Quarterly Bulletin

      This article is a companion to Roland Lesseps’ piece in the JCTR Bulletin, No. 72 “Should We Grow Crops for Biofuel?” The author, Bert Otten, S.J., is professor emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seattle University. He works with the Rural Engineering Centre of the Diocese of Monze and is a Consultant in Appropriate Technology. In this article, he argues for the use of vegetable oil as diesel fuel.

In the first part of this article, as an engineer, I describe somewhat technically the use of vegetable oil as a diesel fuel. In the second part – since I am not a social scientist, economist, a farmer, lawyer, ethician, business man, or politician - I pose questions about the implications of using this technology and suggest that it be developed.

WHAT?

When I drive by, people sniff the air and say “Chips.”  That happens because “the exhaust smells like a kitchen.”  This has been going on since last May when I adapted the Isuzu vanette which the Monze Diocese has assigned to me for use with vegetable oil fuel.

I am using 100% vegetable oil, sunflower seed oil. Other types of vegetable oil would also be suitable. The engine runs more smoothly than with diesel because the oil burns more slowly and gives the pistons a more even surge of power. The engine should last longer because of this.

The number of kilometers per liter is about the same as with diesel: 10.7 km/l for diesel with long highway drives and 10.3 km/l for the vegetable oil on local roads. When I started, the cost of the vegetable oil was a little less than the cost of diesel. The price has risen. I get the oil from the Chikuni Youth Training Centre [CYATC] which the Diocese runs.  Therefore the money stays within the diocese rather than going outside the country. The vegetable oil in the Monze market would be a little more expensive than diesel I am told.

When there was a national fuel shortage a couple of months ago and people were not able to get to work for want of fuel, I had no trouble.

There are no chemical processes involved in preparing the oil for use. CYATC uses a 50 micron filter for ordinary cooking oil.  Since a vehicle’s diesel engine has a 5 micron filter in the system, we filter the vegetable oil with a 1 micron filter.

Vegetable oil is more viscous (sticky) than diesel fuel. So we heat it in order to make it less viscous (more runny) before injecting it into the cylinders.  We use the heat of the engine for this purpose. Gunter Barten sent the heat exchanger kit from Germany to do the adaptation of the engine.

He is part of a group of 8 or 10 laymen and a priest who live in an economically depressed area of Germany.  They  had  the  local people produce canola oil from rape seed for use in diesel vehicles.  Now the German government has set a goal of having a certain percentage of vehicles running on vegetable oil by 2020.

The heat exchanger is an aluminum block about 40 mm by 80 mm by 100 mm.  Water from the engine’s cooling system runs through at one level to heat up the block.  The fuel goes through on another level absorbing the heat from the block.  From there it goes to the injector pump which supplies the cylinders with fuel.

Obviously the fuel must be heated    for   start  up  when    the engine is cold.  There are two glow plug heaters to do the initial heating of the block at start up. They are switched on for about 30 seconds before starting the engine when the engine is cold. After about 10 minutes the water from the engine’s cooling system is hot enough, and a thermal switch automatically disconnects the battery from the heater plugs.

Now I can use 100% vegetable oil or 100% diesel fuel or any combination of mixtures with no adjustments. [Gunter made a trip from Germany to Spain without stopping at a filling station. He stopped only at grocery stores.]

Installation of the heat exchanger is relatively easy.  Br. Gabriel McKinney mounted the block under the hood.  I did the plumbing myself.  Running the pipes for water and for fuel was fairly straight forward.

Gunter tells me that the conversion kits cost about US$400 each.  The emissions are CO2 (carbon dioxide) and H2O (water) according to Gunter. The CO2 is partially reabsorbed by the plants producing the oil.  Water, is no problem.  There are no other byproducts that are harmful to the environment associated with diesel and petrol. 

When I reported on this to a group of scientists and engineers from Jesuit universities in Nicaragua last July, they were very interested. Central American engineers produce biofuel from palm oil.  They must chemically modify the palm oil before use in a way that produces byproducts harmful to the environment.  Again when it is used, it produces harmful exhaust byproducts.

Immediately after the adaptation I was conscious of the smell of the exhaust and the smoothness of the running of the engine.  When I tested for pickup, it seemed to me that it was at least as good as with diesel and perhaps better (But I was perhaps prejudiced).

This technology can be used on any direct injection diesel engine whether it is for a vehicle, water pump, hammer mill or some other function.

WHY?

Sit back and imagine with me for a bit.  What if the majority of the diesel vehicles in the Monze area were converted to some kind of vegetable oil for fuel?  Imagine that the farmers doing sustainable agriculture would have some of their crop in oil producing plants.  Imagine then that the money currently going to the Middle East and international corporations was staying in the Monze area.  Within five or ten years there should be a visible improvement in the area because poverty could be reduced if the process were well managed.  Even the small farmer who does not have a hope of owning a vehicle for himself or herself would profit from the situation.

Wherever oil (and perhaps other resources like copper) has been discovered and developed in developing nations, the poor, the anawim, the farmer engaged in sustainable agriculture have had their lives become worse than before.  That happens because, in fact, the money does not “trickle down” to the poor. The discovery of oil in a country is the curse of the poor. Here with proper management/legislation the small farmer and the poor could be in charge of the production instead of being a mere bystander and victim. That is an exciting possibility.

PROBLEMS?

In reading something like the above presentation, we environmentalists probably have several red flags pop up in our consciousness and sub consciousness.

The first objection came from our parish priest who said, “You should not use a food substance for fuel while people are hungry.”  My initial ad hominum response was that, if you were serious about food, you would not use your diesel to drive around.  You would use it to power tractors to plow fields to grow food for people.  You would use it to pump water for irrigation of the many fertile but un-watered hectares of land around us.  You would use it for petro-chemical fertilizers for the unenlightened who still use fertilizers.

Then I asked a local farmer about growing sunflowers.  He said that not too many people did it around here because there was not enough of a market for it. He said that the crop takes less rain than maize, has a shorter growing season, and can be grown on poor ground. He would be happy if someone could guarantee him a price per kilogram for his product at the end of the season.  He said it would then become a very desirable crop for the farmer.

If there is a problem with using food oils for mechanical energy, many other vegetable oils would be suitable for fuel. Some of them are nonedible. Jetropha is one that is used for fencing since cattle will not penetrate the fence because they do not eat it.  After three years it produces a fruit that will produce a good fuel oil.  They say it will grow on poor ground with relatively little water once it is started. There are a number of other possible vegetable sources of oil that should be experimented with.

There is a Xaverian priest in India who has grown jetropha on a large scale for several years. He would be a source of information about its possibilities.  He should know whether jetropha “poisons the soil for other crops”.

Another danger would be that, if vegetable oil becomes popular, large land owners or corporations would buy out the small farmer. The farmer’s plight would remain the same or probably worsen. Here again some kind of overseeing, regulating authority would have to look out for the common good and set parameters for the socio-economic situation.

This technology would have to be examined in the light of the overall energy situation and policy of the country. Conservation and efficiency would be a high priority.  The country has rich, potential, energy gifts: macro and micro hydroelectric potential, solar photovoltaic energy, solar heat energy  for  steam  and  electrical energy, wind in some locations, geothermal possibilities, land and water for growing bio-energy.  [An example of improvement in energy efficiency would be changing incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent lamps which take less energy.  Fluorescent lamps in turn may be replaced by the emerging LED (light emitting diode) illumination technology which uses much less energy.]

I believe that I have heard that we, in Zambia, use only about 1/9 of possible arable land for food crops.  A major problem is that our abundant water supply comes during the rainy season, and we allow it flow through the Zambezi to the Indian Ocean. Water harvesting should be a major national concern.

I remember flying into Harare about a dozen years ago and being awed by the number of small dams retaining water.  In those days Zimbabwe was a breadbasket for Africa.  Because of these abundances we have the potential to not be “diverting” food production land to biofuel producing agriculture.  But rather adding energy producing, agricultural land to the economy.

In our situation in this country, Zambia, there seems to be enough arable land to provide for food as well as fuel.  We would not have to cut down the existing forests which are already being depleted by the charcoal industry.  There is much relatively bare land, and some of it is reasonably close to water sources already.

It seems that the biofuel push is a fact in the world.  We can sit back and let it happen to us.  Or we can take an active role in our future.  Agencies, perhaps like JCTR, should take an active role in developing a comprehensive energy policy for the country.  How do you prevent bio-wealth from being monopolised by a few to the detriment of the whole?  How do you make sure that food costs will not soar? 

Does it require an enlightened government policy, private sector, church groups, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), United nations (UN), Gates-like foundations, or what? Or does it require as many of the above as can be enlisted?  It, of course, will demand a corruption-free government that truly has the interests of all the people at heart. (Past records of many African governments do not show a lot of promise in this regard.)  What strategies can be developed to overcome or minimise the impact of corrupt officials and businesses? What strategies can be developed to overcome legal but harmful energy acquisition, development, and use?

Eventually there will be a system of collecting road taxes on biofuel.  Here again there will have to be much care in setting up the system and supervising it.

For the present the Diocese of Monze Promoter of Development Office would like to demonstrate the feasibility of powering a few of its vehicles with biofuel.  It will be a money saving device since one department of the office will buy the fuel from another, and the money stays within the system.  It can show the possibilities.  But it will require much more effort by many people to make it raise the economic level of the Monze area as the next logical step. Is it possible to produce vegetable oil at a price that competes with petrodiesel fuel?  If it can be done, the Monze area could become a model for the country.

I would recommend that you read again Fr. Lesseps’ thoughtful and well documented article in the JCTR Bulletin, No. 72, “Should We Grow Crops For Biofuels?” As you have probably guessed, my answer is “Yes but very carefully.”  I think we have a fine opportunity for Zambia to develop vegetable oil biodiesel fuel.

ALTERNATIVE AVENUES

I would suggest that no foreign interests should be involved in the development. I would not allow big business in the business.  Let the experience and education of local people provide expertise here in Zambia through careful thought, consultation, trial and error, and careful assessment. Here is, perhaps, an ideal situation where Zambia cannot only produce the raw material but also process it for final sale. (It might be economically advantageous in the long run for the government to subsidise local biofuel production to keep the money in the country for the common good.) I would suggest that those involved re-read E. F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful and proceed in that spirit. Let individuals and small communities find appropriate sources of vegetable oil in their own locality. Let them find the best way to process and sell it in

their area, making sure that the growing of the plants stays with small farmers.

I suggest that Zambia with its riches of industrious people, its present large surplus of arable land, and its abundant supply of water, develop biodiesel as part of the solution to its energy problem.  Other sources of energy should be developed in an appropriate parallel way. Of course, that will not be a substitute for efficiency in the use of energy and its conservation.  Zambians will have to take steps to learn how to lead a full human life without squandering its material, energy, and human resources. This generation could set the policy to make Zambia become a model for the world, of a country that has developed a sustainable balanced energy source.

Bert Otten, S.J.
Chikuni Jesuit Community
Monze