Biofuel Blog War

Exactly a month ago, Roll Call newspaper revealed that the Grocery Manufacturers Association had launched a PR campaign to roll back U.S. biofuel policy. GMA is once again on the offensive, releasing an industry-funded study that blames biofuels for higher food prices, ignoring the rapid increase in the price of oil that is driving up [...]

Revetec, a little known company from the Gold Coast region of Australia, may be on to something huge: they’ve created an engine that is 50% smaller, 50% lighter, has 50% lower emissions and is cheaper to manufacture than a conventional internal combustion engine of the same horsepower. Oh yeah, did I mention that it doubles the fuel economy too.

What that means is a car like the 2007 Toyota Yaris, which is rated at 40 mpg on the highway, would get 80 mpg with a Revetec engine.

This isn’t some hoax… They have a prototype which has been attached to an actual vehicle and independently tested to substantiate their claims.

In personal communication with Mr. Brad Howell-Smith, the Chairman, Inventor and CAD Designer for Revetec, he says “road tests have estimated that [the engine] uses around 50% less fuel than a conventional engine” and if it were converted to run on diesel, that performance gain could be much higher.

Also, because the engine delivers higher torque, and can perform and operate well at much lower rpm’s than a conventional one, the noise levels are lower.

To illustrate how serious he is, Mr. Howell-Smith said that since 2001 his company has been in touch with the US Military Head of R&D for the Southern Hemisphere on a “regular basis” for the purpose of developing one of their engines for light aircraft.

The current prototype engine, the X4v2, is what Revetec calls a “controlled combustion engine.” The meat of the engine comprises two counter rotating multilobate cams, which are acted upon by two pairs of diametrically opposed pistons which are rigidly interlinked by connecting rods.

If that sounds like complete gibberish to you, you’re not alone. Which is why I included an animation of the process to the left. A more simplified animation of the general motion of an engine of this sort is also included below.

Mr. Howell-Smith said that “if [the engine] uses 50% less fuel given that it has the same top end as a conventional engine, emissions would be reduced by 50% if the bottom end was utilized.”

What does all that stuff about “bottom end” and “top end” mean? The X4v2 has a huge amount of torque over a much larger range of rpm’s than a conventional internal combustion engine.

If a person were to drive a vehicle fitted with this engine in a non-aggressive fashion and keep the rpm’s at the “bottom end” (meaning no “jack-rabbit” starts) they could expect to see a 50% reduction in emissions.

Alternatively, according to Mr. Howell-Smith, a person could see a 30% reduction in fuel use and a 30% reduction in emissions if they used the full acceleration power of the X4v2 all the time. This would provide a 20% increase in acceleration capabilities.

We could debate about whether or not the internal combustion engine has a place in the future of transportation or whether it’s going to be all-electric or fuel cell or whatever… but in the meantime, Revetec has a product that could revolutionize the the transportation industry now, and provide a much needed large reduction in fuel consumption and emissions.

Just imagine a bunch of 80 mpg Toyota Yarises (Yarisi??) running around all over the place. A little scary, I know, but… an 80 mpg conventional automobile? I must be dreaming, wake me up before I get too excited.

Posts Related to Engines and Fuel Economy:

• Turbine Engine: No Pistons, No Lube, 30% Better Fuel Economy
• Six New Technologies Will Help Manufacturers Reach the 35 MPG Goal (Without Hybrids)
• Formula 1 Racing to Go Hybrid from 2009-2013
• Scania’s Ethanol Diesel-Engine, Runs On Biodiesel Too
• How Biodiesel Fuel-Cells Could Power The Future (And Your Car)
• Need a New Car? Nope, Just a New Engine!
• U.S. Fuel Economy Standards Boosted to 31.6 MPG by 2015

Image Credits: Revetec

Just this month IEA Bioenergy, released a report called, “Status and outlook for biofuels, other alternative fuels and new vehicles.
The report presents an outlook for alternative fuels and motor vehicles. The time period covered extends up to 2030. For anyone who has paid the slightest bit of attention to the news recently, you know that [...]

A preliminary study on biofuel production in Mozambique has suggested
that the most appropriate crops to use would be sunflower, sugar cane
and sweet sorghum, according to a repot in allAfrica.com. The report points out the difficulty of trying to grow a fuel crop which is also a food crop:

Iberol had intended to produce biofuels from sunflower, but the
chairperson of the Nutasa group, of which Iberol is part, Joao
Rodrigues, told the Portuguese news agency LUSA that it had run into
“many difficulties”, notably the theft of the crop at harvest time, and
the shortage of skilled labour.

Rodrigues blamed this on “social problems”, notably food shortages
among the population. “How can I make vegetable oil for fuel when the
people living in front of the plantation don’t have oil to make food?”,
he asked. “It didn’t go well, and it’s not worth wasting any more
effort”.

Tyson, a big US food processor is to turn waste fat from its food processing business into biofuels and jet fuel with Syntroleum, according to Green Energy Trends. Tyson produces an estimated 300m gallons of animal fat each year.

http://nbb.grassroots.com/08Releases/ASTM_final/ The ASTM organization has approved new and updated standards for biodiesel that should widen the reach of this alternative fuel.

The conventional petro-diesel specification (ASTM D975) has been updated to support up to 5% biodiesel blend. This means many regular diesel pumps across the nation could start carry up to B5.

A new specification covering B6-B20 should allow automakers to more easily approve use of these blends in their cars and trucks. The press release states “Several more companies are expected to raise their approvals to B20 now that the final ASTM specifications for B6-B20 blends have been approved.”

http://earthrace.net/index.php?section=1

Still ahead of world record pace, the biodiesel powered boat “Earthrace” is over 18,000 nautical miles along its route back to Sagunto (Spain) from where this, their second attempt, was initiated on 27 April. A recent rapid 80-minute refueling stop in India was the next to last port the boat will visit. Next up is their 12th stop at Port Said along the Suez Canal.
Nautical Mile sponsorships are still available if you would like to help with the pecuniary power part of their mission.

(Our previous entries on Earthrace.)

Among several key themes emerging from yesterdays’s Leadership Summit on Biofuels and Cleantech at the 2008 BIO International Convention, two stood above the rest: 
1) crop yield will continue to increase and will be able to satisfy both food and bioenergy needs; and 
2) moving from laboratory-based early-stage products to commercial products will be the next stage [...]

There’s been a  definitive piece of work on biofuels and food prices presented to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on 11 June chaired by Jeff Bingaman.

Two secretaries of state Samuel W. Bodman (energy) and Edward T. Schafer (agriculture) respond to a series of questions from the committee:

We would again caution, therefore, against hasty judgements driven by highly questionable, agenda-driven calculations, some of which have been featured prominently in the popular press. Many analysts both within and outside of government are currently working to model these questions, and the one certainty is that our data will improve substantially in the months ahead.

It is hard to disagree with that analysis of the situation. More heat than light in the debate in my opinion. For my money, these are some of the key points in the answers:

Appendix 1 Answers this question from Senator Bingaman: How has increased US. ethanol and biodiesel consumption affected domestic agriculture, and domestic food prices?

During the first 4 months of 2008, the all food CPI increased by 4.8 percent, with increased ethanol and biodiesel consumption accounting for about 4-5 percent of the increase in retail food prices.

Appendix 2 Answers this question from Seantor Bingaman: Has increased ethanol and biodiesel consumption in the United States
contributed to increased global prices for agricultural goods? And
if so, to what extent?

The price of corn increased by 61.7 percent from April 2007 to April 2008. Combining the change in corn prices with the corn weight of 8.1 percent, the change in corn prices contributed
5.0 percentage points to the estimated 45 percent increase in the global food commodity price index. Soybeans, soybean oil, and soybean meal exhibited larger price increases and play a much larger role in the global food commodity price index, a combined weight of over 15 percent. The combined effects of the increase in soybean, soybean meal, and soybean oil prices contributed 11.7 percentage points to the estimated 45 percent increase in the IMF global food commodity price index from April 2007 to April 2008.

And

The estimated impacts on global food prices are consistent with the estimates in response to Question 1. We estimate that the percentage increase in price ofcom from April 2007 to April 2008 would have been 23 percent lower in the absence of any growth in biofuel production in the United States. Based on this analysis, we estimate that the price of com would have increased by 47.5 percent assuming no growth in biofuel production in the United States, down from the actual increase of 61.7 percent, from April 2007 to April 2008.

The growth in biofuel production in the United States also has pushed up soybean, soybean meal, and soybean oil prices. We estimate the percentage increase in the prices of soybeans, soybean meal, and soybean oil from April 2007 to April 2008 would have been about 25 to 30 percent lower in the absence of any growth in biofuel production in the United States. Assuming no growth in biofuel production, the price of soybeans, soybean meal, and soybean oil in the global food commodity price index would have increased by 54.2, 51.2, and 61.5 percent, respectively, down from actual increases of78.6, 69.3, and 80.9 percent, respectively, from April 2007 to April 2008.

The effects ofbiofuel production in the United States on global price for agricultural goods is estimated by combining the individual commodity price impacts with their relative weights in the IMF global food commodity price index. Assuming no growth in biofuel production in the United States, the IMF global food commodity price index would have increased by 40.6 percent compared to the actual increase of 45 percent, from April 2007 to April 2008. Lower com prices contributed 1.2 percentage points, lower soybean, soybean meal, and soybean oil prices contributed 3.2 percentage points to the total reduction in the global food commodity price index.

However, combining soybeans, soybean meal, and soybean oil in the same index overstates the impact ofbiofuels on global prices. Soybeans are processed into soybean meal and oil and by including the effects ofbiofuels on the prices of all three commodities we magnify the impacts of biofuels on the global price index. If we exclude the impact of biofuels on soybean meal and oil prices, the IMF global food commodity price index would have increased by 42 percent assuming no growth in biofuels production compared to the actual increase of 45 percent, from April 2007 to April 2008.

Do you think that this is a fair assessment? I guess that as both of the secretaries of state are from the Bush Administration, they’ve got a political interest in playing the numbers down. The IMF numbers should give an element of impartiality though. Once again the prices of crops matters much less in countries where people eat a high proportion of processed food, but much more in countries where people eat unprocessed food.

I’m struck that

Des Moines Register has a piece about the way that moves to reduce the ethanol mandate in the US could reduce the amount of investment in cellulosic ethanol.

To which I say:  Duh. well yes if its done wrong I guess it could

The article by Philip Brasher has some useful numbers on the effect of biofuels on food prices which are quoted below. While none are large themselves, they do add up to quite a big proportion of the increases in food prices.