FUEL is an insightful portrait of America’s addiction to oil and an uplifting testament to the immediacy of new energy solutions. Director, Josh Tickell, a young activist, shuttles us on a whirlwind journey to track the rising domination of the petrochemical industry — from Rockefeller’s strategy to halt Ford’s first ethanol cars to Vice President Cheney’s petrochemical company sponsored energy legislation — and reveals a gamut of available solutions to “repower America” — from vertical farms that occupy skyscrapers to algae facilities that turn wastewater into fuel. Tickell and a surprising array of environmentalists, policy makers, and entertainment notables take us through America’s complicated, often ignominious energy past and illuminate a hopeful, achievable future, where decentralized, sustainable living is not only possible, it’s imperative.

I saw Fuel last night and thought it was a good thought provoking film. It is an interesting look at oil and how we use it to power our world, it’s pros and cons, and what might be the future of clean renewable fuels. Although I thought it was a tad long, I’d highly recommend seeing it. Eric Johnson of Desert Biofuels has a good write up on what he thought of the film on their blog. If you are interested in sustainable biofuels check out Desert Biofuels website to learn more.

Run down to the nearest theater showing this film and check it out! If you are in Arizona the film has just been extended to show until Thursday April 30th at Harkins Camelview.

Not bad for only being open for a couple weeks! If you haven’t been over there yet now is a great time to check them out.

Here’s a quote from AZ Biodiesel’s owner Dan Rees from local diesel forum sparkfree.com.

You told us…………”appointments are lame”

So………….no more appointments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the map to our Gilbert location for you to get fuel:
http://azbiodiesel.com/contact.htm

And just to celebrate……..biodiesel now $2.50 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah!!!!!!!!! lower methanol prices allowed us to lower our price again!!!

Thanks everyone!
Dan

After a long wait and a couple moves AZ Biodiesel was able to open its doors to the public and start selling biodiesel this past weekend. The biodiesel they produce is a recycled product made from waste vegetable oil collected from restaurants all over Arizona. Currently they are selling the bio for $2.99 a gallon which is great and I’m sure subject to change from day to day. Because they are not a retail gas station you need to contact them to make an appointment to fill up. Follow this link http://azbiodiesel.com/BioDiesel.htm to contact them and be one of first diesel car or truck owners to run 100% local fuel.

On a similar note, Western States Petroleum switched from virgin biodiesel made in Iowa to local recycled biodiesel made from waste vegetable oil. The biodiesel the sell is made by another local company called Amereco. They are currently selling their biodiesel for $3.49 a gallon which is also subject to change. Give them a call to find out the latest price.

Two years ago it was almost unimaginable that we’d have a few sources of completely local fuel made from waste sources. Glad to see these companies pull it off! We look forward to more places to fill up to come! Hopefully we’ll see some of this fuel at retail fuel stations sometime in the future.

If you’re thinking about brewing biodiesel or even already brewing bio I’d highly recommend checking out this nice safety video. It is easy to have an accident if you aren’t being careful. Just this last August there was an explosion at a house cause by a home brewer in Surprise Arizona. Brewing bio is generally pretty safe, you just need to take the proper precautions.

Desert Biofuels Initiative blog

Also check out this free manual on home brewing biodiesel. Lots of great information on getting your bio on.

With the price of diesel shooting up by the day this could be a good time to start looking at home-brewing biodiesel. This is a great way to save tons of money on fuel, but it requires a significant investment of your time. For some people it is worth the time to be able to save money and to run a fuel that is more environmentally friendly than regular diesel. Pretty much your only monetary costs will be for parts to make a processor (a lot of which you can find for free), methanol and lye. You’ll also need to make sure you can secure some sources of free waste vegetable oil from local restaurants around you. Without a source of waste oil you are pretty much out of luck.

Does home-brewing biodiesel sound like it is for you? How do you even get started? Well it’s your lucky day because Hans Huth, a Tucson home-brewer, has written a thorough 286 page manual available for free online for just such interests. He writes extensively on making your own biodiesel in Arizona with more information than you ever thought you needed. This book is aimed at making bio specifically in Arizona. The information, however, is relevant to any location, you can just skip the info regarding Arizona laws, etc. Hans starts this free manual by exploring the history of the diesel engine and basic information about what biodiesel is.

Something you’ll find missing from most biodiesel homebrewing manuals is legal considerations. Hans covers these in detail giving information about zoning laws, road taxes, firecodes, waste disposal, etc. He covers these very well and I’d recommend not skipping this if you are serious about brewing your own bio and want to be as legitimate as possible. There are particularly important issues surrounding waste disposal. While biodiesel itself is quite harmless you still need to find a responsible way to dispose of the glycerin and dirty waste water which may contain residual methanol.

From there he goes on to cover other considerations to keep in mind when switching to the use of biodiesel, such as its potential affects on your car. If you have an older diesel vehicle, say from the 80’s, you may run into problems with rubber tubing and seals being eaten away. This is largely irrelevant with newer diesels as the use of rubber was phased out in the early 90s or late 80s. Something to be aware of in newer diesels that have never run on biodiesel is that regular old diesel fuel leaves deposits in your fuel tank and lines that biodiesel will sweep out. Biodiesel has very good cleaning properties and will clean your lines thoroughly and possibly clog your fuel filter. After this initial cleaning of your fuel system you won’t have to worry about clogging up your filters anymore.

Hans also writes in-depth about building a biodiesel processor, collecting oil, filtering oil, and actually brewing the oil into biodiesel. He does this in a very practical and helpful way with pictures that illustrate the whole process. Overall this is the best manual I’ve seen for home-brewing biodiesel. I highly recommend this.

Head over to www.biod101.com and download this book for free and start brewing! If you like it send Hans a donation, Good luck!

Not interested in homebrewing but want to run biodiesel? Check out our map showing where you can buy biodiesel in Arizona. [here]