Biodiesel Fuels Interest In Soyabean
Larry Jarboe’s quest for energy independence began years ago in the mangrove swamps of the Florida Keys, with a 15-foot canoe he bought for $75 at Sears. He installed an electric trolling motor to chase lobsters and realised along the way that ‘‘it was a really great way to live and very clean.’’
After that came the homemade electric riding lawnmower, the solar-powered electric Toyota MR2 with lightning bolt on the side (known as the ‘‘Green Hornet’’), the electric bicycle and the wood-and-gas-powered sawmill. Now Jarboe has laid his hopes on a hard vegetable the size of a pencil eraser grown throughout Southern Maryland: the soyabean.
Already the great utility player of the vegetable league—used in soaps, foams and salad dressing—the soyabean is also the key ingredient for the burgeoning biodiesel fuel industry.
Jarboe has held public forums advocating biodiesel and is working to install a 1,000-gallon biodiesel tank for county-owned vehicles. ‘‘I think America needs to become energy-independent,’’ said Jarboe, a Republican. ‘‘And anything we could do to help farmers generate more income from crops would be good.’’
But widespread biodiesel use is still hindered by price: Pure biodiesel can cost 50 cents more per gallon than regular diesel. While still a fraction of petroleum output, the National Biodiesel Board expects that 75 million gallons of biodiesel—which also can be made from other plant products and used cooking oils—will be produced nationwide this year.
That is thrice the amount made last year and 38 times the production in 2000. In September, Minnesota became the first state to require that all diesel sold in the state be mixed with at least 2 per cent biodiesel. Around Washington, local governments and agencies are increasingly using the product. President George W Bush visited Virginia Biodiesel Refineries in West Point, Virginia, in May, touting it as ‘‘one of our nation’s most promising alternative fuel sources.’’
Maryland’s largest soyabean producer, Queen Anne’s County on the Eastern Shore, this year converted its entire 180-vehicle diesel fleet to a 20 per cent blend of biodiesel. The county received a $60,000 grant from the Energy Department to pay for the difference in cost between biodiesel and regular diesel. ‘‘We’re an agricultural, rural community,’’ said James Wood, regional recycling coordinator for the mid-shore region. ‘‘It’s a natural fit for us.’’
Wood said he was first drawn to the product because of its cleaner-burning properties, with reduced carbon monoxide, sulphur and sooty particulate matter. It is biodegradable and, its advocates say ‘‘less toxic than table salt.’’ At one of Jarboe’s biodiesel forums, a true believer threatened to drink a bottle of 100 per cent biodiesel to demonstrate its safety.
Maryland’s major market for soyabean is the poultry industry. Perdue Farms crushes it for use as chicken feed. A byproduct is soyabean oil, and most is sold to the food industry, said Perdue spokeswoman Julie DeYoung. A small but growing portion is sold to two biodiesel plants.
‘‘It’s just taking off. I think it’s going to be a niche product,’’ said Michael Besche, president of Besche Oil, which distributes diesel in Maryland and is considering distributing biodiesel. ‘‘When you start talking about billions and billions of gallons of diesel, and the amount of soyabean that would have to be grown to produce it, there are limits.’’
Still, Besche said, with mandates from such large institutions as the Navy to use alternative fuels, there may be a good market. Also, since the permissible sulphur content of regular diesel is set to be massively reduced next year, biodiesel—with no sulphur—could be attractive as a blend, he said.