Gallery: BIOBLING: Making Biodiesel Accessible (and sexy!)






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  1. Simon September 13, 2007 at 12:15 pm

    Thanks for making me less ignorant, Colette. website is very interesting. Please replace ”biodiesel” by ”ethanol” in my post- sorry about that. I don’t like myself when I mislead people.

    But even after reading all this, I’m still wondering how it’s going to work on a long term basis. Can this method be self-sufficient one day? I mean by self-sufficiency -petroleum-free-. And all these by-products, should it be better to use them as a compostable matter to give back to the soil the nutrients we take from it?

  2. Colette September 2, 2007 at 12:43 pm

    Thanks Jonce. THIS IS ABOUT BIODIESEL, NOT ETHANOL FOLKS. Corn is the feed stock for ethanol, NOT BIODIESEL. Biodiesel is a by-product from soy, canola, and waltnut to name a few, byproduct being the operative word. All of these feedstocks are used for human food or cattle feed first, the by-product of which becomes fuel. No waste. No war. 78% fewer tailpipe emissions. Domestic job creation. 1 to 3:5 energy balance. Pretty simple. For a more copious education – something I strongly suggest those who are still confusing biodiesel with ethanol pursue – go to

  3. Jonce September 1, 2007 at 4:16 pm

    Why does everyone keep talking about ethanol. The article is about BIO-DIESEL not ethanol. Did no one read the title?

  4. Ariel August 31, 2007 at 2:49 pm

    I agree with Simon.
    Corn is the primary staple for the poorest people in Central and South America, not just Mexico. They will be the ones hit the hardest when we start making it even more difficult for them to survive. And with the US and Europe demanding more ethanol, we’ll see even more shifts to monocrop agriculture, which is devastating to the soil and local ecosystems. There is also the issue of clear-cutting as demand for corn ethanol increases.
    For 30 yrs Brazil has been useing sugarcane, which is more efficient than corn. Also, it takes more energy (27%?) to create corn ethanol than what we get out of it in the end. Does that sound logical? There are even stipulations that corn ethanol is just as polluting as gasoline.

  5. nathan August 31, 2007 at 2:16 am

    Bio-diesel is not a solution. it is a combustible fuel and as such still produces emission byproducts such as greenhouse gases and Nox compounds. while it does produce LESS than conventional diesel, it is not a ticket to a clean conscience. we are grasping at ways we can sustain our grossly consumeristic lifestyles while simultaneously feeling ecologically guilt free but the two are incompatible. recycled vegetable oil is a great source of fuel, but as demand grows due to the greening of the bio diesel product, more and more land/resources will be utilized to produce fuel to feed the incessant greed that created the problem in the first place. there is no way out unless we stop. just stop. for once in our species history. stop.

  6. eco-a August 30, 2007 at 10:48 am

    Except that many Bio-diesel users don’t use an ethanol mix and encourage the use of recycled vegetable oil; a product that is used by restaurants that pay people to have it disposed of. Aside from that soy products are much more environmentally friendly than the production of corn and its conversion into pure ethanol or E-85.

  7. Simon August 29, 2007 at 1:53 pm

    We need TONS of water and crops fields to grow plants wich are going to be used to move our cars as biodiesel. Water is essential to sustain life. Crops fields are essential to feed people. It takes LOTS of fossil fuels to grow these biodiesel-destinated plants wich is very polluting.

    Here’s a fact: Corn is Mexican’s main food. With U.S. very large subventions for farmers, mexicans started to buy corn from the U.S. and stopped to grow their own corn, this one being more expensive. Now, because of the rise of biodiesel, price of corn is 40% more expensive, and mexicans are screwed, because they lost all theirs crops. They’re now poorer than before.

    I heard one more story about ”biodiesel plants crops” farmers in a poor country where they kills gorillas (endangered specie) because they like to eat what they’re growing.

    World Bank and International Monetary Fund are going to impose poorer countries to grow plants to feed our cars, improving their dependencies on foreign aid and seriously compromise their food indenpendency. More, monocultures put a lot of pressure on soil, and it need LOTS of oil-based fertilisants to compensate.

    In Canada, the government wants to encourage the use of biodiesel. Actually they’re repeating the same mistake as in the U.S. Putting a lot of taxpayer’s money in a very expensive (of oil, water, soil) and unefficient ”solution”. It is just a good way to get lots of votes from farmers.

    The informations I gave you here can be easily found on internet if you spend some time searching. I assume they’re not very accurate but I wish they’ll make you start think about the biodiesel solution differently. Are we really going to use vital resources to move our cars? I think this is a very short term solution and we should look for something else as soon as possible.

    Biodiesel is not so sexy – Walk and ride your bike is. Militate for tramways in your city is sexy too.

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