I recently heard a word I wasn’t familiar with.

Thinking it was some new internet slang, I asked my teen what “hypermiling” means.

He looked up from his laptop, raised a quizzical eyebrow and said, “Hypermiling? How should I know?”

The boy spends 99% of his waking time on the web. If he didn’t know the word, clearly it wasn’t related to the internet. There was nothing to do but Google it.

Seconds later, Google was showing me hundreds of links and I was discovering a world I didn’t know existed, the world of the hypermilers.

Hypermilers are motorists fixated on squeezing out every last smidgeon of power from the gas they put in their vehicles. The model of car you drive doesn’t matter here. Mercedes owners don’t rank higher than the guy driving a rusty pickup. The only status in this group comes from producing eye-popping mpg’s.

The word “hypermiling” seems to have originated with Wayne Gerdes, a man many regard as the High Priest of the new order. Gerdes clearly knows his stuff. He reportedly once got a standard issue Ford pickup truck to average better than 100 miles per gallon over the course of one long, hot summer.

Gerdes may lead the army, but it’s everyday Jacks and Jills who fill out the ranks of the hypermilers. There’s no membership pledge, no team jacket, no dues to pay. All you need to join is an obsessive-compulsive relationship with your gas tank.

True, some hypermilers see it as a competitive sport. But most hypermilers want only to prevent gasoline from gobbling up most of their paycheck.

As one hypermiler mom told me, “Gasoline rules my budget. I fill up the car first, and then head to the grocery store to spend what’s left on dinner. I never know till I see what the gas pump says whether we’ll be eating hamburgers or Hamburger Helper.”

With a nod toward the design on her T-shirt that says, “Hypermiling is just plain fuelish,” she says, “I figured I either had to learn to use gas as efficiently as possible or convince the kids their favorite dinner is cornflakes.”

Another newby hypermiler explains, “I’ve never been a gear head. Don’t even change my own oil. And I sure never gave any thought to how my driving affected my gas mileage.”

He goes on. “But I saw a magazine article on Gerdes getting 100 miles a gallon from an old truck. He explained how letting the vehicle coast could increase your gas mileage. I tried it and sure enough, it extended the time between fill-ups. That’s how I got interested in hypermiling.”

If hypermiling was born out of frustration with high gas prices, it’s being raised by people who want a lot more than just to save a couple of dollars on gas. The truly dedicated hypermiler wants to join the ranks of the small, almost mythical group of drivers who manage, like Gerdes, to Coast and Pulse and Glide their way to fuel efficiency we mortals can only dream of. Me, I’ll be all too happy if I just learn enough about hypermiling to coax 50 miles per gallon from my old Chevy.

The message screams at us from every sign at every corner gas station— gasoline prices are at an all-time high and there’s no indication that relief is anywhere in site. In fact, many experts are saying it could get worse—much worse—and that’s sending masses of motorists scrambling for ways to cut down on gas consumption.

But what to do, when old, outdated myths and outright scams are filling the airwaves and internet? Just today we saw a television news station advising drivers to fill up their gas tanks in the morning when gas is cooler and more condensed, as a way of getting more for your money.

This outdated advice may have been true once—we don’t know for sure—but we do know that today gas stations store fuel below ground in 30,000-gallon tanks. That means gas stays at relatively the same temperature and does not expand and contract with daily cycles.

We’ve seen all sorts of other bad advice that’s outdated, ill-advised or just outright fraud. Claims that devises which bleed air into the carburetor can dramatically increase gas mileage turn out not to be true when put to the test under closely monitored conditions.

Same for those fuel-line gadgets that supposedly help you save on gas by heating it before it enters the carburetor, or magnets that clamp on to the outside of the fuel line to magically change the molecular structure of gasoline, or metallic additives that claim they ionize gas for great savings. They’ve all been tested by the EPA, which found the only thing these devises reduced was the amount of cash in motorist’s wallets.

Face it—with a long-term gas crises looming ahead, there are plenty of governmental bodies and even private industries that have good reason to want to help you save on gas. Here are ten tips they all agree will really help you do the job:

1. Keep your tires properly inflated according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. Under inflated tires make the vehicle run less efficiently and waste gas.
   
2. Don’t be an aggressive driver. Jackrabbit starts, tire screeching stops and speeding can lower your gas mileage by 5% on city streets and as much as 33% on highways.
   
3. Avoid excessive idling. Idling your engine for 15 minutes wastes one gallon of gas. Whenever possible, time your traveling to avoid lingering at traffic lights and reduce the amount of time you let your car warm up. In warm weather, driving is actually the most efficient way to warm up a combustion engine.
   
4. Slow down. The faster you go, the less efficiently your vehicle uses gas. 55 is the most efficient mph on highways. Go above 60 and your fuel efficiency decreases rapidly.
   
5. Remove excess weight. If you’re used to driving around with your golf clubs and a chain saw in your trunk, you’re paying a heavy price for it. Removing an extra 100 pounds from your car will increase your fuel efficiency by as much as 2%.
   
6. Don’t use premium fuel unless your vehicle manufacturer requires it. And double or triple check your automakers advice by asking true auto experts—not just shade tree mechanics—for their best advice. We’re not pointing fingers at anyone, but some automakers with ties to big petroleum producers have been known to recommend premium fuels in cases where regular would do just as well.
   
7. Have a mechanic check your oxygen sensors. A faulty oxygen sensor will mistakenly send more gas to the engine then is needed. Replacing a faulty oxygen sensor can save you as many as six fill-ups a year.
   
8. Make sure your air filter is clean. A dirty air filter dramatically reduces fuel efficiency, so don’t just blindly follow some predetermined schedule for putting in a new one. Consider your actual driving conditions. Driving on dirt roads—or just plain dirty roads—or in heavily polluted cities will get your air filter filthy a lot faster than you might expect.
   
9. Check on your “forgotten filters.” Most motorists know to check the air filter when they do a tune-up, but not many think to check on the fuel filter, the PCV valve and the breather filter. Replacing these “forgotten” filters once a year or every 12,000 miles can help improve your gas mileage by up to 15 percent.
   
10. Get a new gas cap—and make it one with a lock. Old gas caps can get out of shape. As gas fumes expand in your tank, they can escape past a faulty seal and waste precious fuel. Some studies suggest you can save as much as 17 gallons of gas a year just by replacing an old gas cap. And consider making that new gas cap a locking model because sadly, as gas prices go up, so do gas thefts.

     

A few new articles for your reading pleasure today…

Is it possible to run your car on cooking oil - go have a read and find out (I think we know the answer to that one!) Read more…

Whatever happened to the electric car? Does it have a future or is it still a pipe dream? Read more…

The hybird car - how does it work and all about plug-in hybrid cars. Any comments on hybrid cars, leave one below…

Finally, how to save money at the pump with hydrogen. Read more…

Just a bit of light reading for you today.

Any comments on hybrids, hydrogen or anything biodiesel/alternative fuel related…leave them below and let's get a discussion going…

America has not seen such a wide reaching crisis involving petroleum based fuels as we are now experiencing; not only nation wide but global in its scope.

Political concerns, according to conventional wisdom, may indeed be the root cause of fuel prices soaring out of control, but they will not be addressed in this report.
Certain obvious facts supersede political hype and present an urgent need to focus on reality. Petroleum reserves are limited. Exploitation of those reserves is controlled by foreign governments over which we have no control. The pressing question is “How does the United States change the basic ground rules into our favor? What are our alternatives?”

What are the alternatives?

Current thinking has produced a number of viable sources for domestic energy, but feasibility studies on the majority of the proposals yields striking shortcomings. For an in depth review of some of the problems encountered, I highly recommend the University of New Hampshire bio diesel study. This study was a spin off from a Dept. of Energy funded research grant exploring the carbon dioxide sequestration potential of certain marine algae. I consider the study a must read for anyone seriously interested in alternative fuels in general and bio diesel in particular.

My personal focus here is the spin off of the marine algae study, namely; bio diesel for transportation needs. After all, it is the price of gasoline for our cars and trucks that is causing a national frustration and rage amongst consumers. It is gasoline at $4.00 per gallon that is causing a massive penetration of our national apathy and sense of entitlement. What does the pump price of gas have to do with bio diesel? I don’t drive a diesel vehicle. Maybe I should! Maybe we all should.

One of the first positive results of the DOE study was finding that marine algae do indeed sequester (bind up) greenhouse gasses…. Big time! Not only did they gobble up the CO2 but they used waste water (sewage) ingredients as nutrients to produce more algae, which went to work and produced …. Etc.

The moment of serendipity, the ‘AHA!’ event, came when they discovered just what that little green micro-plant was doing with the stuff it was consuming so well. The little buggers were converting the excess-over-reproduction into lipids (oils) which have high energy content.

Upon discovering the lipid conversion feature, DOE changed the focus towards examining the feasibility of using marine algae to produce engine friendly diesel; bio-diesel. Let me point out that singer Willie Nelson has two touring busses entirely powered by bio-diesel. Which one, I don’t know; just that they run very well, thank you.

 Obviously, there are several sources of vegetable oil that work fine as diesel fuel. The problem driving most research seems to be the individual plant source return on investment. ROI is the reality all marketers have to keep in mind. Consider the following parameters…

• Cost of energy to manufacture fertilizer.

• Cost of energy to truck fertilizer to field.

• Cost of energy to plant the corn/soybeans, etc.

• Cost of energy to harvest the crop.

• Cost of energy to truck the crop to the corn oil plant.

• In short, how many ergs of energy do you have to expend to get an excess of ergs in return?

Other considerations would include the climate mandated one crop per year and four to five months laying idle, waiting for spring; which would group together all grain sources as poor starters. Probably the most sinister factor of using food grains as a bio-diesel source is that the vast majority of arable land in the U.S. would be pre-empted for fuel. Your cornflakes and Cheerios would have to be imported from somewhere offshore. Not a good idea.

Marine algae thrive in salty water; water like the Great Salt Lake where several algae ponds are currently in production. Marine algae like lots of sunlight which is plentiful throughout the South West, South Central and South East. Marine algae thrive on cheap feedstock such as city waste water. They also reproduce at phenomenal rates, becoming self sustaining, all year round.

The oil produced by marine algae is directly useable in any standard diesel engine now manufactured in the United States. There is no need to change any of our service station pumps which are already pumping diesel; merely changing reversing the ratio of gasoline pumps to diesel in order to accommodate the phase out of gasoline as a primary transportation fuel. Distribution and storage infrastructure also need no changes as pipelines, tanks and over the road delivery works equally well with diesel.

Marine bio-diesel yields have been estimated at 1700 gallons of fuel grade oil per acre/year. Extrapolating from that, it would take about 16,000 acres of pond to nurture algae and produce enough diesel fuel to replace the entire annual transportation fuel needs of the United States. The money, in billions of dollars, spent in building the production infrastructure would remain within the homeland.

 There is, of course, a down side to all this serendipity. There are varieties of algae which invade the open ponds now being studied. They can be so vigorous as to squeeze out our oil producing plants, rendering the pond useless. Current technology has developed sealed photo reactor “ponds” which eliminate the problem of foreign algae incursion. At present, they seem universally too expensive to implement on a large scale.

I contacted the project director at the University of New Hampshire, offering my services as a design draftsman in the project. I was informed of the alien incursion problem and that “We’re working on it.” UNH estimated it would take three to four years to come up with a sealed production system that would be cheap enough to build. Any such system would have to cost less than current petroleum refining systems.

 Someone once said…

 “If we can put a man on the moon and bring him back alive, we can do anything!” Personally, I like that thinking.

Here's a great article reprinted from The Guardian about how Biodiesel has really taken off in the last few months over here in the UK…

I've reprinted it here, I'm sure my good friends at the Guardian won't mind (after all, I buy their paper every week!)

Enjoy….

Every few weeks Gordon Elliott drives 22 miles to the Hare and Hounds pub in Marple, Cheshire, collects a barrel of waste cooking oil from his stepdaughter and takes it back to his personal oil refinery in his garage in Leigh, near Bolton. The retired construction site manager then decants the liquid into a machine and adds a few chemicals.

Twenty-four hours later the waste oil has been purified, filtered and refined and is ready to be used in one of his family's two diesel cars. Instead of paying £1.25p a litre at the local supermarket, he has paid 15p to make his own biodiesel. He says he is saving nearly £100 a month - as well as 90% of the greenhouse gases he would normally emit from driving. The cars perform perfectly, the equipment will be paid for within a year and the pleasure of making his own fuel is intense. "It's the principle. I do it for the environment and to spite the exchequer," he said.

Elliott, 79, is part of a cottage industry of people who have turned to making their own recycled "biodiesel" in response to the doubling of fuel prices in just over a year. Companies making biodiesel "reactors" report booming sales and demand for cheaper diesel is outstripping anything they can produce.

"Our business has doubled in size in just the last six months," said David Taylor of Ecotec Resources, the Lancashire company which sold Elliott his machine and which also makes 100,000 litres a year of recycled fuel.

"If you can collect your own oil it works out at about 15p a litre. Otherwise you can buy in your waste oil for about 30p, so you are getting diesel for about 45p. That's a big saving on the forecourt price." He is selling 15-20 biodiesel machines a week and has sold 800 in under a year to taxi firms, hauliers, restaurants and others.

DIY diesel is seen by many as the revenge of the little man on the government, oil companies and the authorities. No one knows how many backroom refineries there are in Britain, but a government study suggested there were around 1,400 small scale plants producing a few thousand litres a year in 2005/6. Since then the price of diesel has more than doubled and the market for machines has risen. People in the industry suggest there are 35 companies refining recycled oil commercially and perhaps 20,000 individuals making private arrangements to collect and process oil from local restaurants, chip shops and food manufacturers.

Since the law was relaxed to allow people to make 2,500 litres a year for their own use, most are working legally, but as the price of fuel rises inexorably, so criminal elements are moving in.

"There are wars going on in London to get the oil," said Tom Lasica, who runs Pure Fuels, London's largest refiner of vegetable oil. "Spanish and German companies are moving in to buy up British used vegetable oil. People are stealing it from each other and selling it abroad. We heard that one fish and chip shop in Southend was broken into just to steal the waste oil."

"A lot of people are making the diesel for new cars. A year ago most people were putting it into old cars. Now the quality of the oil is critical," said Kym Leatt, a director of Envirogroup, which collects, refines and sells 7,500 litres a week in Kent.

"If we could produce five times as much biodiesel we could sell it just like that," said Leatt. "Demand has grown exponentially. Every day we have two or three new businesses asking us. Some companies are saving £25,000 a year. Were selling it to hauliers, taxi firms, fleets of tipper trucks. In the past it would either go down the drain or go to landfill. This is true recycling." He is selling for 98p a litre compared with £1.18-£1.25 at the pumps.

"Demand is going through the roof. We're selling biodiesel machines to the average Joe, universities, schools, restaurants, taxi drivers, absolutely anyone," said James Hygate, a director of GreenFuels. "We've noticed a surge of people driving company cars. They are making their own and then claiming 45p a mile from their firms.

"It's a true grassroots industry. The better quality oil is being taken at source by the small guys. Home scale production is definitely growing fast. Groups of farmers are beginning to grow the crops and make their own diesel."

Demand is growing from institutions and local authorities. The borough of Richmond is this week putting out a tender for a £3.5m contract to run all its 300 council vehicles on recycled vegetable oil for the next three years. The council says it could save nearly £100,000 and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by several thousand tons.

Back in Marple, Elliott will this weekend be heading for the Hare and Hounds to pick up another barrel. "Everyone wants it. But if I have any left over I'll give it to the lad," he says.

Good stuff eh? 15p a litre, that's about 30 cents my American friends.

Always nice to see the little guy succeeding.

Leave your comments below…

There seems to have been a glut of new products released just recently in the alternative fuel market.

One that's been around for sometime though is the Diesel Secret Energy.

This claims to be better than biodiesel, easier to create and more cost effective…but is it more harmful to the environment?

Here's more info on the subject… Diesel Secret Energy Review

…but if you've ever tried the stuff, please leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

 

Run Your Car On Water

Another book on how to run your car using water was released recently.

Take a look here… Run Your Car On Water

Promising to give you the knowledge to be able to create a water hybrid for less than $150!

This could save you over 40% on fuel costs.

This product we haven't tested, so again, if you have any comments to make about this product (is it a viable alternative or just pie in the sky?)…then please leave them below…

 

How To Make Biodiesel Video

I also thought you might like to see this…

Found it on YouTube and it shows a guy running you through his own little set up of biodiesel making kit in his garage. Take a look…

 

Hey folks,

So here we go with our "weekly" round-up of biodisel goodness from around the world. I hope you enjoy it…

Safeway Go Green

The story that seems to have cropped up the most around the web this week is news that supermarket giant Safeway will now run its fleet of over 1000 trucks on biodiesel fuel across the USA.

"Our customers care about these types of sustainability issues, and we are proud to be a leader in environmental best practices," said Joe Pettus the senior vice president

China Gets Biodiesel Friendly

In the northern provnce of Hebei, around 7,000 hectares of biodiesel forest will be grown.

China is trying its best to fuel its massive and fast growing economy and its turned to biodiesel to achieve that.

Biodiesel At The Movies

Biodiesel will be featured in the upcoming film "Fields of Fuel". Josh Tickell's movie will be screened at the Sundance Film Festival this week and Tickell has used the movie to call for better support for biodiesel from politicians.

Although mainly a mouthpiece for the director's environmental preoccupations the film does offer some decent educational fodder about our favourite fuel source.

EU Bans Palm Oil Biodiesel?

Although it's Europe's aim to provide at least 10% of all vehicle fuel from biofuels by the year 2020, the EU is currently planning to ban palm oil biodiesel.

Environmentalists aruge that fuels made from palm oil are doing more damage to the environment because of the destruction of rainforests.

It seems the EU will ban any biofuel derived from "sensitive ecosystems" such as tropical forests and grasslands.

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A reasonably quiet time for all things biodiesel this week, any questions or comments please leave your message below and let's get some discussions going…

So here's the first in what will be regular updates of biodiesel news from around the globe. Enjoy…

School Bus Melted Into Biodiesel!?

A 1000 pound butter sculpture was recently unveiled at a Pennsylvania Farm Show. The sculpture depicts children getting on a school bus and is sure to wow your eyes as it is turn your stomach!

Take a look at the pic here

The sculpture will eventually be sent to Penn State University where it will be turned into biodiesel fuel. Hurrah!

Biodiesel Made From Rubber Seeds…

I receive a lot of emails asking me whether biodiesel can be made from this or that substance so - whaddya think about this?

Chemical engineering lecturer Mohammad Tazli Azizan apparently grew up playing around with rubber seeds as a kid (well, we all need a hobby!) and so he decided to find out what he could make from them and, yes, biodiesel was produced!

His only remaining problem is to find away to collect the rubber seeds adequately. Any suggestions?

Read the full story here

Chocolate Biodiesel…

Lastly, how's about this for an expedition? Eat your heart out Phileas Fogg. A couple of guys from the UK have just completed an extraordinary journey from the UK to Timbuktu in their truck powered by biodiesel.

It's a big enough feat in itself but did you know that the biodiesel was made entirely from chocolate?

From their site… "Confusion surrounding biofuels has lead to a backlash as it was revealed that some biofuels have a worse carbon footprint than their fossil counterparts, but recycling techniques and developing technology means biofuels can be made in such a way that they benefit the environment and the chocolate diesel is a great example of this."

The travellers delivered a biodiesel processing unit to a Malian charity which means they will now be able to produce biodiesel locally - which in turn means the whole journey has become carbon negative - a genuine world first. Congrats guys!

Carthame or Safflower (Carthamus tintorius, Compositae). Grown mainly in India, Mexico, Ethiopia, Australlia and cultivated in USA. The plant was known in ancient Egypt (mummy of pharaoh Amenophis I, 1600 B.C.), in the Persian Gulf and used until recently for its tinctorial properties (pink, red color). 

Oil content: 30-40%. The oil which has one of the highest linoleic acid content (75-80%) is used in lipochemistry, human nutrition and dietetic. Thus, safflower oil is utilized as cooking oil and in the form of salad oil, mayonnaise, margarine and in processed foods. Nonfood uses are coatings, paints, and alkyd or polyamide resins.
Most of the commonly cultivated varieties contain more than 70% linoleic acid in their oil but some varieties have been developed with high oleic (up to 70%) or stearic (5-10%) acid contents.

The world production of safflower seeds was about 20,000 tons in 1999, 36% being from India. Although the cetane number of Biodiesel produced from this plant is lower in comparison to other plants, yet its iodine value is in accordance with ASTML.In Pakistan this crop is cultivated in Provinces of Sind and N.W.F.P on small scale.

Yet by proper bioengineering of this plant, it is possible that this plant will contribute to Biodiesel production on large scale in Pakistan. 

We all understand (or should do by now) the importance of alternative fuel being developed and encouraged in South Africa and the rest of the world. 

Why is it that things are being made so difficult for those putting in the effort?

Also, as with all emerging markets, those who get in early expect to make some money from it.  An accepted economic fact for those lucky enough to survive the roadblocks along the way.  

Here I refer specifically to those NGO's and entrepreneurs that support the 'cause'.  'Big Business' seem to want to gather in the 'little okes', check out their research and development, gobble them up only to spit them out in the not-too-distant future.  OK, some financial help to survive and grow is a wonderful carrot; but at what cost?  And what is the rest of the country going to really benefit by this?

My personal little view is that, although big business and government has the moral and legal responsibility  and financial clout to DO something about the alternative fuel and energy issues (and they ARE doing something, I am told), I believe that the decentralising of energy and biofuel is the key.   This will create some much-needed jobs, skills, education, slow down urbanisation, empower a larger number of people and communities in the ways that matter most.

Feedstock oil for the manufacturing of biodiesel is a problem.  A growing one at that.  In South Africa we are limited to certain traditional food crops for feedstock (Jatropha not being allowed yet; and algae technology still being developed).  Feedstock oil is therefore being imported at huge cost (up to R14 per litre) from countries and companies/individuals that (rightly) see the opportunity to make hay while the sun shines.  

Not to be outdone, many local companies have leapt onto the bandwagon and are charging premium prices for used vegetable oil and stuff that is sometimes really of questionable quality and content.

Being a manufacturer of small biodiesel processing units, Bioman Energy discusses this scenario with clients on a daily basis.  The bottom line is:  how will the the deadline for a biodiesel blend in 2013 be met if the small manufacturer of biodiesel is not encouraged by govenment with the introduction of some means of support to  import feedstock oil and/or the planting of the high-yield crops that will be neccessary to achieve this goal?

The planting of feedstock crops by communities (supported by NGO's and government), I believe will create more empowerment than would the large-scale control and planting of feedstock crops by 'international investors' and large companies.   The question here should be:  Is it for South African use or for export?   If not for South African use, then NO!  No exploitation!  We look after our own people and their needs first.  International companies should take their money-carrots elsewhere!  

An interesting piece can be read on the following link :  http://www.biofpr.com/view/MTAwMDE3L05XLzUxL251bGw=/newsDetail.html

Yeah, I get emotional about this stuff.  I am still mild compared to the people that attended the CURES workshop with me recently.  Check their web site too.  

…and I am not even a 'real greenie'.   I just work hard at something I believe in and believe will make a difference.

Why are YOU in the biodiesel business?