Biodiesel's decentralized model is ahead of its time

August 26, 2009

BY Ron Kotrba

Conservationists have been rallying against centralized energy production for years, favoring a more decentralized, regional approach. Many people think it's the ultimate direction power generation-and virtually everything else-must take despite how much we don't want to believe it. Aside from pipeline transport of liquid fuels, which is the most efficient means of transporting liquid energy, shipping feedstock halfway around the world for centralized processing and then shipping it off again to consumption markets seems pitifully inefficient.

The same goes for food production. The best and most environmentally friendly thing to do is buy and eat locally grown foods. Make a friend at a local farm nearby from whom you can buy beef, pork, chicken or lamb. Grow a garden. Be responsible. Luckily for me, assistant editor Sue has a small but productive farm in Northern North Dakota, just about a half mile south of the Canadian border. She sells eggs, fresh sausage, chickens and even lamb. I even helped her slaughter and clean chickens a couple of years ago. Hacking a chicken's head off with an axe is pretty exhilarating.

In the winter time, when you go to the grocery store, think to yourself, do I really need this mango in January, which was shipped from South America? The problem is the "system" makes everything so easy for us to take advantage of situations and become used to seeing fresh exotic fruits at our fingertips, without giving a second's thought to the underpaid labor involved in harvesting it, or the cargo load of fuel it took to ship it to the US. The same goes for fast food. It's easy. It's quick. And it can taste good (sometimes). But the temptation, as tough as it can be, should be resisted.

The U.S. biodiesel industry is really ahead of its time in exhibiting a decentralized model. Yes, there are some large, centralized plants tied to certain feedstocks-and for companies like ADM or Cargill, or certain farmer cooperatives, this model may work well. Some believe though that this model, overall, has very limited application and is essentially already built out.

Many biodiesel plants aren't just "destination" plants, located at the consumption markets, but they are also located at the source of feedstock generation. Not only that, but many plants utilize a waste stream. The biggest misunderstanding I've witnessed in the renewable fuels sector is when people come to learn the ethanol model, and then assume biodiesel follows suit.

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