuel. Biodiesel can also be made from recycled cooking oils from fast food restaurants. Animal fats like tallow and fish oil can be used to make biodiesel fuel.

goodGround’s special report Make Your Own Biofuels gives you recipes for making biodiesel from waste oil and from tallow. The use of Biodiesel dates back over 100 years to the invention of the diesel engine.Biodiesel can be stored anywhere that diesel fuel is stored. Biodiesel is safe to transport as it has a high flash point (ignition temperature) of about 300 deg. F. By comparison, petroleum diesel fuel, which has a flash point of 125 deg. F.

All diesel fuelling facilities, including pumps, tanks and transport trucks can handle biodiesel without modifications. Biodiesel is safe to handle because it is biodegradable and non-toxic. According to the National Biodiesel Board, neat biodiesel is as biodegradable as sugar and less toxic than salt. Biodiesel has a pleasant aroma similar to popcorn popping in comparison to the all-too-familiar stench of petroleum diesel fuel. Biodiesel reduces carbon dioxide emissions, the primary cause of the Greenhouse Effect, by up to 100%.

Since biodiesel comes from plants and plants that breathe carbon dioxide, there is no net gain in carbon dioxide from using biodiesel. Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it works in any diesel, without any conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system. It also has better cold-weather properties than SVO but not as good as petrol. Unlike SVO, it’s backed by many long-term tests in many countries, including millions of kilometres on the road.

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it’s fair to say that many SVO systems are still experimental and need further development. But biodiesel can be more expensive, depending what you make it from and whether you’re comparing it with new or used oil. Unlike SVO, it has to be processed as you have to make it. But the large and rapidly growing worldwide band of home-biodiesel-brewers don’t seem to mind. They manufacture a batch every week or so and soon get used doing so. Many have been doing that for several years.

Many people using SVO as a fuel, use Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) which commonly comes from used cooking oil because it’s cheap or free. WVO has to be filtered and dewatered, and probably should also be de-acidified. The process is simpler than making biodiesel but using SVO is not as straightforward as using biodiesel. You can find that process in the Special Report Make Your Own Biofuels.

Costs and prices

Biodiesel users who are using waste oil feedstock say they can make biodiesel for 50 cents per litre or less. Most people use about 3000 litres of fuel a year (about 60 litres a week) which works out to around $1,500 a year. An SVO fuel system costs about the same so you’ll be ahead in a year, not a long time in the life of a diesel motor. But will it last as long with SVO? Yes, if you use a well-engineered fuel system. It might be simpler to just buy your biodiesel vehicle instead. Most major European vehicle manufacturers now provide vehicle warranties covering the use of pure biodiesel – though that might not be just any biodiesel. Some insist on rapeseed methyl esters (RME), and will not cover soy biodiesel in the USA.

Germany has more than 1,500 filling stations supplying biodiesel, and it’s cheaper than ordinary diesel fuel. It’s widely used in France, the world’s largest producer. Virtually all fossil diesel fuel sold in France contains between 2% and 5% biodiesel. New EU laws will soon require this throughout Europe. Some states in the US are legislating along similar lines. There are a growing number of US suppliers. Biodiesel is more expensive than ordinary diesel in the US but sales are increasing rapidly and will accelerate with the recent petrol price increases. Prices may not drop much but they will become much more attractive if crude oil hits US$100 per barrel, as is widely predicted. In the UK, biodiesel is taxed at a lesser rate than petroleum diesel and it is available commercially. But there’s a lot to be said for the great feeling of independence you’ll get from making your own fuel. If you want to make biodiesel yourself, there are several good recipes available for making a high-quality fuel. We have included several recipes in our Special Report Make Your Own Biofuel. Some of the chemicals used are dangerous and safety precautions are essential.

There are at least three ways to run a diesel engine on bio-power, using vegetable oils, animal fats or both. All three work with both fresh and used oils.

1. Use the oil just as it is – usually called SVO fuel (straight vegetable oil)

2. Mix it with kerosene (paraffin) or diesel fuel, or with biodiesel

3. Convert it to biodiesel

The first two methods sound the easiest, but it’s not quite that simple.

1. Straight vegetable oil Straight vegetable oil (SVO) systems can be a clean, effective and economical option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The best way is to fit a full single-tank SVO system with different injectors and glowplugs, injector pump adjustment, fuel pre-heating, temperature controls and extra filters. With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system you can use petroleum diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just start up and go, stop and switch off, as usual. There are also two-tank systems which only pre-heat the oil, to make it thinner. You have to start the engine on ordinary petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank to warm it up, then switch to SVO in the other tank, and switch back to petroleum or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you’ll coke up the engine and the injectors.

2. Mixing it If you’re mixing SVO with petroleum diesel or kerosene, you are still using fossil fuel. That may be cleaner than most fuels but still not clean enough, many would say. But for every gallon of vegetable oil you use, that’s one gallon of fossil fuel saved, and that much less carbon in the atmosphere.

People use various mixes, 30% petroleum diesel and 70% vegetable oil, or a 50/50 mix. Some people just use it that way, start up and go. Others say it at least needs pre-heating and probably a two-tank system too, like SVO as above. The same goes for mixes with vegetable oil and biodiesel. In both cases, you might get away with just using it, as is, with an older Mercedes 5-cylinder IDI diesel. That is one very tough and tolerant motor – it might not like it but you probably won’t kill it. It may not be wise to try it in some expensive diesel motor where it has not been approved. People have tried putting 3 litres of pure rapeseed oil, bought from their local supermarket, straight into the tank of a diesel vehicle. That produced a 50/50 mix of diesel and vegetable oil. The only differences noted were that the engine ran about 10C cooler and the exhaust smelt like a fish and chips takeaway!

The danger of using such a high proportion of vegetable oil is that the cold starts will become a problem. Then the filter will probably start plugging up. In time, the oil injectors will likely to get coked up and the spray pattern will become unreliable. This will set the stage for ring sticking, glazing of the cylinder walls, increased lube oil consumption and eventual engine failure. More than 20% or so SVO oil in the diesel motor is not a good option.

To be safe, you’re going to need what amounts to an SVO system with fuel pre-heating anyway. You’ll use much less petroleum diesel or biodiesel by using it in the second tank for start-ups and stops rather than mixing it 50/50. Or just use 100% biodiesel and don’t bother with extra tanks and pre-heating the fuel. Mixes are a poor compromise but they do have advantages in cold weather. Some kerosene or #1 diesel mixed with biodiesel lowers the temperature at which it starts to gel, and a mix with biodiesel will do the same for an SVO system.Some suggest you can add a solvent to the vegetable oil to lower the viscosity; usually 3% white spirits or mineral turpentine. This is rather an experimental approach but work is going on with blends of SVO with other solvents, such as butanol and ethanol. You can make a test batch of biodiesel using one litre of fresh oil in a blender.

The recipe is in our Special Report Make Your Own Biofuels.

These last three alternatives are classed as biofuels and are the ones likely to be of most interest to lifestyle block owners who want to find renewable fuels for their energy needs. Biodiesel, methanol and ethanol are clean, grow-your-own fuels that can be made in small communities from renewable, locally available resources for the most part using very simple equipment. These fuels are among a wide range of sustainable rural energy options. Biofuels can be used to power small-scale farm and workshop machinery, electricity generators as well as local vehicles.

Energy crops

Energy crops, also called “bioenergy crops”, are fast-growing crops that are grown for the specific purpose of producing energy (electricity or liquid fuels) from all or part of the resulting plant. The plants that have been selected for further development as energy crops are mostly perennials such as switch grass, willow and poplar. They were selected for their advantageous environmental qualities such as erosion control, soil organic matter build-up and reduced fertiliser and pesticide requirements. There are many other perennial plant species which could be used for energy crops. In addition, some parts of traditional agricultural crops such as the stems or stalks of alfalfa, maize or sorghum may be used for energy production.

Plants store energy during the photosynthesis process, where they combine carbon dioxide from the air and water from the ground to form carbohydrates, which form the biochemical building blocks of biomass. The solar energy that drives photosynthesis is stored in the chemical bonds of the carbohydrates and other molecules contained in the biomass. Biomass is a renewable source of energy if the biomass is cultivated and harvested in a way that allows regrowth without depleting nutrient and water resources, it is a renewable resource that can be used to generate energy on demand, with little net additional contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions.

Burning biomass efficiently, results in little or no net emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, since the crop plants actually took up an equal amount of carbon dioxide from the air while they were growing. However, burning conventional fossil fuels such as gasoline, oil, coal or natural gas results in an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the major greenhouse gas which is thought to be responsible for global climate change. Worldwide, biomass is the fourth largest energy resource after coal, oil, and natural gas – estimated at about 14% of global primary energy (and much higher in many developing countries).

Biomass is used for heating (such as wood fires and stoves in homes and for process heat in bioprocessing industries), cooking (especially in many parts of the developing world), transportation (fuels such as ethanol) and, increasingly, for electric power production. Installed capacity of biomass power generation worldwide is about 35,000 MW.

Revenue from Bioenergy crops

Compared with annually-harvested arable crops (which provide an income within 12 months of planting), the returns from selling a perennial bioenergy crop are delayed until the crop is ready for harvest (after two or more years). Tree crops are usually harvested every 3-5 years, although harvests on different plots may be staggered so as to provide a regular annual income.

A field of switch grass would not usually be harvested in the first year, to promote good establishment; thereafter it can be harvested annually, and should last for a 10-year rotation. Willow may be harvested from year 4, with subsequent harvests every 3 years, and replanting after 22 years (7 harvests). Poplar takes 6-10 years to reach harvest size for energy. Like many investments, you should expect to wait a few years before making a profit on bioenergy crops.

Energy production from Biomass

When biomass is burned, it produces heat (as in any simple fireplace or furnace). In most power plants (steam-cycle or steam-turbine systems), this heat is captured by boiling water to generate steam, which turns turbines and drives generators that convert the energy into electricity. New technologies now being evaluated include several types of biomass gasifiers in which biomass is heated to convert it into a gas. This gas is used directly in a gas turbine, which drives a generator (a simple gas turbine system). In some cases, the waste heat from the gas turbine may be used to drive a secondary steam turbine, thus converting more of the fuel energy into electricity (a combined-cycle system). It is these biomass gasifiers that may offer electricity supply solutions for individuals or communities. Research is continuing to develop small modular biomass conversion systems (100 kW – 5 MW) to provide electricity cost-effectively to communities and industries. The main need for further development of biomass-electric technology is to improve the efficiency of energy conversion, to lower emissions, and to reduce the cost. Gasification offers greater flexibility, both in the range of possible biomass feedstocks and in the end-use of the energy. For example, as well as driving a gas turbine, the gas from a gasifier can power a fuel cell to generate electricity, or it can be used to generate steam in a gas boiler, sometimes in combination with natural gas. Large steam-turbine systems in power plants 200 MW or larger (such as most coal-fired power plants) are relatively efficient at energy conversion, but smaller biomass-fired steam-turbine systems (20-100 MW) require further research to improve their cost-competitiveness with fossil fuels. Biomass gasification systems may be able to combine high efficiency with cost-competitiveness in this size range (20-100 MW).

Bioenergy Economics

The projected cost of biomass supply for energy generation depends on location, and a variety of other factors such as differences in yields, different input prices, and differences in the profitability of alternative uses for the land being used for biomass generation.

It has been calculated that in most parts of the U.S. farm gate prices of US$35-45/ton would be needed to encourage significant amounts of biofuel production like switch grass. Transport costs of $15/ton would need to be added to allow for the cost of delivery to conversion facilities up to 80 km away. If trees were planted as a supply of bioenergy feedstock for a power plant it would take around 400 hectares of poplar (grown as a short-rotation crop) at a usable yield of 11 metric dry tonnes/hectare to supply an electric power plant with a capacity of one megawatt (1 MW).

The capital cost of building a biomass-fired steam-turbine plant is about $3000-3500 per kW of installed capacity, including a return on the investment. The currently high capital cost is a function of small plant size, which also increases operating costs in terms of capacity per employee. The capital cost of future gasifier power plants, based on equipment costs alone, is estimated at $1500 per kW in 2020. Projected total costs for the year 2020 for electricity from biomass gasifier/gas-turbine combined-cycle systems range from 7 to 10 cents/kWh.

To produce ethanol from biofuels is estimated to cost about $0.40 to $0.60 /litre. Currently, in the US, ethanol is produced from maize, and sells for around $2.00/USgallon ($0.50/litre). Costs are also expected to fall over time with improvements in technology and operating experience.

Their production does raise some interesting questions is it better to process a grain crop to make ethanol fuel or use the grain for livestock feed the livestock? The proponents say that the distillation process used to produce ethanol converts the carbohydrates in the grain but leaves the protein. The protein residue is an excellent stock feed, especially if supplemented by forage crops. Another question often raised – is ethanol energy-efficient?

This is a very controversial issue and relates to what environmentalists call the net energy of ethanol production. Simply put, the question is: is more energy used to grow and process the raw material into ethanol than is contained in the ethanol itself? A US Department of Agriculture study concluded that ethanol contained 34% more energy than is used to grow and harvest the corn and distill it into ethanol. None of this considers the fact that ethanol is a much cleaner fuel than petrol, reducing air-pollution, plus that it is a renewable fuel made from plants. Unlike fossil-fuels, manufacturing it and burning it does not increase the greenhouse effect. Burning biomass, efficiently, results in little or no net emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, since the crop plants actually took up an equal amount of carbon dioxide from the air while they were growing. However, burning conventional fossil fuels such as gasoline, oil, coal or natural gas results in an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the major greenhouse gas which is thought to be responsible for global climate change.

Summary

From the above, we can see there are indeed viable options and alternatives to oil-based energy and fuels. The way prices of such fuels are heading mean that we will all have to consider renewable energy or bioenergy; not just for environmental reasons but also for economic reasons.

We hope that you found this goodGround special report informative and useful. goodGround is growing… so please keep a look out for our growing library of special reports in all fields of land use and care.