Biodiesel in MA

This AP article was printed in the Boston Metro newspaper this morning:

Firm Speeds Up Alternative Fuel Effort

A Massachusetts-based biodiesel company announced plans yesterday that could make the alternative fuel more available and cost-efficient across the Northeast.

Northeast Biodiesel president Lawrence Union said 75 percent of the biodiesel his company plans to start making will be sold to Biofuel Brokers, a Michigan company that will distribute the fuel to nearby refineries and wholesale suppliers.

"The mission here is to have biodiesel available on every street corner," Union said.

But that goal isn't about to happen overnight.

Northeast Biodiesel still needs to build its production facility, which is scheduled to open in a Greenfield industrial park next spring. And by the end of 2006, Union said the company will be ready to make about 5 million gallons of biodiesel a year from the recycled vegetable oil it's been buying from a New York-based business.

Biodiesel, which can be used on its own or blended with petroleum-based diesel fueld, can be used as home heating oil and can power cars, trucks and farm equipment with diesel engines. It can be made from recycled vegetable oils or soybeans. [And I's note: Vegetable oils and Soybeans are two of the least effecient sources of biomass with which to produce biodiesel. Check out this list of biodiesel yields from various sources. Soybeans are near the bottom of the list. Rapeseed is the most common feedstock for biodiesel production in Europe--it is far more effecient than soybeans. We should get on that tip...]

Its popularity has been growing since 1992 when Congress passed the Energy Policy Act to reduce the nation's dependency on foreign oil. [And I's note: I'm gunna have to check up on that act, we have not reduced our dependence on foreign oil one iota since 1992... In fact we have increased our dependence on foreign oil consistantly over time.] It has since been approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as an alternative fuel.