You can power a diesel truck on fuel made from soybeans… but is that fuel any good? I spent a week talking to farmers, experts, and engineers to try and learn more.
Thanks to the Michigan Soybean Committee for supporting this video! If you want to learn more about biodiesel, you can head over to their website: https://bit.ly/michigansoybean
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Sources for this video:
Interviews with Rob Steenbergh, Jennifer Weaver, and Keiven Brackelman
2023 study on air pollution and asthma: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2752-5309/acc886
https://extension.psu.edu/biodiesel-a-renewable-domestic-energy-resource
https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/understanding-soybean-nodulation-and-inoculation.html
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=39372
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/7/9/881
https://www.canr.msu.edu/bioeconomy/fuel/biodiesel
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=39372
44 Comments
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FYI, it take 2-5 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of biodiesel. And it depletes topsoil.
It must be really hard to dig up every soybean plant, rotate it and then replant it. Do they have machines that can do that?
Another informative video. Than you!
Just started the video. One issue for me is by removing food from the food chain, are we raising food costs for everyone? Is soy biofuel, costing me $$$ of my food budget?
My friends Dad uses biodiesel ( as high as he can get it in the summer and 10% in the winter ) in his older Didge rams and he seen an increse in mileage and it runs smoother, he's been doing this since they first came out with the option. Winter you have to be careful because of it gelling in the cold.There was also a guy in Connecticut running used cooking oil ( he refined ) in his volkswagon jetta and he was getting 15mpg more with cooking oil, he also runs it in the winter with a pre-heater system due to it becoming lard otherwise. He has to run pure diesel the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes of his 70 minute commute and uses about 10 gallons of pure diesel a month.
Great video, Thanks.
What does a gallon of soybean oil cost? How many gallons of soybean oil could the U.S. make at maximum productions? How much diesel in gallons does the U.S. use? Basically could we replace all diesel with soybean oil?
Alexis, you will find soybeans growers from Maine to Florida, and from Jersey to California. The biggest drawback of soybean oil is cost of production and lubricity.
There was a small startup in sw usa that was trying to grow algae to produce biodiesel, it was fascinating because they were doing it in the desert and according to what was reported on the show i learned about it from the dude who started it was able to produce enough over a year or two to run his dirt bike. Idk if there's been any progress or if he had to shut down due to finances, since it being an experiment to produce fuel didnt have a big budget and it was around 2017-18 i think the episode was shown, it was a Science Channel show.
So interesting! I love that this tells a full story, from the growth to production to use – and so cool to see inside the processing facility too! Never something I knew I was curious about until now 🙂
What percent of soybean is Vin Diesel?
You'd be surprised what is made with soybeans and the impact of soybean science has been.
How fabulous….You are just magic!!
very informative…great video! …but where's the wedding ring?
Motors running on diesel can run on nearly all vegetable oil. Any adaptation of the motor ia not even necessary.
When Dr Diesel invented his diesel engine way back in 1800 & whatever, he selected Peanut Oil as the fuel.
Today, Diesel engines can run on ANY oil be it peanut, soy, palm,coconut or bunker C, you name it.
!
Well done again. I am really impressed by you growing tomatoes in the UP.
Very cool. We learn together every day
Plant based fuels are not engine friendly. Ask any mechanic how friendly corn based ethanol is to an internal combustion engine. Anyone trying to sell you plant based fuel is doing it from a marketing stand point only, not long term real world affects. Look at the soybean farmers tractors…brand new. Yes they will run on it with a tiny mixture (say 10 or 15%) with fossil fuels but the damage to your engine is substantial over time and the percentage of plant based fuel is minimal. I`ve been working on vehicles for 50 years, I know this is strictly a marketing ploy to sell more soy beans.
P.S You`re cute as a button.
👍👍
Very cool episode for sure. As a Wisconsin native, It's always cool to see farmers getting their justified dues. I totally understand not including all of the implement tour Rob gave you as it wasn't pertinent to the topic at hand, but if you do have extra footage of his farm tour, I would love to see it in a different video you might have planned!
Great video Alexis!!!😄
Thanks for the video
food should not be converted into fuel
Mr. Diesel developed his engine to use peanut oil as fuel. Petroleum products were only used when they were cheaper than veggie oil.
This isn’t solving anything. The problem is carbon emissions. We need to stop the use of combustion for running things entirely. This is a sidestep not an innovation. It’s a waste of time and resources.
FYI, "Climate change" has been happening since the beginning of time and humans have little to no impact on the changes.
The only issue with Biodiesel that I’ve experienced 🚛,
is that algae loves it as well.
And you can end up pretty clogged up.
Especially in the colder months when diesel runs a little thick anyway.
I’m sure it’s just “bugs” to be worked out. ⚗️🔬🧪
But the idea of growable fuel ⛽️ is pretty awesome 👍
Really good job removing the background noise at the W2Fuel plant!
Biofuel exists. What's news?
Instead of poisoning the air and soil with dinosaurs, we poison the air with corn.
Somewhere buried deep within my hard drive are a series of articles I wrote about bio-diesel from when I worked for the Independent Media Center around 20 years ago, when bio-diesel was a homemade product by people driving diesel cars and trucks. They were collecting used cooking oil from restaurants around the area and titrating it down at home-made labs. That all worked well until Big Oil discovered the process could be profitable and then all on a sudden all that free used cooking oil became a commodity putting the hobbyists out of business.
I was disappointed to find out that they are only using 20% and that it costs more than regular diesel fuel. Is that because of the cost of processing the oil or the basic cost of the oil? When biodiesel first became available, a farm supply company in Wisconsin started using it in their trucks. It went fine until the weather turned cold and their trucks wouldn't run because the fuel had congealed.
Soybeans, are a great use for fuel, GMO soybeans are not healthy for human or livestock.
I don't see how swapping Petroleum with Soybean Oil has much impact on the amount of carbon vehicles burn. Yes, an argument can be made that Soybeans are a renewable resource that's 'cleaner' to grow and process, than diesel fuel is to extract and refine. But remember that the refining of the diesel fuel produces a relatively small percent of the carbon emitted, compared to the amount that gets blown out the exhaust pipe of diesel engines…
I don't understand the claim "Biodiesel can reduce carbon emissions by as much as 70%". Soybean Oil is a carbon-based oil, much like any other type of oil. If it isn't carbon that is burning with diesel Soybean Oil, then what is it that is replacing 70% of the carbon that is getting burned in regular diesel fuel?
Also, I understand how some engine manufacturers don't authorize the use of Biodiesel in their engines. One of the functions of diesel fuel is to lubricate the internals of the very high pressure fuel pumps most diesel engines use to direct-inject the fuel at very high pressure into the combustion chamber. Unless some additives are included to make biodiesel comparable to regular diesel fuel, the biodiesel may cause premature breakdown of fuel pumps, which are extremely expensive to replace. As it appears biodiesel is hygroscopic, perhaps the water that gets absorbed over time is what can damage high pressure fuel pumps?
Interesting that the farmer flushes out the biodiesel with 'premium diesel' at the end of the season…
Glad you've expanded into other topics. As with all great presentations, they often open up more questions… Well done!
Compression engines can run on oil from almost anything. Everyone is bent on broadcasting all of the good parts of their ideas but never even mentioning all of the down sides. You are at a farm letting the farmer brag about his soybean fuel but what you don't realize or want to see is this farmer has cards in the game. He grows and sells soybeans. It's in his business interest to push the idea be it good or bad. Ya, he's a farmer but he is also a business owner that want's to grow his business by finding other uses for his crop. Converting from petroleum diesel fuel to soybean fuel would mean a windfall to his business but at the same time raise the price of the hundreds of products that depend on the crop. This means a bad year for the crop might be devastating for hundreds or thousands of other products including food.
I swear you are some sort of Bizarro Destin from @SmarterEveryDay. Good stuff as always.
Great video – your channel is right up there with the likes of Tom Scott! Can’t wait to see more quality MI (and Midwest) content ❤
Wish we could make a better engine that could use more bio diesel
I'll support turning food into fuel when every person on the planet can go to bed with a full tummy. Until then, we still need petroleum products. Thanks for sharing.
I had assumed that because soy beans are nitrogen fixing legumes it means that a benefit of crop rotation is that they did not need to be fertilized, but in speaking about this with a soy bean farmer he explained that soy beans still need to be fertilized.
I always have a sense of caution when using top line foodstuffs to make fuel when there are other feedstocks such as food factory leftovers such as meat scraps. sewage sludge etc. that are great sources of feedstock.
I was watching a few of your videos and was just thinking about an unusual rock outcropping in the middle of Goose Lake, near Palmer (Marquette County). From what I understand, they are large magnetite boulders with quartz outcroppings. I saw them once when I was young and canoeing on the lake. They were absolutely breathtaking. I am sure you would be interested in seeing them. I first read about them in a locally published book. I then ran across the rocks with my son when he was a toddler on a canoe trip on the lake. Goose Lake is a fascinating lake to explore. There are some cliffs and major outcroppings on the east side of the lake. We approached the lake from the east on the fire lanes.
Thanks for the great stories. I think you are a gifted storyteller. I always look forward to watching your videos.
Running motor vehicles on crops grown on land, and with fertilizer and pesticides that could be used to grow food crops is starving the poorest people in the world.
I transferred to the UP of Michigan in 2005. I was commissioned to design and build and operate a biodiesel facility. We located in Gladstone. We used soy bean oil feedstock. It took us a year to design and build the facility. We made high quality methyl ester that was sold locally as well as other states. For me it was a rewarding experience. We had to invent a lot of the critical components because there wasn’t prior builds. Anyway we operated for five years until the owner passed away. Thanks for the video.