Last week I wrote about how Honduras’s Bay Islands are suffering from exorbitant electricity prices despite the conspicuous potential for wind and solar technology. Today I would like to talk about the potential role of biofuels in offsetting or eliminating diesel usage as part of a renewable energy ’solution’.

Let me return to the Bay Islands and add a third and final player to the renewable energy triad: biodiesel.

As you know from my biodiesel mythbuster, biodiesel is a liquid, bio-based fuel that can be used in any diesel engine. This has important implications for tropical locales in general, but especially the Bay Islands, where 99.9% of electricity 99.9% of transportation needs are met by diesel engines. Even rapid and widespread implementation of wind and solar won’t change the transportation requirements for diesel. But biodiesel - if available in sufficient quantity on the islands - could offset the lion’s share of dirty-diesel fuel usage.

Yes, that’s a big “if,” supply being biofuels’ endemic problem. On the other hand, tropical environments are well-suited to biodiesel, with warm climates and productive feedstocks. It just so happens that mainland Honduras is already producing biodiesel. With Honduras still shouldering the highest gasoline prices in Central America, it could be time to consider a more ecologically and economically friendly alternative: Palm oil.

The price of diesel in Honduras continues to rise. The national average for March was $2.60, up fifteen percent from last year’s average. . .Of course, with no facilities for processing crude oil internally, all of Honduras’ gasoline is imported - around ten million barrels per year - with prices largely dependent on other countries’ export rates as well as the tax levied by the Honduran government. But there is an alternative. Once converted through a simple process known as transesterification, the oil of the African palm - one of Honduras’ major existing natural resources - can make an efficient biofuel to run diesel engines without the need for any modifications.”

We’re all familiar with the dangers of palm oil plantations, granted, but even without expansion the industry could easily meet the meager fuel needs of the Bay Islands. Biodiesel production would also create an entirely new industry and keep some of that oil money at home. Could palm oil production be sustainable? That’s a great question, and biodiesel production on mainland Honduras and greater Central America certainly warrants further investigation.

Back to the Bay Islands: Every morning, while subdued boats gently tug at the dock and the ‘clink…clink’ of scuba-tanks can be heard in the distance, diesel engines across the harbor sputter to life. Dive boats are the life-blood of the industry. Most shops have groups out in the morning, afternoon, and sometimes evening, with some trips lasting an hour each way. Before departing, boats typically idle at the dock for 20 minutes while they inject diesel exhaust directly into the water, nearly asphyxiating passengers when they finally push off. The smoke trail rising from the stern is just part of the experience - at least it always has been.

If you’ve ever been on any kind of diesel-powered marine vessel, you may fondly remember the noxious aroma of sooty diesel exhaust floating over the water. One thing I failed to mention in my last post was the dramatic difference biodiesel makes in visible smoke emitted by diesel engines. Using even a small blend of biodiesel cuts that considerably, even eliminating it (other factors, like cold weather contribute to smoke). Instead of dirty-diesel exhaust, how about the faint odor of french fries? Anyone?

Crude palm oil, of which around 250 million kilos will be produced in Honduras this year, is thick and dark red. When it is refined the biodiesel produced is pale yellow, has no odor, smells like frying potatoes when it burns and creates very little smoke. And even more importantly for a country crippled by the price of its gasoline, it could prove up to ten percent cheaper than its non-renewable counterpart.. . .Honduras currently imports just over 1.1 million tons of diesel fuel every year. Dinant Corporation statistics show that were all the palm oil from the 70,000 hectares in Honduras used to produce biodiesel, it would satisfy just over twenty percent of this national demand.”

Besides cutting the emission of most combustion products by 50% or more (in higher blends), biodiesel is also better for the environment when spilled. And yes, some amount of diesel fuel is going to end up in the water no matter how hard everyone tries. In an area dependent on the aquatic ecosystem for basic services (fishing) and the economy (tourism), it makes sense to avoid damaging the resource. Biodiesel is particularly suitable for environmentally sensitive areas like parklands and marine environments considering that it’s ‘non-toxic’ (comparable to table salt) and biodegrades as fast as sugar.

For an excellent introduction to biodiesel in marine applications, take a look at The Technical Handbook for Marine Biodiesel In Recreational Boats.

Biodiesel runs just as well in diesel generators as it does in boat engines, with the same reduction tangible benefits. While wind and solar technology are better long-term options for electricity generation, biodiesel could start offsetting diesel usage today, with no change in infrastructure. In case you aren’t familiar with them, yesterday I stumbled across an excellent description of life with diesel generators:

Chronic power shortages in Myanmar are leaving cities in the former Burma shrouded in almost permanent blackout, driving its citizens to despair and crippling an economy reeling from decades of military misrule…Small businesses such as photo-processing shops or Internet cafes need portable generators to get by and have to hike prices to reflect the high cost of diesel, nearly all of which is imported…But the use of generators comes with hidden costs for the wider population, mainly in the form of noise and air pollution. “With all the blackouts, generator noise, diesel fumes and flash floods in the rainy season due to the choked drains, life here has become horrible,” said Ba Tin, a retired civil servant. “My whole family has developed a sort of migraine. We often get headaches and nausea, especially when the big diesel generators in the restaurants next door are running,” he said. Doctors and psychiatrists say they are having to treat an increased number of respiratory ailments and stress-related conditions, which they attribute to the noise and fumes.”

This problem is clearly non-unique to Honduras, although diesel generators are much less conspicuous in the Bay Islands. Biodiesel can help alleviate these problems wherever it’s used.

To summarize things, over the course of these two posts I’ve learned that eliminating the economic and environmental problems associated with dirty-diesel fuel usage in the Bay Islands is feasible and extremely preferable. The technology is already available, it’s just a matter of connecting the dots…

Myanmar Learns To Live with the Lights Out
Oiling the Wheels of Change
The Technical Handbook for Marine Biodiesel In Recreational Boats

Photo Credits: Clayton B. Cornell