Because ethanol is corrosive and soaks up water and impurities, it cannot be shipped through the country’s fuel pipeline network. So it must be transported by train, truck and barge, a more expensive transportation network that is suddenly finding it hard to keep up with the surge in ethanol production.

There is a long backlog in orders for specialized ethanol rail cars to ship the surplus production. Many rail terminals at the ethanol plants do not have spurs large enough to accommodate the long trains that ethanol promoters like to call “virtual pipelines.” And pumps from the storage tanks to the rail cars at the terminals often do not have sufficient capacity to load trains quickly and efficiently.

In a new study, the Agriculture Department warned of “several supply chain issues that could inhibit growth in the ethanol industry,” including a backlog in rail tank car orders that grew to 36,166 rail cars by the end of the first quarter in 2007 from about 10,000 in the third quarter of 2005.

Stiff blending regulations in some southern states like Florida have also been an impediment to ethanol. And so far, only about 1,000 of the 179,000 pumps at gasoline stations around the country offer E-85, a fuel that is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, intended for the five million flex-fuel vehicles on the road that can run on high ethanol blends.

A strong energy law would also increase investment and research into ethanol production from nonfood sources, like switch grass, and persuade auto companies to make more cars that run on blends well beyond the standard low percentage ethanol mixture, ethanol proponents argue.Top

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Feed stocks like corn have multiple outputs and are, therefore, price-sensitive--as we've learned. But garbage or sewage, for example, are plentiful, must be disposed of and have limited economic outputs. The bottom line is that they may prove to be less risky investments than corn-based ethanol. Algae, which can be grown quickly and more cost-effectively than corn, palm or canola, might also offer less risk.

Algae bioreactor technology that converts the carbon dioxide in smokestack gases into clean, renewable biofuels.

I'm convinced that when the history of the clean-technology revolution is ultimately written, the investing heroes--the players who made money and a difference--will be the ones who controlled the raw materials on a sustained basis. Let me say it another way: in real estate, the linchpin for financial success is location, location, location; in sustainable energy, it's inputs, inputs, inputs.Top

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Biodiesel gemaakt van bakolie uit cafetaria's, ook na reiniging en ontdaan van de glycerine, tast rubberen brandstofleidingen aan. Dit vergt ook een aanpassing van de standaard dieselmotor.

Raapolie

Raapolie is sinds mensen heugenis gebruikt als lampolie

Ten tijde van de eerste stoommachines viel het technici op dat raapolie, die ook al als smeerolie werd toegepast, zich goed mengde met water: voor de smering van cylinderwanden van stoommachines zeer geschikt.

In de Tweede Wereldoorlog werden veel stoomschepen gebruikt: In Canada werden hele arealen raapolie-plantages aangelegd.

Na de oorlog zocht men een andere toepassing voor de raapolie: keukenolie! Daartoe moest men de rapen veredelen om goede olie te krijgen, waarvoor de handelsnaam canola (Canadian Oil Low Acid) bedacht werd.

In de schappen van Dirk van den Broek: Rapso.

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Boekweit
In het Latijn betekent Fagopyrum, de geslachtsnaam van boekweit, beuk-tarwe (fagus = beuk en puros = tarwe). In gewestelijk Nederlands staat boek voor beuk en weit voor tarwe. In andere talen kent boekweit overeenkomstige namen: bokwiet (Afrikaans), buckwheat (Engels), Buchweizen (Duits).
De vorm van het boekweitzaad komt sterk overeen met die van beuken-nootjes, al zijn ze beduidend kleiner. Het zaad werd ook tot meel gemalen, hoewel boekweit beslist geen graan is.Boekweit is een 'pseudograan', de zaden, het meel en alle andere afgeleide producten van boekweit bevatten geen gluten.