Solar Energy and Expanded Biodiesel Production

Written by Martin Nix

Biodiesel is wonderful! It is, in fact, stored solar energy. Without sunlight, plants would not grow. There is only so much we can do to make Biodiesel from restaurant waste grease, renderings from packing plants, and home veggie-oil. To expand Biodiesel, we, as an industry, will have to develop additional agricultural resources, and develop better and faster ways to make Biodiesel from organic (solar) resources. Solar technology is much more developed, than the Big-Oil interest would have us all believe.

- Solar Cookers Can be used to assist in Biodiesel production. Literally, you could take a coffee pot, set it in the sun, and process the Biodiesel. Dubbed, the solar recipe, it is like any other Biodiesel recipe, except you use the light from the sun to heat and warm the raw materials. It is so much easier on the Biodiesel refining process if the raw materials are hot. Heating of the raw materials helps to keep various filters unclogged, and helps the chemical reactions. For the
last few years, I have been conducting a solar cooking workshop at the Vashon Island Earth Fair. One day the Unified Veggie Bus tour attempted to make a 100 gallons a day of Biodiesel. Problem: the raw materials were so cold, it clogged the filters. It is kind of ridiculous to use oil, gas or electricity to make Biodiesel. It defeats the purpose.

Solution: use a solar cooker. Presto. Once the Biodiesel materials was warmed by the solar cooker, we had a miniature mass production refinery.  The concentrated sunlight actually penetrated the clear plastic containers, with the raw veggie oil getting a good 'sunburn'. The perfect coffee pot for making a Solar Biodiesel is really a Pyrex coffee pot, letting the sunlight actually strike the veggie oil. The giant solar cooker went on national tour with the Unified Bus Tour. 

- Solar heat can also be used for large scale refineries. Implementing solar hot air and solar hot water, can drastically reduce the operational cost of any Biodiesel refinery. One method is simple, 1) use a solar power fan, to 2) inject ambient air into a solar collector, and 3) use a AC utility fan to suck the air from the solar collector...then blow the warm/hot air into the firebox. In effect, when air is pre-warmed by solar energy, that means not as much fossil fuel is burned. A wood stove for example, if the air is already hot, does not burn as much wood. The make-up air, or combustion air, when preheated reduces CO2 emissions, and plus, means you don't have to chop as much firewood.

-There are other methods of integrating solar with Biodiesel processing. Concentrating collectors could, just like a magnifying glass doze the raw materials with several suns. It is theorized that when sunlight strikes the veggie molecule it actually cuts the molecular bond. This makes the veggie oil a shorter carbon chain, more akin to Diesel fuel. Solar hot water makes washing of the final product much easier. Photovoltaic, and even wind energy, can be employed to power
the various pumps, and controls. Integrating solar technology for large scale Biodiesel refining only makes 'cents'. 

- One of the biggest issues the Biodiesel Industry must address is obtaining water supply for the various crops used for Biodiesel. Without adequate clean water supplies, it will be impossible to grow the needed crops. One technology overlooked is dubbed...heliohydroelectric.  Underneath the American West is a huge salt/alkaline ocean of water. It
is deep, way below fresh water aquifers. It contains many metals like Gold, Silver, Manganese, Iron, and even many rare metals. By using solar and wind pumps we can pump this water to surface for solar evaporation ponds. The additional moisture changes the local micro-climate so there is more local morning fog, and local rain. That means more water for farms, ranches, and hydro dams. This is a highly ignored solution to solar produced droughts. Ironically, using solar and wind produced electricity, the metals from the salt water can be electrolytically mine...thus financing heliohydroelectric projects. We have numerous under-utilized state lands that could be drafted for this purpose. Plus, few know that a lot of these deep wells have already been drilled by the Big-Oil! These so-called 'dry wells' with no oil,
actually have lots of salt water.  Integrating solar technology with Biodiesel is such a perfect marriage! Additional information about solar technology can be seen at www.solarwashington.org and also from the Unified Bus Tour group at www.veggiebus.com. Photos of the Biodiesel cooker can be viewed in the photo section.

It is the sun! Biodiesel, is truly a form of stored solar energy. By integrating solar, it not only makes the job easier, but makes it less expensive.

About the Author. Martin Nix is past founding secretary for the Solar Washington Group. He has an A.A.S in Construction Engineering Drafting from NSCC, and a Bachelor's from UNM and NMSU, with emphasis in
Architecture and Engineering. He is inventor of numerous solar energy patents, and actively working to capitalize the private solar industry.