Biofuel Development in New York City and the Mid-Hudson

John Nettleton, Cornell University Cooperative Extension/NYC

Keywords

Abstract

Biofuel and specifically biodiesel (BD) used for transport or space heating offers significant environmental and economic benefits as a green ‘niche’ fuel capable of production throughout the Northeast U.S. Biodiesel use is particularly beneficial given the region’s reliance on heating oil (88% of oil heat in the U.S. takes place east of Pittsburgh and north of Washington, DC.) The advantages of BD over methanol/ethanol follow from its positive caloric value and the inherent efficiencies of diesel over internal combustion engines. Given increased transport costs for fuel inputs from both the U.S. Midwest and offshore sources, a combination of waste vegetable oil (WVO) feedstocks and regionally suitable cool weather crop production using water-borne transport such as the Hudson River could potentially revivify regional agriculture while providing a secure and sustainable supply of BD stocks for urban as well as non-urban uses.
This paper outlines the role of BD in sustainable development and certain initial considerations that could frame a networked system of production and processing benefiting New York’s agricultural producers and generating crops and byproducts (meal from soybean crushing, etc.) for both local and ‘downriver’ use. Though a number of ethanol plants are under development or in planning stages in New York, ethanol will serve primarily as a fleet or vehicle fuel and will enter a national distribution chain: it (ethanol) offers negligible benefits for the agricultural sector or for space heating in residential, commercial or institutional settings. Selection and adoption of proven small-scale refining technologies currently utilized in the European Union could also generate new manufacturing and distribution jobs in New York State, where the Upstate economic terrain has long been desperate for new and sustainable employment opportunities offering a livable wage. New York production of crushing equipment is another avenue for growth, as a local New York entrepreneur now seeking farm-scale crushing equipment can choose from Brazilian, Chinese or European equipment- little is produced (or
licensed) within in the U.S.¹

¹Communication with Jason Masters, Pres., Northern Biodiesel, Inc., December 2006.