Biodiesel Heating Oil
by Jennifer Schwartz
By now, you may have heard about biofuels and their potential. They will alleviate our dependence on foreign oil; they are derived from renewable resources; they will keep our environment cleaner; and they will reduce the carbon emissions that are officially baking our planet.
So, what’s the rub? Why haven’t biofuels replaced fossil fuels yet?
The main hurdle has been the expense of biofuel research and production. Like many energy alternatives, it’s often costlier to invest in or produce biofuel heating oil as opposed to the standard stuff. As of now, no single biofuel technology has the potential to replace our massive need for crude oil.
However, new developments are underway that will reduce that need. Heating oil customers have the option to buy an oil blend, which includes petroleum, a non-renewable crude oil byproduct, and fuel from sustainable resources. Though one hundred percent pure, renewable biodiesel fuel is already out there, it doesn’t approach the large-scale production needed to replace No. 2 heating oil. Yet in the past several years, immense progress has been made and made the prospect of replacing heating oil with biodiesel appear feasible.
New Types of Fuel
There are many varieties of fuel that get discussed in conversations about alternative energy. Let’s define the ones that pertain to this article’s discussion on biofuel heating oil:
- Biofuel: Biofuel is a liquid fuel blend, made from both renewable energy sources (such as biomass feedstocks) and petroleum.
- Biomass: Biomass, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, is organic, non-fossil material of biological origin that constitutes a renewable energy source. It is derived from three sources: wood, waste, and alcohol fuels. Sawdust, native prairie grasses, ethanol, and municipal solid waste can all be classified as biomass.
- Biodiesel: Biodiesel is a biofuel that can serve as a substitute for petroleum-derived diesel or distillate fuel, such as heating oil. It also goes by its chemical name, “methyl esters.” Biodiesel is domestically produced, non-toxic and biodegradable, and is derived from natural oils (like soybean oil) in a chemical process called transesterification. It’s relatively new to the market; production didn’t begin until the mid-1990s. Drawbacks include low yield and high cost. But in 2008, biodiesel added $4 billion the U.S. economy.
Locations of biodiesel production facilities in the U.S. by biomass. (image: nrel.gov)
- Ethanol: Ethanol is another biofuel, but don’t confuse it with biodiesel. It’s alcohol, made from grains like corn and sugarcane in a fermentation process that’s been used by society well before cars and central heating systems. Typically, ethanol is used as a gasoline additive because of its high octane rating. Its major drawback is that the process gives off large amounts of carbon dioxide and shifts corn commodity from food to fuel.
- Bioheat: Bioheat is a common name for biodiesel heating oil, but it’s a brand name trademarked by the National Biodiesel Board. It’s the most popular biofuel heating oil in the U.S.
Ethanol and biodiesel are often seen as competing technologies, with investment and adoption depending on which of the two can produce the most energy with the least amount of crops and the easiest conversion into fuel. According to Grist.org, “there are two key indicators when evaluating various crops for biofuel: fuel yield per acre and net energy yield of the biofuel, minus energy used in production and refining.”
The energy content of ethanol is about 67 percent that of gasoline. The energy content of biodiesel is about 90 percent that of petroleum diesel. The amount of energy each returns differs greatly: soybean biodiesel, for example, returns 93 percent more energy than is used to produce it; corn grain ethanol currently provides just 25 percent more energy.
According to an article on TreeHugger.org, an in-depth analysis by the University of Minnesota of the full life cycles of soybean biodiesel and corn grain ethanol found that biodiesel has much less of an impact on the environment and a much higher net energy benefit than corn ethanol. While this might make biodiesel preferable to ethanol, the study reported that neither fuel does much to meet U.S. energy demand.
That makes both options sound less than encouraging. But it’s not the whole story.
In a September 2008 article in BioCycle, a magazine on composting and recycling, columnist Mark Jenner said not to be discouraged by the fact that biomass fuels accounted for only 3.6 percent of U.S. energy consumption in 2007. The numbers do “not yet reflect the ever-increasing efficiencies in production and consumption. Subsequent datasets should bring about notable increases in renewable and biomass energy levels.”
Ethanol certainly enjoyed its moment in the sun earlier this decade. But some scientists argue that the government’s push for ethanol production was meant as a boost for corn farmers, and not as a sustainable form of alternative fuel.
Then, there are skeptics of the entire biofuel enterprise. In an October 2007 National Geographic article on biofuels, Cornell University’s David Pimentel was quoted as saying, “Biofuels are a total waste and misleading us from getting at what we really need to do: conservation. This is a threat, not a service. Many people are seeing this as a boondoggle.”
There is also the “food vs. fuel” debate, which argues that ethanol and biodiesel production avert crops from doing what they’re been doing for thousands of years: providing food to humans and livestock. As yet these worries seem unfounded: according to the Energy Information Alliance, 2007 corn production kept pace with both the old and new uses of corn.
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[...] one boiler at the college currently consumes 100,000 gallons of no. 2 heating oil a year. Using straight biofuel—not a biofuel blend (such as Bioheat), which would be much more common—would reduce the [...]
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[...] oil will closely follow any increases in biofuel for transit usage. The chance to heat homes with a biofuel blend will mean greater price stability, a reduction of toxic emissions (biofuel alone is clean enough to [...]
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[...] support of the biofuel industry, heating oil consumers and expect to see more readily available biofuel to power their heating systems at a lower [...]
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[...] Heating Oil: A type of heating oil that is a blend of petroleum-based heating oil and fuels derived from plant sources (such as soybeans, corn, and wood by-products). Biodiesel and ethanol are also types of biofuel. [...]
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[...] While alternative energies would have great difficulty reaching a price point of $30 or $40 a barrel, at higher prices new energy-efficient technologies that can replace oil could flourish: shale gas, coal liquification, electric cars, and biofuels. [...]
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[...] contains almost no sulfur, and over the course of its production and use biodiesel emits 78 percent less carbon dioxide than conventional diesel. Conventional diesel engines don’t require any modifications to use biodiesel, which can be made [...]
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[...] energy company, recently released an industry fact sheet on “Bioheat” (the brand name for the most widely available biofuel heating oil blend). The fact sheet is a good resource for heating oil consumers interested in making a switch to a [...]
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[...] to provide biofuel to home heating oil customers in the near future. We’ll keep you updated on the availability of biofuel heating oil as it becomes more widely available in New Jersey and the rest of the [...]
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[...] 2007, Congress set a national goal of creating an advanced biofuel industry and blending a relatively modest 100 million gallons of alternative fuels into gasoline by [...]
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[...] out of Baltimore that called for all heating oil to be at least 2 percent biofuel by July 2010. Biofuel is a cleaner form of fuel that will help mitigate US dependence on foreign oil and reduce carbon [...]
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[...] sources of biomass to convert to fuel, such as genetically modified microorganisms or algae, wood waste or sawdust and otherwise commercially valueless plants and grasses. [...]
Draft NY State Energy Plan Includes Support for Biofuel Heating Oil | HeatingOil.com says: says:
[...] which could help low-income heating oil users save money • Encouraging the development and use of biofuel to supplement replace heating oil, as well as its more commonly mentioned use as a gasoline supplement or replacement; this would be [...]
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[...] Diesel for Home Heating Oil is not to be confused with biodiesel, a word used to describe heating oil additives derived from plant or vegetable oils, and a…. According to Christina M. Angel, the company’s national sales and marketing manager, [...]
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[...] stable long-term heating oil prices. For more information, check out the HeatingOil.com article, “Biofuel Heating Oil.” [...]