ENERGY
Biofuel: From
“Oy!” to Soy
rou don't care about the environ-
. ern
not lke you liter or start forest fires
or anything. But you've got a building to
heat, and only so much budget with which
todo it. So, when somebody stars talking
about heating oil made from soybeans or
the unfortunately named rapeseed, you
tend toile iti that part of your mind with
the picture-phones and flying cars
28 HABITAT MARCH 2005
But there's biofuel in Brooklyn and
the Bronx. Yes, it’s being processed in
the lands of stoopball and the Yankee
already heating a few single-family
homes. Biofuel is currently a little
‘more expensive upfront than conven-
tional No. 2 heating oil. It burns a little
cleaner and thus more efficiently, how-
ever, so deciding whether it's right for
your co-op o condo requires a more
long-term cost-benefit analysis than
usual. But as with butter, margarine, and
low-cholesterol-no-trans-fatty-acid-
yogurt spread, it’s nice to have a choice
besides oil and natural gas.
So what's biofuel? “It’s a fuel that
includes a plant product or any other
organic compound] as part of its mix,
explains John Nettleton of Cornell
University’s Cooperative Extension
research group, based in midtown
Manhattan. Biofuel in the U.S. usually
means a blend of 20 percent esterized
soybean oil and 80 percent heating oil
= a mix called B20. Sunflower oil,
mustard-seed oil, and lots of other veg-
etable oils also work. The military is a
big user of biodiesel since “you've got
a mess hall feeding a couple thousand
marines twice a day so you have a lot
NYWTIBH ANNOWHO YOU GOING TO CALL?
New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority
17 Columbia Circle
Albany, N.Y. 1220:
(Toll-free) 866-N
http://www.nyserda.org/
‘The Center for Sustainable Energy
at Bronx Community College
University Avenue at West 181 Street
Bronx, N.Y. 10453
(718) 289-5100
http:/www:bee.cuny.edu/
Cornell Cooperative Extension/
New York City
16 East 34th Street 8th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10016
(212) 340-2900
http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/ne
w_york_city/
The National Bodies Board
3337a Emerald Lane
P.O. Box 104898
Jefferson City, MO 65110-4898
(800) 841-5849
https/iwww
of waste vegetable oil,” says Nettleton
“We did a study of retail food outlets in
Brooklyn last summer and found
there’s somewhere between 1.6 and 1.8
million gallons a year of waste veg-
etable oil just in Brooklyn, just in
restaurants.” (Renderers for soap, ani-
‘mal feed, and cosmetics currently recy-
cle 90 percent of that, just so you know
the restaurants aren’t throwing it down
the toilet.)
Soybean appears to be the “green-
est” — the most environmentally friend-
ly ~ plant to use as biofuel, since grow-
ing it doesn’t require nitrogen fertiliz~
et, which can add to the greenhouse
effect. But that's more than you proba-
bly need to know. What you do need to
know is that residential boilers designed
to bum No. 2 heating oil can burn B20
biofuel with minimal modification, if
any at all, While B20 produces slightly
fewer BTUs per volume than No. 2 oil,
it also has a slightly higher burn rate,
or heat output.
And it burns more cleanly: biofuel
in the boiler “exhibits reduced pollu-
tion for a number of indicators, includ-
ing particulates and sulphur dioxide,
and it seems that nitrogen oxide [NOx]
emission is the same or slightly
reduced,” says Nettleton.
Other sources aren’t so sure of that
last part — one Department of Energy
report cites a two percent NOx
increase over conventional fuel. Yet
even acknowled this, Dave
Schildwachter of the Bronx fuel com-
pany Fred M, Schildwachter & Sons,
has been selling B20 to homeowners
since the beginning of 2005. “There's
improved efficiency due to things sta
ing clean. There are fewer BTUs ver-
sus standard No. 2 oil, but th
cies more than make up for it.” he
notes. “The boilers stay cleaner, even
the nozzle strainers are cleaner.” And
efficien
they lived there themselves.
for you and your building.
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[MANAGING FINE PROPERTIES FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS
as any super knows, there's nothing
like clean nozzle-strainers.
Biofuel critic Dr. David Pimentel, a
Comell scientist and former chair of a
Department of Energy panel that stud-
ied corn-based ethanol production
(which he deems a disaster), concedes
that B20 “does burn a bit cleaner. But
that’s only after you've produced it ~
after you have the fue.” When you add
in production, processing, and trans-
portation energy needs, he says, citing
study he and a co-author published in
the March 2005 issue of Natural
Resources Research, soybea
MARCH 2006 HABITAT 29WE PAINTA {
DIFFERENT
PICTURE
‘ aA GEMENT
+2477 hanByon
mana: e
and respon:
+ Customi:
orts
ly basis |
‘eter Lehr, Director
ent, today to
Property
The Wa’
7001 Brush Holloy
Westbury, NY
info@kaleg’com
www.kaléd.com
Member,
REBNY
Ja
30 HABITAT ARCH 2006
BIOFUEL: PROS AND CONS
(ote: Environmental effects below refer to end-use, and do not include effects
‘associated with fuel production and transportation.)
PROS
+ Can be used wherever diesel fuel is utilized: vehicles, electricity
generators, marine vessels, and oil-fired heating systems.
* The soybean-oil portion is biodegradable, nontoxic, odorless, and
essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.
* Reduces problems associated with cold weather, stability, material
compatibility, and storage-tank cleanliness.
+ Provides increased lubricity.
* Can reduce carbon dioxide “greenhouse” emissions that may con-
tribute to global warming, as well as other harmful emissions includ-
ing sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter.
+ Cleaner-burning properties enable cleaner heat exchangers in
boilers and warm-air furnaces, theoretically reducing cost of annu-
al cleaning and tune-up.
CONS
* Costs as much as 20 cents a gallon more than diesel fuel.
+ Two percent increases in nitrogen oxide emissions.
+ Limited emission benefits compared to new, low emission engines
or after-market add-ons such as PM traps.
* Cold-flow management costs.
Lack of American Society for Testing and Materials standards,
+ Biofuel produced from feedstocks with high levels of saturated fatty
acids (tallow, lard, some yellow grease) has a risk of freezing in tanks
and forming crystals that plug fuel filters.
Sources: U.S. Dept. of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy (EERE): University of Idaho; New York State Energy Research and
Development Authority
biofuel requires 27 percent more ener-
gy than it gives in return.
Leaving such macro-factors to poli-
cy-makers (who also get mileage, so to
speak, over the contention that domes-
tically produced B20 lessens depen-
dence on foreign oil), biofuel is at least
a start. With Pimentel and others pro-
jecting that petroleum use will peak in
2007 and that the world’s dwindling
supply will tighten significantly in 40
to 50 years, governments and corpora-
tions here and abroad are seeking alter-
native fuels. In the New York metro-
politan region, the Keyspan energy cor-
poration — hardly a wild 'n’ crazy com-
pany ~ is actively pursuing biofuel to
help create electricity, according to a
spokesperson. (The multinational
British conglomerate BP, on the other
hand, is looking for alternatives but
opposes biofuel efforts in favor of