Top 10 Biodiesel Trends 2018: what’s up with the world’s favorite advanced biofuel?

#3 R&D highlights

From B100 to emissions research, it’s been a fasvinating year in R&D

In January, we reported on two highlights from the National Biodiesel Board’s annual convention.  Going for B100? In the after-market, there was Optimus Technologies, whose technology enables B100 use even in the coldest climates. With its controller and second heated B100 tank system, Optimus is providing fleets an easy and cost-effective way to use pure B100 biodiesel in their existing vehicles and reduce carbon by 80 percent at a fraction of the cost of conversion to other fuel alternatives being considered that don’t provide as much carbon reduction, like compressed natural gas.

Today over 80 percent of the diesel vehicles coming off production lines fully support the use of B20, and OEMs are beginning to look into higher blends as well.

Another highlight was a new study from the United States’ Argonne National Laboratory on biodiesel’s lifecycle energy and greenhouse gas emission effects found  biodiesel compared to petroleum diesel reduces GHG emissions by 72 percent and fossil fuel use by 80 percent. This study represents the first time Argonne National Laboratory has published a lifecycle assessment of biodiesel including indirect land use change. ILUC has been included in analyses by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board that independently conclude biodiesel’s GHG advantage exceeds 50 percent reduction over diesel fuel.

“The improvements to ILUC modeling in this study were not possible just a few years ago, because we did not have as much data as we do today,” said Farzad Taheripour, one of the authors of this paper from Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics. “Data available today shows that farmers all around the world are increasing productivity on existing farm land. Calibrating the model to these real-world trends improves the accuracy and reduces the predicted emissions of biofuel expansion.” The improved model reduces ILUC emissions by more than 30 percent relative to the score adopted by CARB in 2015.

Biodiesel stands its ground, won’t back down: new B20 vehicles, emissions cuts, highlight NBC 2018

Earth’s poles offer up valuable biosurfactants for biodiesel, washing clothes and more

In February, we reported that cold-loving molecules from the Earth’s poles can act as green detergents, fuel additives, and other applications. Researchers think the biosurfactants help bacteria separate the complex substrates they feed on into easy-to-metabolize droplets. According to the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences press release, biosurfactants are safe to release into the environment and can be produced using affordable waste products such as olive oil byproduct and cooking oils. They also work in lower concentrations, so less is needed to get the same job done. But the ones produced by extremophilic bacteria have an added bonus by working at freezing temperatures.

This stability has huge implications for how these molecules could be used. Biodiesel, for example, could improve its sluggish flow in cold temperatures if a biosurfactant is added. Cold-active biosurfactant detergents would mean we could go green by reducing washing temperatures, without worrying that our clothes wouldn’t get clean. These biosurfactants could also be used to harvest natural gas from cage-like ice crystals called gas hydrates or to clean up pollution spills in colder regions of the ocean.