One of the most intriguing and affordable products addressing pollution and reliance on foreign oil available today are E85 or “flex fuel” ethanol conversion kits. While you could spend thousands buying a new car that come stock as flex fuel ready, this more cost effective solution is a great alternative and excellent way to recycle …

Biofuels and petroleum-based fuels have a common origin. They both arise from the photosynthesis of solar energy that causes carbon and hydrogen to combine in a way that raises their energy level. The primary difference between them is their age. In the case of biofuels, fuel age is typically just a year or two from …

Biofuels made from biomass, such as corn and soybeans, have been getting criticism lately for their impact on world food prices. Opponents of the alternative fuels say that using a portion of the world’s farmland and the associated crop yields for the production of fuel will add to the pressure developing countries face in supplying …

A new breed of multi-fuel stoves are making their way onto the market, harvesting biomass fuels at the household level like never before. While wood stoves have long been a staple of indoor heating (especially in log cabins or romantic restaurants) but they lack consistency in burning temperature and are a challenge to power. Wood …

Biomass is a hot topic in Canada where many cars and boats use partial biofuel mixtures and heating systems are designed with sustainability in mind. In fact, many types of forest produced biomass, including wood chips and vegetation, are in high demand for use as fuel in specially designed power generation stations. This large scale …

While driving around Palo Alto last week I spotted one of the Stanford University bio diesel buses (part of the Marguirite public transit system) making it’s rounds. Stanford currently uses B5 biodiesel for these busses, a blend of conventional petroleum diesel with 5% vegetable derived diesel fuel. While this may not sound like much, especially …

Whisper Tech, operating out of Christchurch, New Zealand, has completed capitalization and started operations of its joint venture with Mondragon and Meridian Energy to manufacture its WhisperGen microCHP (combined heat and power) Stirling engine generator. The system will be produced in Spain for distribution throughout Europe. The Stirling engine in the WhisperGen is arranged in …

The Precer Group is a Swedish company developing biomass powerplants. These aren’t the kinds of powerplants you might be thinking of however, their solutions have been put to use in cars, boats, machinery and even homes! They released a biofuel series hybrid vehicle called the Bioracer which looks quite impressive… and fun. The powertrain consists …

In our search for all things biomass we’ve come across a few clever innovations. Recently we discovered a portable woodgas camp stove that uses biomass (sticks & shrubs) as fuel, the tagline being “carry the stove, not the fuel”. We thought this was a great concept so we reached out the company that produces it …

Depending on your location in the U.S. perhaps you’ve seen it or perhaps you have not. A local gas station adds a new pump offering E85. An environmentally friendly, carbon neutral renewable fuel source harvested domestically! Naturally, you consider using this newfangled fuel in your own car instead of the usual petroleum grade. Word of …

This resource is evolving and your input is welcome. To add a station please visit this page and use the contact form near the bottom. As new car technology shifts our dependence on oil over to a dependence on electricity and biomass, E85, and Ethanol, people will need to know where they can fill up …

iENERGY Inc. is an alternative power systems company with an ambitious approach. They are pursuing projects and research that range from biomass wood powered cars to solar power heating and electric systems to sustainable cooking. This alternative approach may come in part from the “back country” lifestyle of founders hailing from Virginia – having lived …

Based out of Indiana and founded in 2001, Swift Enterprises started out as a husband and wife team working closely with Purdue University to innovate new ways of creating fuel for cars and airplanes. They now have two products, the Swift Fuel for planes and Swift Cell for cars, both of which offer efficiency gains …

Swift Enterprises is a company focused on making piston style aircraft perform better… while reducing their environmental impact, in that order. They accomplish this by using biomass instead of traditional dirty fuels with lead additives. Piston style airplanes (anything besides jets basically) require Tetraethyl lead additives in their motor fuels in order to reach a …

In 2007 a team of engineering students at MIT created an electric battery that would charge using leaves and grass clippings – essentially biomass. The entire project only cost ~$2 because no precious metals were used. The only down side was that it would take nearly half a year just to charge a normal cell …

[Update: the Sustainable Power Corp website has gone offline and the company seems to be shut down] Sustainable Power Corporation (SSTP) has been making some very impressive claims about a bio-crude oil fuel they are producing called Vertroleum (virtual petroleum). This fuel consists of agricultural “waste” such as cotton seed shells, cracked soy beans, milo, …

You don’t have to own an ethanol stock to know that the media and the people who believe what they have to say have become apoplectic in their disdain for ethanol over the past year. Many pundits are parroting each other and blaming ethanol as the root cause for rising food prices and worldwide food …

I had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Solix, a startup company located in Fort Collins, Colorado that is developing a method to produce biodiesel fuel from algae. I also had a chance to take a look at Solix’s proof-of-concept photobioreactor and will share my findings and thoughts on the subject here. The Solix …

Biodiesel vs. Ethanol – In the world of renewable energy it’s not uncommon for natural allies to turn into unlikely foes. In order to support a particular point of view, an advocate of one form of renewable energy will often take issue with some other form of renewable energy and adopt the arguments of those …

There are still many hurdles to the profitable production of ethanol from cellulose on a large scale. Among them: convincing farmers it is profitable to collect biomass, finding the technology to cheaply digest cellulose into glucose, and making it logistically feasible to provide the vast quantities of material necessary. It also needs to be on …