MAY/JUNE 2009 FEATURE ARTICLES | EDITORIAL | Q&A - STEPHEN HAYES | DOING GOOD ABROAD | GETAWAYS | MEDICINE | WORKLIFE | EPICURE | COVER |

January/February 2004

    Energy, it makes the word's wheels go round, literally. And it also powers the world's economies, enabling our brilliant species to utilize our clever technologies and live enriching lives. But in some ways our species' energy use isn't so brilliant. We get energy by digging in the ground and then burning what we find there-oil, coal and gas, all fossil fuels-releasing their stored solar energy. But we also unwittingly release other things that are hurting us: poisons that sicken and kill us, and carbon dioxide, which dangerously heats up our atmosphere. Plus, we in the USA are trying to protect our future access to our planet's dwindling fossil fuel reserves, which are mostly in Arab countries, and that is proving to be painful (and dangerous), too. If we stay on this course, scientists and futurists are telling us, we are likely to hurt pretty badly. There may be a way out.

      One of our primary energy needs is for portable fuels. Everyone reading this uses portable fuel, for your car, for the bus, for the trains and trucks that deliver your food to grocery stores, for the backhoe that digs the hole for your home's foundation.

      New technologies have enabled people to extract portable fuel from non-fossil sources, such as leftover French fry grease and plant stems. Boulder Bio-diesel collects used oil from Sunflower Restaurant in Boulder (and many other places) and makes fuel out of it with a simple process. Boulder Rolfer Eric Fenz fills up his VW bug with the fuel, and feels good as he drives off, even though he pays a bit more for it than he would for regular diesel. His car's exhaust smells like a Chinese restaurant. It pollutes way less than a car burning diesel would.

      Should this be our collective future? If so, how do we get there? To answer these questions, and many others, we interviewed Ed Lewis, who is the Senior Deputy Director of the Colorado Governor's Office of Energy Management and Conservation in Denver (OEMC), and is the State Biomass Coordinator for Colorado. He has been involved in numerous alternative fuel projects in Colorado over the last seven years, and is a well-respected expert in the field.

      We also interviewed David Green, PhD, a researcher at Oak Ridge National Labs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. (See page, "Can alternative fuels eventually replace petroleum fuels?")      

RD: Bio-diesel is not produced from petroleum, correct?

EL: Correct.

RD: So the companies that extract petroleum from the ground may find bio-diesel a competitive thing.

EL: They may. 

RD: And some Nexus readers might think that a government agency such as yours is going to have a bias against bio-diesel because it isn't going to help the companies that got their bosses elected. 

EL: I'll tell you straight out, we have no biases like that. In fact, we work with lots of different companies and consider it very important to blend these fuels, rather than trying to replace one or the other. We're not going to replace petroleum for a long time to come. We certainly want to see an extension of supplies, and that's one way to do it. A lot of oil companies are starting to look at blending themselves. Bio-diesel does a lot of things that petroleum doesn't do, at least not right now. 

RD: Please tell us about this whole world of alternative fuels.

EL: The notion is that alternative fuels may provide us with ways to use renewable energies, and in the process create rural economic empowerment which could help our farming communities. Instead of looking for fuels from other countries or other parts of this country, agricultural interests can now get into the business of producing fuels.

RD: You mean by growing a crop?

EL: Yes, or maybe starting fuel-making processes. Maybe they get woody materials from forests, and then convert those to fuels. Then they can create co-ops or work with oil companies to get in on the action, keeping money in their communities and improving their bottom line.

RD: And what are the advantages for the consumers of these fuel sources?

EL: It's likely going to improve the environment-fuels won't have to be hauled as far, and we'll see a reduction in both air and water pollution.

RD: Why does alternative fuel pollute less than petroleum-based fuel?

EL: Petroleum-based fuels, for example, contain MTBEs (methanol tertiary butyl ethanes), which are known to be water pollutants. It's what the oil companies mixed in to replace lead when lead was removed from gasoline. Now oil companies are adding ethanol, which is nothing more than alcohol and has very little toxicity. When the EPA mandated cleaning up the atmosphere in the Denver metro area, ethanol was added to fuel to reduce the pollution. And it was only burned during the winter. Now, if you can find it, you can even burn what they called E-85 in some of the flexible fuel vehicles-that's a mixture of 15 percent gasoline and 85 percent alcohol. Some gas stations sell it, but not many in Colorado yet [see sidebar]. 

RD: So ethanol does help reduce pollution, in part by reducing MTBEs?

EL: Yes, and also by boosting oxygenation of the fuel-so with more complete combustion, you'll have fewer by-products of incomplete combustion. By the end of 2003, the industry was expected to be capable of making almost three billion gallons of ethanol a year, which is a huge increase over the past 10 years. Most ethanol is made from corn, but anything that's a sugar can produce ethanol.
It's a fairly efficient process, converting corn to ethanol. As a matter of fact, the waste can be used as feed for cattle, and because it has a high protein content, it's being considered as a food supplement for people in developing parts of the world. It may also be used by pharmaceutical industries to produce heart and other medications. It's much like any distillery product-because it's a pure alcohol, it could even be drunk.
As I said, three billion gallons is the current capacity. If California decides to completely eliminate MTBEs, it could be demanding as much as 900 million gallons of ethanol by the end of 2004. It gives you a quick sense of how quickly three billion gallons could go, if the bigger states were to need a substantial quantity. As a result, there's an effort to increase ethanol production-the average production capacity of an ethanol-producing plant now is about 40 million gallons a year.

RD: Are all the plants in the Midwest, where the corn is? Or do we have some in Colorado?

EL: We don't-the only one we have in Colorado is at Coors Brewery. They have a one million gallon a year plan, I believe. One reason is that corn is cheaper to grow in other states than it is in Colorado. Colorado's corn is mostly used as a feed source, so it has a higher cost. 

Erik Fenz, of Boulder, fills up his VW Bug with locally produced bio-diesel.

RD: Let's talk about bio-diesel. What is it made from?

EL: It can be made from yellow grease, which is grease left over from restaurants and fast food establishments, from cooking French fries, onion rings and such. There's a fair amount of that grease available, and it can be used in a number of ways. For example, Albertson's grocery store uses all of the grease by-products generated by their store at their headquarters to heat to the building. It can also be burned directly, or refined to make bio-diesel.

RD: Isn't it possible to turn even more fry grease into bio-diesel?

EL: Yes, but it would be difficult to collect, and would involve a lot of transportation. You'd be burning up a lot of bio-diesel just to get the grease from restaurants. But there are people in the United States who are producing bio-diesel sort of as a cottage industry, and using it themselves for their own vehicles. They've modified their cars to run on it, and they do a pretty good job. For example, there's a guy on the Western slope who does this, and he gets a fair amount of publicity out of it. He runs his own vehicle all the time on 100 percent bio-diesel, what they call "neat" diesel. And I believe he makes his own.

RD: How well does bio-diesel work in vehicles, and where can we get it?

EL: We were involved in a demonstration project in southeast Colorado, where we picked up several hundred gallons of neat diesel (100% petroleum-based diesel) or diesel blended at 15 to 20 percent, and then ran it in a number of vehicles down there, mostly as demonstrations to show people that diesel mixed at low quantities won't produce any changes in your vehicles. In fact, if anything, you'll see longer life in your engines. 
As far as sources, several farmers are getting together to look at collectively growing crops, crushing the seeds and extracting the oil. That oil, in effect, becomes the neat diesel. It's a great opportunity in Colorado, because farmers can grow things that don't need much water, like sunflowers and soy beans. Both make great bio-diesel sources, but almost any seed crop can be used to make bio-diesel by crushing and extracting the oil. And since we'll have the NAFTA highway coming through eastern Colorado, it may be a good opportunity for farmers in that area to grow the crop, produce the oil and then sell it to all those thousands of trucks that would be rolling through the eastern plains.

RD: What's the NAFTA highway?

EL: Under the National Trade Alliance Act, certain highways that go from Canada to Mexico will be upgraded, to allow greater access between the three countries. This will also create a lot more traffic in eastern Colorado-an area that doesn't have as much commerce as the central part of Colorado along the Front Range. Now, if farmers were able to produce bio-diesel on site along that NAFTA corridor to power those trucks, they could sell it out of stations right along the highway and wouldn't incur the typical transportation costs.

RD: Can a 18-wheeler burn bio-diesel just as easily as it could conventional diesel, or does it have to have some alteration to its engine?

EL: It would require alteration only if a fairly large percentage of bio-diesel were mixed in with the conventional fuel. In that case, you'd have to replace seals in the engine to prevent deterioration. Some modern engines are made with seals that can withstand bio-diesel, but most trucks on the highway are older and have not been converted. And if you're talking about vehicles coming out of other countries, like Mexico, that's even more likely to be the case. 
But it's not that expensive to do the conversions; if you were going to overhaul a vehicle anyway, you could replace the seals. Furthermore, bio-diesel does a great job of lubricating as it's being burned, so it will make engines last longer-maybe as much as 20 percent longer. 

Colorado Stations That Carry E-85 (85% ethanol): Aurora: Acorn, 13690 East Colfax Avene, 303-366-7288 Denver: Barn Store Conoco, 295 South Broadway, 303-765-5580 Lakewood: Green Mountain Texaco, 12410 West Alameda Parkway, 303-989-7820 Greely: Cenex Ampride, 1607 2nd Avenue, 970-454-3391 Colorado Springs: Acorn Petroleum, 305 S. 8th Street, 719-633-8423 Pueblo: Acorn, 108 Baxter Road, 719-948-4537 Watkins: The Tomahawk Truck Stop, I-70 & Watkins, 303-261-9677 Brush: Acorn, 1041 N. Colorado Avenue, 970-842-3122 Uma: The Equity Cooperative Oil Company, 600 E. 8th Avenue, 970-848-5479.

RD: How much of an impact do you think the production of bio-diesel will have on the petroleum industry?

EL: My bet is that for some time to come, one of the better solutions would be a B-5 mixture (five percent bio-diesel mixed with 95 percent conventional diesel, which would allow us to cut down on pollution and extend petroleum availability. And we could increase the longevity of engines as well. At that ratio, bio-diesel would only have to account for five percent of the total diesel consumed in the country.
In the near future, all gasoline will probably be mixed with some ethanol before bio-diesel is widely available. There are millions of vehicles on the road right now that will take E-85 (85 percent ethanol plus 15 percent gasoline), but E-85 just isn't available at many filling stations. In fact, many people don't even realize that their cars will take E-85, so they continue to burn regular gasoline.

RD: So diesel and gasoline can be gradually switched over to a renewable, locally-produced source?

EL: Yes, but in terms of using all our resources without affecting the availability of food and land, I'm not sure how quickly we can get there. Some groups are studying this very scenario-the Oakridge National Lab in Oakridge, Tennessee, for example (www.ornl.gov). And they do a lot of work with cellulose conversion-ultimately, what we're aiming for is to take anything that has cellulose in it, like wood or plant stems, and convert it to fuel. One of the primary possible materials is corn parts, including the husk and the stalk. It's been done in small labs, and in small pilot plans. And people are using a lot of different processes, like pirolysis, in which the materials are heated in a vacuum to extract their oils. Or gasification, where a gas is created from raw materials, then captured and used as a fuel. Or you can pull hydrogen directly from that gas. 

RD: And the raw material for all these procedures is cellulose?

EL: Well, yes-cellulose can do all those things, but also you can pirolysize or gasify anything that is carbon-based. Several pilot plants around the country are working on converting cellulose to fuel, so that you could go out to a field full of switch grass or woody substances, gather them up, put them in this device, and turn them into a fuel of some sort. It could be a liquid, it could be something akin to ethanol or it could be a gas.

RD: How cost effective are these alternative fuels?

EL: That partly depends on how expensive petroleum is, and how available it is, and what are people willing to pay for alternative fuels compared to what they're currently paying. If petroleum gets more expensive, the alternatives will become more attractive. And that could happen in the face of possible new EPA regulations that would require cleaning up particles of a certain size coming from diesel. Right now, however, the cost of E-85 ethanol and regular gas are pretty close-within a nickel or so. The other day, for example, E-85 was selling for between $1.52 and $1.58 a gallon. 

RD: How do you work with municipalities? For example, say the town of Durango wants to convert its public transportation system to bio-diesel. What kind of questions would they ask?

EL: "Can you supply us? Do you have enough for us to have this blend over some other blend? What can we realistically use? How many buses can we power based on what we want to do?" It's a fair bit more expensive to power buses with alternative fuels. But the smaller the blend, in terms of percentage of the bio-diesel, the less expensive it's going to be. And you can get some benefit at B-5 (5 percent bio-diesel) and above, both in terms of increasing the life of the vehicle and decreasing pollution. Those are the two main reasons a city would convert to alternative fuels. And, of course, it's good publicity.

Availability of Bio-diesel: Boulder    Bartkus Oil Company, 3501 Old Pearl     Street, 303-442-6000: B-20 and B-100     (20 percent bio-diesel blend and 100    percent bio-diesel blend)    Boulder Bio-Diesel, 1855 38th Street,     303-449-3277, www.boulderbiodiesel.com:     B-100 (100 percent bio-diesel blend). Boulder    Bio-Diesel also has a mechanic to work on    vehicles, and they teach you how to make    bio-diesel. Commerce City    Shoco Oil, 5135 East 74th Avenue,     303-289-1677

RD: What do you know about the public's interest in buses being run with bio-diesel, or in bio-diesel in general?

EL: I don't know, but I have certainly seen a lot of people coming to conferences that we've put on or helped put on-for example, the bio-mass conference at Tri-State Generation and Transmission last November. Bio-mass are all of those things that are grown, all plants, from grass to trees. It would also include anything biological, like manure or compost, and all of the products that you might gain from that.

RD: So bio-mass is the big umbrella-term that covers production of methane (a gas), ethanol and bio-diesel, right?

EL: Yes. We actually have a hog farm in southeast Colorado, where they capture methane, and it gets burned in a Caterpillar engine and provides a good part of their electricity. We're also looking at doing some work with Colorado School of Mines and Fort Collins to produce hydrogen, partly from creating gas from woody materials. We helped fund a new heat system, both for thermal and electrical production in Nederland. This system will use direct combustion from the material coming out of forests on fire mitigation projects to heat their new community center-in other words, they'll be burning wood products. And this new technology is very clean. The system includes a micro-turbine that uses steam. The wood is burned to produce the steam that runs that micro-turbine, which produces electricity for the building and some other local facilities. There are so many possibilities.

RD: There's one area we haven't discussed, which is fuel cells.

EL: We actually have a fuel cell at the fire station at Washington Park in Denver, as a partnership between us, Excel, and the City and County of Denver. It's been operating since last December and it's doing a very good job. This fuel cell is a stationary generator. We put in natural gas and a so-called "reformer" inside the cell captures the stream of gas coming in and strips off the hydrogen. Then that hydrogen is used by the fuel cell stacks through an electrolytic process to make electricity and heat. As the hydrogen is used up for heat and electricity, water is formed as the only by-product. There is a little bit of carbon dioxide that comes off, but it's only because we're using natural gas. When you go to full hydrogen, you wouldn't have any carbon dioxide.
The electricity generated by the fuel cell is used to provide about a third of all the electricity used in the station. And the heat that is produced as the electricity is made is captured in water that is circulated through a heat exchanger. That provides about three-fourths of the hot water for the facility.

RD: Is this a pilot project?

EL: It's a demonstration project that's actually a real-life application. Most of what we do is to help educate Colorado's citizens and businesses on the uses of alternative fuels, so that they can make informed choices. 
Now, while most of these fuel choices are viable, they're too expensive right now because the technology isn't there. But there are a few exceptions. The system in Nederland, for example, is just simple mechanics. It's taking a boiler and fire box, burning woodchips that are collected while thinning out forests to prevent fires, and then heating the water that's circulating through pipes in that boiler. The hot water is then turned to steam, and that steam powers a micro-turbine, which is essentially a fan. The micro-turbine produces 30 kw of power, which is enough to power 10 average-sized, reasonably energy efficient homes-maybe a few more. As the steam goes through the micro-turbine and re-condenses, it's quite hot-around 180 degrees. That water is piped into the building, where it can be used in sinks or for radiant heat-like running it through radiators, or melting snow on the roof. It's a great opportunity for a completely sustainable operation. We'll prevent forest fires by regularly trimming them back, then we create electricity and power by burning those trimmings in a controlled environment that's friendly to the environment.

RD: Going back to fuel cells for a moment: what's your opinion on pursuing fuel cell technology as opposed to some of these other alternatives?

EL: I think they're all going to have their place at some time, but fuel cells are capable of running anything that requires power. They can be a stationary source, where you make your own electricity and heat for your home or business. You can share power with your neighbors and create all kinds of mini-grids. Or fuel cells can be a mobile source, to power cars, trucks, trains, anything. The fuel cell itself creates electricity to power other motors-for example, maybe you have a motor on each wheel on your vehicle, and each of those motors then gets electricity from the fuel cell. The vehicles themselves might be powered by propane.

RD: That doesn't sound much like an alternative fuel if the fuel that's used to power the vehicle is natural gas.

EL: Well, with fuel cells we have the makings of a bridge. What we have to do now is build units to take hydrogen. We don't have those yet, so right now we have to use petroleum fuels, such as natural gas, to produce hydrogen. 

RD: And what would be used to produce hydrogen down the road?

EL: Right now, most commercial hydrogen is produced from natural gas. Down the road, hydrogen will likely be produced through electrolysis, from either solar or wind sources-especially solar, as more efficient methods of producing electricity from the sun are developed. As for wind sources, suppose you're a farmer with some land. You could put up a turbine to turn wind into power to run your property. Then, any surplus electricity you generated could be transferred to an electrolyzer to produce hydrogen. The hydrogen could then be stored in a tank and used on your property to power your fuel cell, or you could sell it to somebody else. Right now, however, it's extremely expensive to make hydrogen directly from a wind turbine.

RD: So in the near future, energy could be supplied for homes, businesses and vehicles from a variety of sources, like corn, sunflowers or wood chips. And it's possible right now to extract energy from those sources, and others. 

EL: That's absolutely correct. 

RD: And it sounds like this is possible on a relatively small scale, one that doesn't involve large corporations, complicated technologies or a vast infrastructure. It sounds like it's potentially much more decentralized.

EL: It certainly can be. In the future, a fuel cell will be treated like any other appliance. You might be able to buy it from your local utility and have it installed by a certified installer. That fuel cell would not only provide power for your house, it would heat your water and provide distilled drinking water. 
Suppose you have a small fuel cell at home, just enough to power your house. The average house shouldn't require more than about a 5 kw unit, which should be reasonably inexpensive in the future. Now, your car is rated about 75 kw, maybe even 100 kw. If it's running off hydrogen, you could plug your car into the house and power the house off of that.

RD: So your car becomes a power plant for your house?

EL: Absolutely. And not only a power plant for your house, but for your neighbors' houses, too-you could power nearly a whole block off that 75 kw power rating on your vehicle.

RD: And would that look like a bunch of extension cords running between houses?

EL: Most likely. I don't see us getting to the point of wireless technology anytime soon. In the near future, it would involve cords, maybe retracting cords like on a vacuum cleaner-you would pull the cord out and plug it into your neighbor's house. Some appliances, like refrigerators and washing machines, already have such sophisticated circuitry that they can "communicate." For example, your refrigerator may well be able to talk to a neighbor's house, saying, "You know, our fuel cell isn't putting out enough energy-it just isn't big enough. Do you have some extra current?" Then, later, you'd get a little communication saying that you owed your neighbor a certain amount of juice. The grid could control all of this communication and exchange of energy. This is what you'd call micro-power. Each of these devices doesn't in and of itself produce a lot of power. They do it on a small scale. But it would circumvent the problems that would occur if a power plant were knocked out by a natural disaster or terrorist attack or anything else.

RD: So there could be some vast, centralized system of control, but each house or neighborhood wouldn't depend on that system functioning?

EL: That's right.

RD: Then why wouldn't everyone just use their own local power-sharing system?

EL: Because some of them may go down occasionally, just like we have problems now with our furnaces and everything else. But generally, these systems are very reliable, especially the fuel cells. I think our grid operates about .9999 percent of the time; fuel cells can operate at about .9999999 percent. That's why they're in such demand. In fact, some of the credit card companies have purchased some of the first fuel cells available; they're doing millions of transactions daily, and if they go down even occasionally, it could cost them lots of money and really screw up their records.
Currently, we're working with a city in Colorado to make hydrogen from an electrolyzer and we'll be able to produce about the equivalent of six gallons of hydrogen per day. By comparison, one kilogram of hydrogen has the power potential of one gallon of gasoline. Then we'll blend it with compressed natural gas for essentially an H-20 (20 percent hydrogen) mix, so that we can be running about 30 gallons per day. We're going to be using one or more of their buses and one of their fleet vehicles, and we'll look at emissions, wear on the vehicles, and other factors. Then we'll run the electrolyzer off the grid for a while just to make sure everything is working properly. 

RD: How soon do you think it will be cost effective to make hydrogen through electrolysis from wind?

EL: It could be some time. Right now, it's the equivalent of about $10 a gallon.

RD: Sounds like we have a long way to go-you'd have to get down to $1.40 or $1.50 per gallon to be competitive.

EL: Or at some point in the future, as gasoline rises in price, and alternative fuels drop, they may meet each other. Plus, we need to look at the true cost. 

RD: You mean, we might include the price we pay to send our armed forces abroad to the price we pay for gasoline at the pump?

EL: That, and everything else; a lot of oil companies are still subsidized, and there are environmental costs. If you're using hydrogen, the only waste product is water. Maybe at some point, people will say, "Okay, I'm willing to pay a little more money for this alternative fuel, knowing that it will have less impact on the environment." In the meantime, though, we still have to build an entire infrastructure in this country to produce hydrogen, process it, store it, sell it, transport it.

RD: It does sound formidable, but if we can reduce or eliminate our dependence on petroleum eventually, it would behoove us to start now, so that infrastructure will be up and running when we need it.

EL: Yes, but where does the money come from? 

RD: Right now, it would have to come from the government, or our tax dollars, wouldn't it? 

EL: Or from some of the big petroleum producers who decide that it's time to get on board for the future. Even now, British Petroleum (BP) is becoming one of the largest manufacturers of photovoltaic cells in the world. Many other oil companies are more attuned to the use of ethanol. And there are oil companies around the country that are selling bio-diesel themselves. Obviously, it's a good business decision-they all want to get in on the action, if alternative fuels are going to be mainstream someday.

RD: It sounds like it's possible, even now, for people to vote at the pump for a different energy future. They can get a modern car that can burn bio-diesel or ethanol, and both are available in both Boulder and Denver, and around Colorado. 

EL: And it isn't costly to burn these fuels. You could also easily convert an older vehicle, by putting in a newer engine, or by changing the seals and some of the carburetors. Ford has probably been the greatest supplier of cars that can burn E-85. The Taurus and the Sables are capable of burning it. I think the Ford Ranger pick-up will burn it also. 

Resources: The Governor's Office of Energy Management, 303-894-2383, www.state.co.us/oemc US Department of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Freedom Car and Vehicle Technologies program, www.eere.energy.gov

RD: And is E-85 pretty widely available? 

EL: You can get some, but there aren't very many stations yet. [See sidebar for a complete list of stations that sell E-85. To get a list of vehicles that use E-85, visit the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalitions website at www.e85fuel.com.]

Read More: Can Alternative Fuels Eventually Replace Petroleum?