Les Jones: Biodiesel for Home Heating Fuel

November 15, 2005

Environment > Biodiesel for Home Heating Fuel

Fuel oil companies are starting to offer heating oils made partially or entirely from biodiesel.

s a result, the National Biodiesel Board's website now lists 19 companies that supply biodiesel-blended heating oil, known as BioHeat, to residential customers, and the list is growing. Most companies provide BioHeat blends that contain 5 percent, 10 percent or 20 percent of biodiesel (known as B5, B10 or B20, respectively) mixed with conventional heating oil, all of which can be used in existing oil-burning furnaces.
BioHeat has several advantages over conventional heating oil: The fuel burns cleaner and releases fewer harmful emissions, and it relies on domestic sources of renewable energy -- mostly soybeans. That means BioHeat is less harmful to the environment and reduces national dependence on foreign oil. Switching all heating-oil customers to 5-percent biodiesel could reduce oil consumption by more than 330 million gallons a year; changing to 100-percent biodiesel (B100) would decrease it by 6.7 billion gallons a year.

[...]

And eco-friendly fuels don't come cheap. A 5-percent biodiesel blend costs about 5 cents more per gallon than regular heating oil, even at today's higher prices. Higher-percentage blends are even more expensive. Since most residential homes burn between 800 and 1,000 gallons a year, this translates into an annual cost increase of $50 for B5 and $750 for B100.

Some people are willing to pay the extra cost, so it's one more option. Biodiesel is small step towards efficiency, but it's a good one. It takes what was a waste product and turns it into fuel. I do think the days of free french fry oil from the local restaurant are going to be short-lived, though. Restaurants will inevitably start charging for their oil instead of giving it away, and the emergence of companies selling BioHeat will accelerate that process. Still, as a society we're becoming more efficient, and that's a good thing.

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Comments

I've seen a truck several times driving through maryville advertising bio deisel.

Posted by: SayUncle at November 15, 2005

My guess is the truck wasn't advertising biodiesel made from renderings or waste oil but rather from soy beans - though in fact most of the biodiesel may have come from animal renderings (processed animal fats, etc).

Not sure that bio diesel is any more efficient than regular diesel (in fact, I think it is slightly less efficient) - but Diesel is significantly more efficient than regular gasoline.

The problem has generally been that we (meaning the US) are cocnerned with visibility and eliminating all risk of asthma which requires us to regulate for particulate emissions. As a result, we don't have much diesel in the automotive fleets.

Biodiesel (and new 2007 ultra low sulfur diesel) change that by drastically reducing partical levels.

My guess though is the production capacity for ULSD will overwhelm (eventually) biodiesel production and the farmers will be sent back to the drawing board to try and come up with something else to raise their crop prices.

Posted by: countertop at November 15, 2005

There are still plenty of externalities in fuel markets, including the risk of asthma countertop mentions. If we linked taxation to the cleanliness of the fuel and efficiency of the engine, it would internalize those costs and make cleaner fuels and better engines more competitive.

If the EPA's estimate that every dollar spent reducing emissions saves $20 in future health care costs, that five cents per gallon you save buying conventional heating oil may add more than a nickel in health care burdens to the overall economy, but since that burden is distributed across the general population, altruism in the only motivator for buying the cleaner stuff. Exposing those kinds of trade-offs to market forces is probably the most important step toward reducing pollution we can take.

It is always the general population and the government that pick up the tab on external costs, so taxation is the rational mechanism for internalizing such costs.

Posted by: persimmon at November 15, 2005

"Still, as a society we're becoming more efficient, and that's a good thing."

I think the cost reflects the overall efficiency, so if it costs more it is less efficiency.

I know for ethanol it actually uses more energy to make than it produces, though I do not know about biodesiel

Posted by: cube at November 15, 2005

Cube: maybe. The price could reflect a cost-plus model, or it could reflect supply and demand. Some people are willing to pay extra for eco-friendly products.

Posted by: Les Jones at November 16, 2005