Fri, 01/23/2009 - 00:39
It's a new year. This country voted for change, and I, for one, fervently hope for change on virtually all fronts.
Most germane to Springboard Biodiesel, and I would argue to the nation as a whole, is change on the alternative energy front. Unfortunately, one of the key players in the race to successfully implement an alternative energy policy is the US automotive industry, an industry plagued by consistently bad environmental and economic decisions.
In his inaugural address, President Obama, again articulated his belief that a viable alternative energy infrastructure is an imperative for his government. We whole-heartedly agree! For we know that biodiesel is an alternative that works today. It's clean; it's renewable; it's sustainable. And, if you can make if from waste streams (i.e., recycled vegetable oil - RVO - and/or animal oils) it is the only alternative energy that is both good for the environment AND less expensive than the petroleum-based diesel it replaces. Sounds good right? Even the lame duck congress extended the $1.00 tax credit available to biodiesel producers. It seems that everyone believes that turning waste into an alternative fuel that reduces CO2 by more than 75% makes sense. Everyone, that is, except the automotive industry.
As unbelievable as it may seem, the same cluster of broken, bankrupt, vision-less executives who jetted off to DC to beg for billions so that they could sustain their environmentally destructive and strategically bankrupt business model, has given the green light to a new technology, "in-stream, post-injection DPF" technology, that creates the only known barrier to 1-for-1 biodiesel-for-diesel replacement. Let me see if I can slow my heart rate and better articulate the cosmic stupidity that is quietly being "standardized" under the guise of "new and better diesel technology" by the colossus of incompetence - Detroit, Inc.*
Detroit has chosen to work against the biodiesel desires of the country. Despite the fact that the US government has mandated
use of 1 billion gallons of by 2012**; despite the fact that the biodiesel industry employs more than 40,000 people and has invested approximately $3 billion dollars in manufacturing capacity, Detroit has decided to implement technology that impedes biodiesel growth. As illuminated in a recent article in Biodiesel Magazine (http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2290), the US auto companies' choice is patently wrongheaded: "Post Injection of fuel into the cylinders is intended to vaporize in the cylinder but not combust, exiting then through the exhast valves and traveling downstream where the introduction of the unburned fuel to the catalyst creates an exothermic reaction, incinerating the collected soot." Unfortuntaely not all of the "post-injected" fuel vaporizes, as biodiesel has a higher flash point than diesel, and instead it can seap down through the pistons and oil rings into the crankcase, thereby diluting the oil and potentially leading to premature engine wear. Quoting again from the article: "Because biodiesel has a higher distillation temperature and boiling point than diesel, when it's present in the post-injected fuel it tends to dilute the oil on a level disproportionate to its blend ratio in the fuel." It turns out that this aspect of the post-injection DPF technology has now emboldened Detroit, Inc. and many of the international auto manufacturers to declare biodiesel, in excess of B-5 blends, NON-COMPATIBLE with their newest diesel cars.
Not only is this new post-injection approach backwards and environmentally negligent, I believe the bold arrogance of its introduction illustrates perfectly why the government absolutely has to take the lead in pushing us towards an alternative energy infrastructure that works - one that creates jobs, weans us from the finite, geographically unattractive extractive resources that are threatening to change our way of life for the worse. We as a country will have to mandate for the auto industry, as time after time they have failed us with their myopic strategies and open disdain for anything environmentally beneficial, repeatedly claiming that the economics of environmental responsibility "just don't work".
Biodiesel does work! Just ask the hundreds of Springboard Biodiesel customers for whom the economics of environmental responsibility are profitably working every day. It is time for Detroit to evolve, to rise from the ashes of its past By aggressively working to design alternative fuel vehicle technology - and biodiesel is a known quantity (surely there is a reason for ASTM certification!) - Detroit can regain its past leadership position. If they fail to embrace this opportunity, extinction will be assured.
-MJR
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* To be fair, or equally harsh, the US car mfgers are not the only ones adopting this negligent technology - VW being an unfortunate co-conspirator. The others, however, are not being paid by our tax dollars to incorporate unintelligent, destructive, visionless technologies into their diesel cars.
** If we replace 1 billion gallons of diesel #2 with biodiesel, we will keep over 6.5millon tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere!
