75 Green Businesses You Can Start to Make Money and Make a Difference. Glenn Croston
is so committed to biodiesel that they are producing their own. One of the attractive aspects of biodiesel is that it can be done on a small scale, even in your backyard (check your local regulations). On their own and in co-ops, more and more people are using the resources they have available locally—including restaurant grease, used vegetable oil, and virgin vegetable oil—to make themselves self-sufficient for fuel. The higher the price of gas goes, the more the wave of home-brewed biodiesel will grow. Greg Pahl (author of Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy) confirms that, although statistics are hard to come by, a growing number of local producers and cooperatives—such as Piedmont Biofuels in North Carolina (biofuels.coop)—are springing up to provide energy security, stimulate economic growth, and fight climate change.
GREEN LEADER
Author Greg Pahl’s website is gregpahl.com.
Small producers can find the biodiesel business rewarding but also frustrating due to challenging regulations. Selling fuel to the public requires ASTM compliance, which can be expensive (ASTM International develops technical standards for a wide variety of products and materials). Small producers, such as co-ops, can fly under the radar and deal with minimal regulation as long as they only use the fuel themselves. Experienced veterans, such as Piedmont, provide an invaluable resource for education, consultation, and finding supplies. Piedmont also provides classes and information on their website about ASTM testing of biodiesel.
RELATED TREND
One business idea is selling materials to enthusiasts, helping them to get started with biodiesel production. For more information, visit homebiodieselkits.com. Piedmont Biofuels also sells systems for production.
The growth of biodiesel presents opportunities for distribution and installation of alternative-fueling stations (Opportunity 67). The special properties of biodiesel mean it cannot be handled in the same way as petroleum diesel, creating opportunities for those who specialize in ensuring the delivery of the highest quality biodiesel from production to pump.
ECO-ISSUE
The chemical process that makes biodiesel is also producing tons of glycerol, flooding the market and driving down its price. The oversupply of glycerol is an opportunity to find new ways to use this biodiesel byproduct.
Entrepreneurs getting into the fuel market need to find a niche where biodiesel can compete with petroleum products. The more expensive oil becomes, the easier it will be for biodiesel to compete if the cost of feedstocks does not increase to the same extent. As a good lubricant, biodiesel can be blended with petroleum diesel to reduce engine wear and increase performance. The market for an additive for petroleum diesel would create a demand for hundreds of millions of gallons of biodiesel.
IN THE LONG RUN
Algae can produce high levels of oil that can be converted into biodiesel. From 1978 to 1996, the U.S. Department of Energy spent millions of dollars testing algae oil production in large, outdoor ponds. In the current biofuels boom, several companies—such as Greenfuels and Aurora Biofuels—have created new strategies to use algae as a source of climate-friendly fuel. ❦
The clean-burning nature of biodiesel should help it to compete in urban markets. For example, hospitals need a backup power system, but having a big, polluting diesel generator running next to the building may not be the best option. Clean-burning biodiesel for electrical generators produces far fewer pollutants and health problems. Plus, in parts of the world where power is unreliable, diesel generators are common, and biodiesel from used cooking oil could provide a clean alternative.
Types of biodiesel opportunities include:
It’s not likely that biodiesel will replace petroleum diesel completely, but entrepreneurs still can build a business. There are many biodiesel niches from which entrepreneurs can profit while reducing reliance on petroleum diesel, at least in small part. Every step forward is a step in the right direction.
OPPORTUNITY 4 Sugarcane Ethanol Production
| The Market Need | Clean, green biofuels in addition to corn ethanol |
| The Mission | Sustainably and cleanly grown sugarcane for ethanol production |
| Knowledge to Start | Fermentation, sugar market |
| Capital Required | $$$ to $$$$ |
| Timing to Start | Months (for small-scale production) |
| Special Challenges | Government policy in sugar program and biofuel incentives |
Ethanol production in the United States today comes almost exclusively from the fermentation of corn. Why corn? The United States grows a lot of corn and knows how to make it into ethanol. However, we only have so much corn, which is why billions of dollars are being spent to figure out how to produce cheap cellulosic ethanol from agricultural waste and plants such as switchgrass. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs worldwide are already producing billions of gallons of ethanol from another resource: sugarcane.
Sugarcane has many advantages over corn for ethanol production. In the right climate, sugarcane grows quickly and converts a large percentage of its energy into making sugar. Sugar is the key ingredient needed to make ethanol, as with the yeasts that produce wine from grapes. While the sugar in corn is locked in starch that must be broken down before it can be fermented by microbes into ethanol, the sugar in cane forms a large part of the liquid content of the plant; fermentation starts almost as soon as the plant is cut. Ethanol from sugarcane yields eight times more energy than is used to produce it—a ratio that is five or six times better than corn—and sugarcane ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emission by between 80 and 90 percent when compared with gasoline—much better than the 10 to 20 percent reduction estimated with corn ethanol (David Tilman and Jason Hill, Washington Post, March 25, 2007). Per acre, sugarcane produces about twice as much ethanol as corn. Increasing the production of ethanol from sugarcane may provide a viable route for biofuel businesses.
BALANCING ACT
If increased production of Brazilian ethanol destroys the Amazonian forest, the cost may be too high to overlook. However, Brazilian officials have stated that sugarcane production requires only 6 million hectares, with more than 100 million hectares of land available for expansion without intrusion into the rain forest. Raising cattle is probably a greater threat to Amazonia, using land to provide feed and grazing. Going vegetarian is a more effective way to fight deforestation than fighting cane ethanol. ❦
Sugarcane-ethanol production in Brazil has set the standard, producing the cheapest ethanol in the world. Brazilian ethanol costs about $0.81 per gallon (Science, March 16, 2007), compared with a cost of $1 to $1.06 for a gallon of