(Press-News.org) The latest national survey of 100% biodiesel (B100) "blend stock" samples by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that 95% of the samples from 2011-12 met ASTM International fuel quality specifications. The ASTM standards serve as guidelines for industry and are designed to ensure quality at the pump for consumers – along with reliable operation of the nation's vehicles powered by biodiesel blends.
"The survey showed a major improvement over results from previous years," NREL Senior Chemist Teresa Alleman said. "In our 2007 survey of B100 biodiesel, less than half of the samples met quality specifications. More stringent quality requirements, along with the voluntary BQ-9000 quality management program, are among the reasons for this marked improvement."
B100 is not commonly used as a fuel, but is blended with petroleum diesel, typically in blends up to 20%, and has been part of the industry's steady growth in the past decade. B100 production increased from 27.9 million gallons in 2004 to more than 1 billion gallons in 2012.
For the most recent survey conducted from August 2011 to February 2012, NREL researchers collected fuel samples from 53 producers and 14 terminals from across the United States. Terminals from the East and West Coasts, the Rocky Mountain region, and the Midwest were tested for a range of critical properties, such as free and total glycerin content, metals content, and cloud point that could have an immediate impact on operability.
To ensure product quality, ASTM published the first B100 quality standards in 2002. ASTM International does not enforce fuel quality, but it is a leader in the development and delivery of international voluntary consensus standards. Its specifications are frequently adopted by state and local governments to ensure fuel quality and are monitored by industry members. NREL is among the organizations participating in the development of standards.
###
The anonymous data from the NREL study "Quality Parameters and Chemical Analysis for Biodiesel Produced in the United States in 2011"PDF are in publication and available on NREL's website for use by interested parties.
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.
Visit NREL online at http://www.nrel.gov
NREL survey shows dramatic improvement in B100 biodiesel quality
2013-04-16
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Lawrence Livermore scientists discover new materials to capture methane
2013-04-16
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and UC Berkeley and have discovered new materials to capture methane, the second highest concentration greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere.
Methane is a substantial driver of global climate change, contributing 30 percent of current net climate warming. Concern over methane is mounting, due to leaks associated with rapidly expanding unconventional oil and gas extraction, and the potential for large-scale release of methane from the Arctic as ice cover continues to melt and decayed material releases methane ...
NREL and Stanford team up on peel-and-stick solar cells
2013-04-16
It may be possible soon to charge cell phones, change the tint on windows, or power small toys with peel-and-stick versions of solar cells, thanks to a partnership between Stanford University and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
A scientific paper, "Peel and Stick: Fabricating Thin Film Solar Cells on Universal Substrates," appears in the online version of Scientific Reports, a subsidiary of the British scientific journal Nature.
Peel-and-stick, or water-assisted transfer printing (WTP), technologies were developed by the ...
When a KISS (1) goes bad
2013-04-16
VIDEO:
Moshmi Bhattacharya, Ph.D., and graduate student Donna Cvetkovic describe new findings about kisspeptins. while they usually prevent the spread of cancer, kisspeptins actally make some breast cancers worse, with...
Click here for more information.
KISS 1 is a metastasis-suppressor gene which helps to prevent the spread of cancers, including melanoma, pancreatic and ovarian cancers to name a few. But new research from Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & ...
Fainting may run in families while triggers may not
2013-04-16
MINNEAPOLIS – New research suggests that fainting may be genetic and, in some families, only one gene may be responsible. However, a predisposition to certain triggers, such as emotional distress or the sight of blood, may not be inherited. The study is published in the April 16, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Fainting, also called vasovagal syncope, is a brief loss of consciousness when your body reacts to certain triggers. It affects at least one out of four people.
"Our study strengthens the evidence that ...
Researchers discover biomarker for devastating intestinal disease found in early preterm infants
2013-04-16
Researchers have discovered a biomarker that may help prevent a devastating intestinal disease that occurs in one of every 10 early preterm infants.
The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study may help prevent necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a condition primarily seen in preemies in which bowel tissue dies. The death rate approaches 30 percent. Survivors are at risk for short-bowel syndrome (caused by surgical removal of the small intestine) and neurodevelopmental disability.
The study is published in the journal Microbiome.
The research, led by Ardythe ...
Drinking cup of beetroot juice daily may help lower blood pressure
2013-04-16
A cup of beetroot juice a day may help reduce your blood pressure, according to a small study in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.
People with high blood pressure who drank about 8 ounces of beetroot juice experienced a decrease in blood pressure of about 10 mm Hg. But the preliminary findings don't yet suggest that supplementing your diet with beetroot juice benefits your health, researchers said.
"Our hope is that increasing one's intake of vegetables with a high dietary nitrate content, such as green leafy vegetables or beetroot, might be a lifestyle ...
Patients go undercover to record encounters with doctors
2013-04-16
Patients' health outcomes improve when physicians individualize care and take their patients' life circumstances into account, according to a new study by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The study is the largest ever to be conducted using real patients to collect data about their doctors' behavior using concealed audio recorders. It appears in the April 16 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine and was funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
"What our study really tells us is that the information that patients ...
'Comparison shopping' by doctors saves money
2013-04-16
Research at Johns Hopkins suggests that if hospitals would show physicians the price of some diagnostic laboratory tests at the time the tests are ordered, doctors would order substantially fewer of them or search for lower-priced alternatives.
In a study of up-front price transparency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, the researchers found that the practice of offering price information decreased overall use of tests by roughly 9 percent. Currently, hospitals typically keep both patients and providers essentially blind to the cost of medical services, a system that wastefully ...
Concert cacophony: Short-term hearing loss protective, not damaging
2013-04-16
Contrary to conventional wisdom, short-term hearing loss after sustained exposure to loud noise does not reflect damage to our hearing: instead, it is the body's way to cope.
The landmark finding could lead to improved protection against noise-induced hearing loss in future.
The research, led by University of New South Wales Professor Gary Housley, has found that "reversible hearing loss" is a physiological adaptation mechanism, allowing the cochlea (the auditory portion of the inner ear) to perform normally when exposed to noise stress.
"This explains why we lose ...
Gene signature can predict who will survive chemotherapy
2013-04-16
An eight gene 'signature' can predict length of relapse-free survival after chemotherapy, finds new research in Biomed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine.
Researchers from Academia Sinica and the National Taiwan University College of Medicine first identified genes that were involved in cellular invasion, a property of many cancer cells, using the National Cancer Institute's 60 human cancer cell line panel (NCI-60). Comparing the pattern of activation of each of these genes in different cell lines with how these cell lines responded to 99 different anti-cancer ...