Energy Ministry Encourages Local Bio-diesel Production

[george]

Energy Ministry encourages local bio-diesel production

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's Energy Ministry will put more effort into encouraging more communities to manufacture bio-diesel after discovering that only one-third of the country's used cooking oil is collected and recycled for use in making bio-diesel for local consumption.

Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amaranand said it is his ministry's policy to encourage each locality to produce bio-diesel from used vegetable oil, after it was found that only 25 million litres of 74 million litres of vegetable cooking oil was used to make bio-diesel.

If the nation's entire annual volume of cooking oil would be recycled as bio-diesel, the country could save about Bt1.57 billion yearly on imports of diesel oil, he said.

Initially, the ministry targeted encouraging local production in 400 communities nationwide to manufacture bio-diesel from reclaimed cooking oil within this year, with each community making between 100-150 litres of bio-diesel daily.

A community in Chiang Mai province has successfully manufactured 150 litres of bio-diesel daily for use in the community and to sell to nearby communities.

The ministry has offered funding to Chiang Mai University to research palm growing in the North so that more bio-diesel could be produced for commercial purposes.

--TNA 2007-02-17

[chownah]

Great...the non specific "encourage" them routine...you can encourage them in thier left hand and shiit in their right hand and see which fills up first.

Also, did it ever occur that some of the cooking oil gets consumed?

Just want to be clear though, I do think it would be a good idea if the gov't took more concrete efforts to increase the reuse of old cooking oil.

[pete_r]

The thing is, at the moment it is cheaper to buy diesel at the petrol station than to invest in the equipment and chemicals (methanol) needed to turn cooking oil into biodiesel. Plus, the cooking oil can be sold to animal feed manufacturers, which brings in money and is easier to do than brewing biodiesel at home.

To encourage biodiesel production, either the price of diesel has to go up (which is going to happen eventually, but not tomorrow yet), or the government must subsidize.

[astral]

How about a tax break on the Bio Diesel as an incentive for the buyers.................

[Sing_Sling]

Right up my alley!

I have a bio-fuel refinery in Loei, about to build the second one in Udon Thani and then thinking of a third around Hua Hin - there are several issues here:

1) Cost of building and ROI is quite high and lengthy

2) Methanol is at an all-time high despite the price of oil having decreased

3) Government plans to place a ceiling on the sales price of bio-fuel!!!

4) Approval permits extremely difficult to obtain

5) Government plans to have all bio-fuel produced to be sold to PT for blending (at their designated price)

I think it all boils down to the higher-ups not having found a solid way to personally profit from this yet.

Having said all that, the business is quite profitable, but relying on UC (Used Cooking Oil) is fallacious, it is simply too expensive and palm??? it is also at an all-time high.

If the government were serious about the HM King's request for alternative fuels they would incentivise the industry, not put up one barier after another.

Despite this we have sold and built two plants so far and the enquiries are building up.

Edited February 18, 2007 by Sing_Sling

[ColPyat]

Right up my alley!

I have a bio-fuel refinery in Loei, about to build the second one in Udon Thani and then thinking of a third around Hua Hin - there are several issues here:

Just a silly question.

Does the quality standard of used cooking oil and such compare to proper diesel, chemically and technically speaking, or does it ruin the engines in the long run?

[Sing_Sling]

Fair question, colpyat.

Although you can pour cooking oil into a diesel engine (having to be careful with new commonrail versions, though), bio-fuels are a different kettle of fish in that the oil is taken through a multi-step purification phase called transestrification - it should be and most real refiners will do that.

Wiki has a good description:

In organic chemistry, transesterification is the process of exchanging the alkoxy group of an ester compound by another alcohol. These reactions are often catalyzed by the addition of an acid or base.

The diesel engine was originally developed by a German guy called: Diesel, and he used penaut oil to run it.

Bio-fuels, properly transestrified, are actually better for your engine as they act as a cleansing agent, while lubrication is also of superior quality.

One of the way we show the smaller users the quality is that we have two oil lamps, one filled with diesel and the other with bio-fuel . . . when lit the diesel one emits nasty black smoke while the bio-fuel one doesn't = this is what happens in your engine and what gets spewed out into the atmosphere.

Of course it is more complicated than that but at a cheaper price and with better quelity for your car it really is the way to go. Germany, Austria, Holland, France, the UK have been using it for decades. The only problem in Thailand is ensuring that the guy producing it is doing it correctly.

[stumonster]

If we want to save the planet, we need a five-year freeze on biofuels

Oil produced from plants sets up competition for food between cars and people. People - and the environment - will lose

George Monbiot

Tuesday March 27, 2007

The Guardian

It used to be a matter of good intentions gone awry. Now it is plain fraud. The governments using biofuel to tackle global warming know that it causes more harm than good. But they plough on regardless. In theory, fuels made from plants can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by cars and trucks. Plants absorb carbon as they grow - it is released again when the fuel is burned. By encouraging oil companies to switch from fossil plants to living ones, governments on both sides of the Atlantic claim to be "decarbonising" our transport networks.

In the budget last week, Gordon Brown announced that he would extend the tax rebate for biofuels until 2010. From next year all suppliers in the UK will have to ensure that 2.5% of the fuel they sell is made from plants - if not, they must pay a penalty of 15p a litre. The obligation rises to 5% in 2010. By 2050, the government hopes that 33% of our fuel will come from crops. Last month George Bush announced that he would quintuple the US target for biofuels: by 2017 they should be supplying 24% of the nation's transport fuel.

So what's wrong with these programmes? Only that they are a formula for environmental and humanitarian disaster. In 2004 I warned, on these pages, that biofuels would set up a competition for food between cars and people. The people would necessarily lose: those who can afford to drive are richer than those who are in danger of starvation. It would also lead to the destruction of rainforests and other important habitats. I received more abuse than I've had for any other column - except for when I attacked the 9/11 conspiracists. I was told my claims were ridiculous, laughable, impossible. Well in one respect I was wrong. I thought these effects wouldn't materialise for many years. They are happening already.

full article here

[hammered]

Another question: Do car manufacturers honour warranties if the car owner uses bio-diesel?

[h90]

Right up my alley!

I have a bio-fuel refinery in Loei, about to build the second one in Udon Thani and then thinking of a third around Hua Hin - there are several issues here:

Just a silly question.

Does the quality standard of used cooking oil and such compare to proper diesel, chemically and technically speaking, or does it ruin the engines in the long run?

On some engines there is a problem with tubes and seals and the injection system. But there are some people in europe who run old tractors with old cooking oil/plant oils not even bio diesel without any problems.

In Chumphon they run old pickups with 100 % biodiesel.

I ran an old citroen long time with 100 % biodiesel without problems, but to avoid problems it would be good to mix it.