Scott Lewis, an executive at Biox Corp in Hamilton, talks about one of the perks of his job: “Dealing with a beneficial product is absolutely enticing,” he says. “It’s absolutely fantastic.”
Lewis is referring to biodiesel, a new fuel derived from plant oils, animal fats, and recycled cooking oil. It has garnered a great deal of attention for its environmental benefits and is being touted as an alternative to petroleum diesel.
With the threat of global warming, and governments trying to reach Kyoto targets, most of the attention has centred on biodiesel’s lower greenhouse gas emissions. Biodiesel contains oxygen, which allows for a cleaner burn.
When a car accelerates, fuel is placed into the combustion chamber, where it is starved of oxygen, which is required for things to burn. Petroleum diesel contains no oxygen, so when it reaches the combustion chamber it stops burning. The unburned fuel is then released into the air, visible as black smoke coming from the exhaust.
Biodiesel is oxygenated, so when it reaches the combustion chamber it can continue to burn. This decreases the amount of harmful gases emitted into the surrounding air. It has been shown that using biodiesel, either by itself or blended with petroleum diesel, significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
On top of this, biodiesel is free of the carcinogens associated with petroleum diesel. It is also biodegradable and, because it can be produced domestically, could reduce our dependence on foreign oil supplies.
Biodiesel, however, is not without its downsides. “Cost has been an overwhelming problem from the beginning,” says Lewis. “A product can be completely environmentally beneficial, but if it doesn’t cost the same, people cannot afford to buy it.”
High cost of production mainly contributes to biodiesel’s high cost. It is produced in a process called transesterfication, which requires chemicals and energy, both of which are expensive. In the past these costs were often exacerbated by limitations on the availability of feedstock: biodiesel could only be made from pure seed oils such as grapeseeds. This increased production costs while restricting the number and size of yields that could be made.
Dr. David Boocock, former Chair of the Department of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in U of T’s Engineering Faculty, has tried to solve this problem by creating a more energy-efficient process. His process utilizes materials other than pure seed oils.
“[Dr. Boocock’s] invention allows for a variety of materials to be turned into biodiesel, therefore decreasing the cost of feedstock,” says Lewis, whose company bought the intellectual property rights for the process from Boocock. Decreasing the cost of feedstock both decreases production costs and can increase yields.
But biodiesel is, on average, still more expensive to produce than petroleum diesel. Moreover, the industry is still in its infancy and will most likely need help growing. For biodiesel to thrive it will need help from outside sources, says Lewis.
“It all comes down to the attitude of the government,” says Lewis. “To start a new industry you need government assistance.”
Lewis recommends that tax incentives be put in place to promote biodiesel. He points to Europe’s blending initiatives, which mandate that petroleum fuel be blended with a certain percentage of biodiesel, and make unblended petroleum diesel more expensive.
“The cost of crude is the same around the world. The difference is that taxes are applied to inhibit the way people use fuel. [In Europe] there is such an increase in cost for not being fuel-efficient that people cannot afford to do it.” Lewis says.
In Canada, tax incentives have been put in place at both the provincial and federal levels. These incentives give small tax breaks to suppliers distributing biodiesel. Canada does not have any policy mandates on the scale of Europe’s blending initiatives, but with the government trying to decrease greenhouse gas emissions to reach targets laid down in the Kyoto protocol, government interest in biodiesel will most likely increase.
