Local Groups Emerge To Promote Biodiesel and Ethanol

Recently I’ve been talking about how local groups can emerge to switch to biodiesel and ethanol.

One such group is represented by the site NashvilleBioDiesel.org. This link leads to a yahoogroup with 193 members. Not bad for a local group!

Note: If you know of other local groups, please leave a link in a comment!

One fellow called a local talk show the other night. He operates an 85 Mercedes equipped to run on vegetable oil. The only alteration required to run on vegetable oil was a heating component that reduced the viscosity of the oil so it could be burned for fuel.

He claimed – if I heard him correctly – that his vegetable oil fuel was free. This would be possible if he used waste vegetable oil… like the oil that gets tossed out of Deep Fry cookers every day… that someone else was just going to have to pay to haul off.

This group runs a co-op though for people who want to purchase commercial biodiesel. Currently that runs at $2.34 per gallon… it’s trucked in specially for the group hence the high cost. It’s still not as expensive as gas station prices however.

But as these local groups emerge, options for new markets emerge.

Perhaps Big Oil will bribe enough of our “leaders” so that nothing every happens to put E85 fuel on every corner but I hope grassroots citizens will develop their own alternative markets if only to reduce our dependence on oil that sponsors terrorists and break the illusion of dependence on Washington bureaucrats for guidance.

Also I received this following note that entrepreneurs in the South East US may want to check out for biodiesel ethanol business opportunities:

Biodiesel is one of the hot topics in renewable fuels today. Entrepreneurs across the county are exploring biodiesel products, engine manufacturers are including biodiesel as an approved fuel in their engines, corporate and government fleets are incorporating biodiesel use and states throughout the nation are developing legislation to promote using biodiesel and other renewable fuels.

May 15-17, the University of Georgia will host the Southeastern Biodiesel Workshop to give an overview of updates in the industry.

To find out more, contact Ryan Adolphson, 706-542-4493 or ryan@engr.uga.edu