A wonderful new year to look forward to, and despite the end of a boom and bust cycle, bio-fuels are not dead. Recent news might have you thinking that the whole world is going to electric cars, but just like the ‘flying cars of the future’ hyped in the 1950s, don’t hold your breath.
Regarding bio-fuels, the petroleum industry has had a century to develop, but the cost of oil is only going to increase in every way. The learning curve that brought gasoline from a byproduct of kerosene refining to our current pump gas is the same process at work to make bio-fuels better, faster, in larger quantity, and cheaper.
Locally, UDRI and the USAF are still working on jet fuel replacement, not a matter of either petroleum or something else, but part of long-range ‘any of the above’ fuel planning for the military.
Jatrodiesel in Miamisburg is still going strong, making fuel and biodiesel plants, providing the option of converting waste streams into profit streams.
We are still, in the Miami Valley, lacking significant alcohol R&D and engine development. This is sad, because there are so many engineering and manufacturing resources available in this area. Boss Kettering was working on ethanol motor fuels here in the 1920s, today the work goes on, but at a place that bears his name …in Michigan. How tragic for us. Step up to the plate, Miami Valley.
USAF and UDRI alternative jet fuel - http://www.aviationdayton.com/news/news-stories/news-stories_files/6cc8392a1e6400f3ef78f83ca122c4c3-77.php
Jatrodiesel - http://jatrodiesel.com/
Hydrogen pump in Brookville - http://www.gasworld.com/news.php?a=5041
Ohio’s largest ethanol plant in Greenville - http://www.andersonsethanol.com/greenville.asp
Ethanol, Kettering University – http://ethanolfacts.kettering.edu/home.html
Ethanol and classic cars - http://www.kettering.edu/visitors/storydetail.jsp?storynum=2779
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