Being a Biodiesel Evangelist

haaz — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 04:18:38 GMT

It's not a living. But that's not the point; it's not meant to be something I could make money doing. Like a religious evangelist, I am not doing this for financial reward, but for the betterment of myself and my community. Not even the world. In fact, I'm not doing this "to save the world." It will certainly help, but I am
doing this because I love biodiesel, and I love Milwaukee.

But, what is biodiesel? Very good question. Many folks have heard of biodiesel, but don't know quite what it is. To a chemist, biodiesel is a methyl ester created in a chemical process called transesterification whereby glycerin is separated from animal fat or vegetable oil. (The other product is glycerin, which can be made into soap, candles, and dynamite.)

And to me, biodiesel is a yellow fluid that smells vaguely of vegetable oil and popcorn. I'm not exactly sure how it's made, but I do know that using it with petrol diesel reduces the nasty cancer-causing emissions found in petroleum diesel. And unlike petrol diesel, biodiesel is made from crops grown right here in Wisconsin and the American Midwest. Our farmers get money from it, but OPEC doesn't get a cent.

And I know that when I pour it in my Volkswagen TDI, instead of being a loud, rattly car, it runs smoothly and quietly car. And the exhaust smells nice, rather like popcorn is being cooked in a sweet-smelling vegetable oil.

Imagine if when a bus went by you on the street, instead of a cloud of noxious black smoke, it would emit a cloud of popcorn. Okay, that will never happen, but if the bus had even a little bit of biodiesel, the exhaust would certainly smell a lot better!

This is what's possible with biodiesel. It cleans out old diesel engines, and makes a nice smell in the process. It supports midwestern farmers, not Mid-East oil barons. Soon, fields of soybeans and canola flowers will take the place of oil rigs and refineries, and deadly oil spills will be a distant memory. That's possible with biodiesel. Biodiesel emissions have significantly lower toxic emissions than petroleum fuel emissions, which means if our busses ran just 20% biodiesel, the air we breathe would be cleaner. Our city would be cleaner. And It feels great to know you're doing something to help fight global climate change as you help reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil. It's hard to get much better than that!

The greatest thing is the people I've met while working in the biodiesel world. We're not a bunch of tightwads who thin we're so much better than everyone else because we drive biodiesel cars. My friends and colleagues are generous and straightforward -- good Milwaukeeans. We know that we're doing something wonderful, and we want to tell the world about it. Not so that we can feel superior to them, but so they can start doing it as well.

Which reminds me... Brother, have you heard the word of Rudolph Diesel?...

Blog entries for haaz

Being a Biodiesel Evangelist