pa href=”http://domesticfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/KaufmanAstoriaStudios.jpg” img src=”http://domesticfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/KaufmanAstoriaStudios.jpg” alt=”" title=”KaufmanAstoriaStudios” width=”260″ height=”272″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-22964″ //aSunny days … and biodiesel … will be sweeping the clouds … and the smog … away as the studio that produces Sesame Street will switch to the green fuel for heat./p
pa href=”http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2010/02/09/2010-02-09_the_silver_screen_goes_green_studio_moves_to_clean_fuel.html” The New York Daily News reports/a Kaufman Astoria Studios just became the greenest studio in town as it switches from traditional heating oil to “Greenheat,” a new blend of petroleum and biodiesel produced by a Brooklyn-based company:/p
pemThe deal with METRO will provide the Astoria facility – the city’s oldest functioning movie studio – with 80,000 gallons of the new fuel a year, making it the largest commercial user of Greenheat in the city./p
p“Anytime you can do something and not damage your budget dramatically and be able to burn a cleaner fuel…why wouldn’t I?” said Hal Rosenbluth, president of Kaufman Astoria Studios./p
pMETRO President Gene Pullo said commercial customers would normally use a grade of fuel with a higher sulfur content, which means more pollution. But over the past few months, these customers have expressed a greater interest to go green with their heating fuel./p
p“We recognized that there would be a greater demand for sustainable fuels,” said Pullo, 56, whose grandmother started METRO in 1942./em/p
pThe studio will use a 5 percent biodiesel blend made from used cooking oil from restaurants, soybean and canola oils, and algae. /p
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pa href=”http://domesticfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/IowaCapitol.jpg” img src=”http://domesticfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/IowaCapitol.jpg” alt=”" title=”IowaCapitol” width=”232″ height=”166″ class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-22950″ //aA proposal to mandate a 5 percent biodiesel blend in every gallon of diesel sold in Iowa has died in one legislative committee … but could be reborn in another./p
pa href=”http://www.messengernews.net/page/content.detail/id/522688.html” The Fort Dodge (IA) Messenger reports/a that the House environmental protection committee’s ranking member, Rep. Steve Olson, R-DeWitt, declared the bill dead:/p
pemOlson said the GOP caucus was opposed to the bill because it opposed mandates. However, even though the bill died in one committee, it could be revived in another or amended into another bill before the session ends, he said./p
pRep. Gary Worthan, R-Storm Lake, who is the ranking member of the House ag committee and also sits on the transportation committee, heard both days’ testimony and said that although he is opposed to mandates in general, Iowa may have to mandate 5 percent blended biodiesel in order to save the industry./p
p”Right now biodiesel is where ethanol was 15 years ago,” Worthan said. ”There’s no market access for it.” He said he fears that what happened in 2009 with petroleum refiners purchasing failing ethanol plants for pennies on the dollar, may happen soon with biodiesel plants unless they can get a strong financial footing./em/p
pWorthan added that biodiesel blends are more uniform than in the past to meet federal standards, and that should make the green fuel more attractive than years ago when standards were a bit looser./p
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pa href=”http://domesticfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/RefuelingF15.jpg” img src=”http://domesticfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/RefuelingF15-300×188.jpg” alt=”" title=”RefuelingF15″ width=”300″ height=”188″ class=”alignleft size-medium wp-image-22461″ //aOne of the biggest knocks on algae-based biodiesel is the high cost for the truly green fuel. But the U.S. military says it is just months away from making biodiesel from algae for the same cost as its petroleum-based counterpart./p
pa href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/13/algae-solve-pentagon-fuel-problem” The UK’s Guardian reports/a that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency … better known as DARPA …. which helped develop the internet and satellite navigation systems, has surprised the industry with the announcement:/p
pemDarpa’s research projects have already extracted oil from algal ponds at a cost of $2 per gallon. It is now on track to begin large-scale refining of that oil into jet fuel, at a cost of less than $3 a gallon, according to Barbara McQuiston, special assistant for energy at Darpa. That could turn a promising technology into a ­market-ready one. Researchers have cracked the problem of turning pond scum and seaweed into fuel, but finding a cost-effective method of mass production could be a game-changer. “Everyone is well aware that a lot of things were started in the military,” McQuiston said./p
pThe work is part of a broader Pentagon effort to reduce the military’s thirst for oil, which runs at between 60 and 75 million barrels of oil a year. Much of that is used to keep the US Air Force in flight. Commercial airlines – such as Continental and Virgin Atlantic – have also been looking at the viability of an algae-based jet fuel, as has the Chinese government./p
p“Darpa has achieved the base goal to date,” she said. “Oil from algae is projected at $2 per gallon, headed towards $1 per gallon.”/em/p
pDARPA officials expect to have a 50 million-gallon-a-year algae-biodiesel refinery up and running sometime next year, making it possible that cost for the fuel will drop even further./p
pThe effort is part of the Pentagon’s plans to get half of its fuel from renewable sources by 2016./p
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