China’s omnivorous global appetite for energy resources is well known.

While biofuel production is one of the rising energy stars of the 21st century, it is unlikely to become a significant source for China in the near future, as the country’s arable land is devoted first and foremost to feeding the country’s massive population 1.3 billion citizens, unless a feedstock can be found that grows well on marginal land.

But the issue of food may yet prove to contribute to the country’s energy output by recycling a traditional component of Chinese cuisine – used cooking oil.

According to a recent article in the People’s Daily, Beijing’s 19 million inhabitants are seeing the grease used to fry up their dim sum and other delicacies carted off by eight licensed collectors of used cooking oil, known as “hogwash,” for recycling into biofuel.

Beijing Hailianghongxin Bioenergy Ltd. President Li dong said, “We have contracts with 300 catering firms, including most McDonald’s, and collect 3,000 tons each year.”

Beijing Hailianghongxin Bioenergy Ltd.’s collected hogwash oil is transported to a refinery in Gu’an county in Hebei province, owned by Gu’an Zhongde Lihua Petrochemical Co, the largest hogwash-to-biodiesel processing company in Beijing, and processed into biodiesel.

Hogwash oil is extracted from rotten pork and peroxided oil, used repeatedly in frying.

The bad news is that when hogwash oil is reused in restaurants, it can breed a number of diseases, doctors suspecting that it is even a potential carcinogen.

Recycled into biodiesel fuel, hogwash oil accordingly becomes a public health service.

The good news for Chinese capitalists is a conservative estimate is that China produces 30,000 tons of hogwash oil each and every day from restaurants and that China’s annual production of oily restaurant slop is no less than a most impressive 60,000,000 tons per annum, a mere 20,000 times the modest collection efforts of Mr. Li’s cohorts.

As Beijing alone currently has more than 50,000 restaurants, hotels and canteens, the city produces 90,000 tons of hogwash oil each year but currently the bulk of the used cooking oil is still being siphoned off illegally, to be used again in restaurants. Beijing Hailianghongxin Bioenergy Ltd.’s Gu’an county refinery, which opened in May, is capable of processing 40,000 tons of hogwash oil a year but it only expects to receive 15,000 tons of hogwash feedstock to process this year, according to Lu. Lu added, “Our costs include an oil-water separator for each restaurant and always payment to them in order to collect hogwash oil, recruitment of staff, buying vehicles and renting storehouses.”

Unfortunately, illegal collectors don’t need so much investment, with Lu noting about the competition, “A tricycle and a big scoop are all they need, and at the cost of $47 per ton they can recycle the hogwash oil to be edible oil and sell it to restaurants for $1,400 to $1,560 per ton,”

China Biodiesel Industry Association deputy secretary-general Sun Shanlin commented that insufficient feedstock input is a large industrial constraint and the collection and disposal of hogwash oil has yet to be properly organized by the relevant authorities.

Shenzhen-based CIC Industry Research Center analyst Shen Hongwen said, “The greatest difficulty for the industry is the short supply of hogwash oil. The profits in the manufacturing of biodiesel from hogwash oil cannot compare with the profits in selling it as edible oil, so it’s hard for enterprises in the biodiesel sector to get sufficient raw materials to expand their production scale.”

A research report issued by the China Association of Senior Scientists and Technicians a year ago noted simply, “More than 90 percent of the hogwash oil in Beijing is controlled by illegal collectors.”

The Chinese government is belatedly waking up to the potential of recycling cooking oil, as earlier this month the government announced it would spend $98.5 million to support the recycling of used kitchen cooking oil into biofuel in 33 cities and districts nationwide, including Beijing’s Chaoyang district, the city’s second largest and home to the majority of Beijing’s many foreign embassies.

Amusing as it is on the surface, China’s great “hogwash” imbroglio illuminates a number of contradictory truths about China’s headlong rush to prosperity. For China, 60,000,000 tons per annum of recycled cooking oil into biofuel is not an insignificant consideration.

First and foremost perhaps, is that enterprising Chinese, obeying the late Deng Xiaoping’s alleged exhortation, “To get rich is glorious!” have embraced its ethos with enthusiasm – and why not go where the profits are highest, in this case, the back door of the local carryout? In the absence of a clearly defined government policy, why not slip the used oil out the restaurant’s rea rdoor for great profits?

Second is that pesky issue of food security.

A recent U.S. International Trade Commission publication says that China’s food security objectives may clash with its energy independence and environmental objectives, inhibiting the development of renewable biofuels. The China’s Agricultural Trade: Competitive Conditions and Effects on U.S. Exports report notes that while China is the world’s second largest corn-producing nation, using the grain primarily for animal feed and secondarily ethanol production, bad harvests in 2009-2010 coupled with rising demand led China to import around 1.5 million metric tons of U.S. corn and in 2010 China consequently became a net corn importer.

China’s National Reform and Development Commission strictly regulates both the supply of and demand for biofuels and only state-owned enterprises are involved in production and the NDRC plans to increase domestic biofuel production to 12 million metric tons in 2020.
Unlike corn imports from the U.S., hogwash oil is an indigenous resource. Given both government public health issues and energy concerns, it would seem that the country’s furtive hogwash oil barons can expect to come under increasing government pressure.

More ominously for China’s illicit hogwash oil trade long term prospects, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has recently successfully tested hogwash oil biofuel derivatives as a possible Jet A-1 “drop in” civilian airplane fuel.

Microwave, anyone?

Chinese free enterprise versus government control?

As the late great U.S. blues singer Rufus Thomas almost said, “Wok the dog!”

Article by John C.K. Daly, appearing courtesy OilPrice.com

Related posts:

• Standards Deficient for Current Biofuels
• China is Interested in Biofuels – Why Not the West?
• As Saudi Crude Flows to China, U.S. Need for Biofuels Grows
• Lufthansa: Biofuels Could Be Aviation’s Standard in Five Years
• LanzaTech Caps Huge Year with Prestigious Award

A conference taking place in Abuja, Nigeria, will discuss what African countries need to do to foster the adoption of alternative energy.

The event is organized by the African Renewable Energy Alliance (AREA) and takes place between June 29th and July 1st. It is co-organized by the World Future Council (WFC) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation Nigeria, with further support from the Energy Commission of Nigeria and the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency ECREEE.

Expert policy makers, representatives from business and civil society will converge to consult about policies, technologies and financial mechanisms for the deployment of renewable energy types in Africa.

The issue of gender is also on the table. The organizers say gender is a main determinant that defines access, ways of utilization, opportunities and control over all energy resources.

“As renewable energy could be a tool for gender equality and women empowerment, gender perspectives are a critical component of policy making at all levels”, the organizers say.

“We want to identify concrete implementation possibilities for the participants,” said Ansgar Kiene, Director Africa Liaison Office of the World Future Council and conference organizer.

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

Related posts:

• South Africa Embraces Campaign For Sustainable Lighting
• South Africa’s Solar Power Potential
• French Loan to Finance South African Eskom Wind Project
• South Africa Will Use Solar Power to Fight Climate Change
• $2.7 Million Solar Panel Factory Opens in Naivasha, Kenya

From the beginning, this Administration has shown a commitment to protecting American families at the pump by taking steps to reduce our reliance on foreign oil. In March, the President announced a goal of reducing oil imports by a third by 2025, through a combination of increased domestic production, investment in alternative fuels, and increased efficiency in the vehicles we drive. As the President has made clear, there is no immediate fix for high gas prices. That said there are sensible steps we can take to protect families over the long term. In last week’s weekly address, the President laid out important steps that the Administration is taking to continue to expand responsible and safe domestic oil production.  These include a number of sensible, bipartisan ideas that we can act on with existing authority– like directing the Department of the Interior to conduct annual lease sales in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, while respecting sensitive areas; speeding up the evaluation of oil and gas resources in the mid and south Atlantic; and creating new incentives for industry to develop their unused leases both on and offshore.  About 57 percent of leased onshore acres and over 70 percent of leased offshore acres are currently inactive, and last year, of the nearly 37 million offshore acres offered for lease by the Federal government, only 2.4 million acres were leased by companies.

To make sure that companies have time to meet higher safety standards for exploration and drilling with existing leases, the Administration is extending drilling leases in areas of the Gulf of Mexico that were impacted by the temporary moratorium, as well as certain leases off the coast of Alaska. And, a new interagency working group will help ensure that Arctic development projects meet health, safety and environmental standards.

While the Administration can take these important steps without waiting for Congress to act, there is more that we could do with legislation. That’s why today, in testimony before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a series of legislative principles that the Administration is calling on Congress to implement in order to further expand timely and safe domestic oil and gas development. The goals of these legislative principles include:

* Providing incentives for the prompt development of oil and gas leases, encouraging companies to act on the millions of acres they already have access to but are not currently producing;
* Providing the tools for the federal government to oversee offshore oil and gas development activities on a timely and effective basis, by codifying the unprecedented reforms DOI has put into place to increase safety and environmental oversight;

These priorities expand on the foundation and record this Administration has already put into place – overhauling oversight and improving safety and environmental responsibility while continuing production. In the year since the tragic Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we have raised the bar for safety through the most extensive reforms to offshore oil and gas regulation and oversight in U.S. history. The changes strengthen requirements for everything from well design and workplace safety to corporate accountability, and are helping both government and industry to ensure that the United States can safely and responsibly expand development of its energy resources to support our economy and our energy security.

And, despite claims to the contrary, the Administration continues to approve permits that meet these new standards. To date, 53 new shallow water wells have been permitted since the implementation of new safety and environmental standards on June 8, 2010. Permits have averaged 6 per month since October 2010. Since mid-February when industry first demonstrated subsea containment, DOI has approved 34 permits for activities at 14 unique deepwater wells. These numbers not only underscore our commitment to ongoing production, they show that industry can and is meeting these important new standards.

Read more about the Administration’s policies to support safe and responsible domestic oil and gas production from the Department of Interior.

Article by Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change

Related posts:

• Obama Takes Long View on Rising Gas Prices
• The Facts on Domestic Oil and Gas Production
• Renewables Provide Greater Share of U.S. Power Than Nuclear
• Helping American Families Make Good Choices and Cut Energy Bills
• Obama to Congress: Subsidize Clean Energy Not Oil and Gas

Efforts have been underway for decades to conserve both energy and water, but never in concert. This is unfortunate because energy uses a lot of water and water uses a lot of energy.

Two leading conservation organizations have set out to bring the efforts together. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Alliance for Water Efficiency this week published a white paper that describes the co-dependence of water and energy resources, and outlines strategies to use both more efficiently.

The paper brings to light some interesting – and rarely discussed – ways each resource heightens use of the other.

• Sourcing, moving, treating, heating, collecting, re-treating, and dispos­ing of water consumes 19 percent of California’s electricity, 30 percent of its natural gas, and 88 billion gallons of diesel fuel annually, according to a 2005 California Energy Commission report.

• The River Network in 2009 found that energy use for water services accounts for 13 percent of US electricity consumption, at least 520 million megawatt-hours annually.

• Thermoelectric power accounted for an estimated 49 percent of US water withdrawals and 53 percent of fresh surface-water withdrawals in 2005.

ACEEE and AWE hope to work together on local, state and federal policy to bring more energy efficiency to water use and water efficiency to energy use. They have some hurdles to overcome. For example, “the water and energy efficiency communities do not share a common language or appreciation of existing efficiency efforts,” the white paper said. “In addition, the two communities frequently operate under different regulatory business models and existing structures that do not recognize the benefits of both energy and water savings.”

The organizations intend to develop approaches that encourage com­munication and guide the industries and their regulators. They hope to share best practices and integrate water efficiency into existing energy efficiency programs and vice versa.

The project looks not only at the big water and energy users like power plants and waste water treatment facilities, but also households. This could prove interesting, as we move increasingly toward whole house automation as a way to increase efficiency and comfort in the home. Home automation has tended, thus far, to focus on energy and telecommunications, with a host of up-and-coming high tech gadgets that make the home a more interesting and more resource-efficient place to live, work and play. If water and energy efficiency merge in the direction described by ACEEE and AWE, will we see a new suite of ‘smart water’ technologies in the smart home?

Stay tuned. This could be interesting. Read the white paper here.

Elisa Wood is a long-time energy writer whose work appears in many of the industry’s top magazines and newsletters. She is publisher of the Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.

Related posts:

• Nutrients From Deep-Sea Vents Key to Carbon Storage, Study Says
• Water Efficiency Ideation Workshop — TONIGHT
• Hybrid Solar Panels Convert ‘Heat Stress’ to Hot Water
• Getting SMART About Energy Efficiency
• Largest U.S. Thin-Film Solar Plant To Be Built In Indiana

As a continuation of my post from Monday (What is CleanTech… and, is it really an “industry?”), my thesis continues to be it is not an industry, but CleanTech is indeed a “movement” or a shift in business thinking that will allow for some very new and creative businesses solutions to emerge.  Today I expand into the first of the three pillars (environment, energy, and international cooperation/legislation) that will increasingly bring all business sectors together and drive them to innovate and incorporate clean technologies… or, not at our species’ peril.

1. ENVIRONMENT
Not unlike bacteria, humans continue to produce (and reproduce) until they have reached an unsustainable peak. Evidence of this is the persistent need for expansion as was seen in the Roman Empire; or more starkly, the rapid decline of the Mayan culture.  While the recent financial turbulence may not have long-term effects on overall population growth, as we project our consumption rate of our available resources and crowd into the space we have left to grow into, it has become increasingly apparent that our environment is a very real constraint to continued unbridled growth.

In the past we have, slowly, identified alarming symptoms and traced them to their cause. Slower still, we have used legislation and economics to curb the unchecked exploitation of the environmental commons.  Yet, as some humans have attempted to slow deforestation and reduce the use of many carcinogens, noxious chemicals, ozone depleting gasses and more through controls, their efforts are often stymied by a global capitalist economic system allows for graft and lobbying efforts by those who profit (at least on the short term) from looser and less sustainable regulation.  Consequently, our environmental situation is becoming increasingly dire.

As the human race has moved into almost every cranny of the Earth, even those previously vacated because of environmental degradation, we have come to realize that it is not a very big place after all. Sustainable economic success is predicated by some level of environmental harmony lest we wipe ourselves or our customers out. We have become too adept at taming nature to suit our short term needs, and as the World’s population grows, we see that there is no where else to go.  Economically driven environmental disasters like Bhopal and the Exxon Valdez oil spill produced effects felt by fellow humans globally, in the past these have been the kickstart needed to curb environmental exploitation.

The success, if not comfort, of our species hinges on recognizing that there is an equilibrium and that we should not produce things that the earth cannot reabsorb in a balanced fashion.  The energy resources we have grown accustomed to using have shown themselves to be finite, especially when consumed in the quantities we are familiar with. Furthermore there is strong evidence to suggest that the earth will face repercussions from carbon and other effluents of fossil fuel – climate change is only one of them.  Similarly, myopic humans cannot consider ‘geologic time’ which means we cannot accurately estimate the long-term effects of nuclear radiation on our containment strategies.

Our environmental situation is such that processes that don’t operate in a sustainable cycle will need to be eliminated. Or we can wait for cataclysmic disasters. Or we need to have much smaller population then we will once again be able to trash a campsite and move on to the next one in the hopes that by the time the next human arrives nature will have repatriated our trash into organic matter and smoothed the ripple of our presence.

I wouldn’t worry too much about “mother earth” – she will continue to exist well beyond us, the question becomes can we keep it as a place that is inhabitable by humans.

More to come on Energy and International Legislation… in the meantime, don’t forget to vote for CleanTechies. As they say, vote early and vote often – you can do it once every 24 hours.

-Ian

Related posts:

• Vol. IV: Is CleanTech really an industry? (Today: A welcome to President Obama, International Collaboration & Legislation)
• Vol. III: Is CleanTech really an industry? (Today: Energy)
• Nothing New About the New Green Deal
• What is CleanTech… and, is it really an “industry”?
• Obama’s win: Bright future for CleanTech?