Farmers all over the world may soon be able to grow all the fuel they need, without use of fossil fuels. In addition, various crops may be directly convertible to diesel fuel, thereby providing a cap on energy prices with an unexpected twist.

Imagine a credit card-sized device that turns raw vegetable oil into biodiesel. Now, it exists.

According to the Associated Press, the machine moves vegetable oil and alcohol through almost invisibly small channels, narrower than a human hair. The result is near-instantaneous conversion to biodiesel.

Current methods are reliable, but require 24 hours or longer to make the conversion. They also require a catalyst and a slow chemical reaction.

Oregon State University collaborated with the Oregon Nanoscience Institute to develop the device, which can be placed in parallel arrays to process large volumes of oil. (Think of the fins of a radiator, or layers in an air filter and you’ve got an idea.)

For farmers and small towns near agricultural centers, this has huge potential advantages. First, it may allow them to become energy self-sufficient. Second, it has the cost advantage that the biodiesel need not be refined nor transported thousands of miles.

While the vast majority of internal combustion engines currently do not burn biodiesel, the transition could be made in just a few years as necessary and economically practicable.

Biodiesel burns in any diesel engine. However, it does so without producing most of the emissions that give diesel its reputation as a “sooty” power source.

Diesel technology is well understood. Diesel engines have been powering industrial equipment and even automobiles for a century. They actually require less maintenance than gasoline engines and can last longer.

The fact that the new device converts only oil from plants means it is part of a puzzle. The remainder of plant matter from agriculture can be used as feedstock for production of ethanol.

In addition to itself being a fuel that can replace gasoline, the ethanol is the other piece of the biodiesel production process.

Who knows? Your new car of 2011 may be a “hybrid” that burns either diesel or ethanol.

Meanwhile, Transformational Technologies Portfolio holding China Clean Energy (CCGY.OB: OTC BB) continues to strengthen its market penetration. It just opened up a new factory in China, and will double its production capacity for biodiesel fuels.

To your profitable future,
Jonathan Kolber
April 30, 2007

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