President's Page

While we don't often think about it or like to admit it, driving our BMWs contribute to air and water pollution, resource depletion, and possibly to global climate change.

As an environmental scientist and policy analyst, I am often at odds when I fire up my BMW to go for a drive, or to head to the track for a day of fun. Granted, I take public transit during the week, so in a way I save up my allotment of fossil fuels to spend on recreational activities (i.e. I rationalize my behaviour). Even worse is the rare day when I drive midweek in traffic. Seeing all those vehicles on the road, burning countless gallons of fuel, reminds me why I am committed to developing and implementing policies that lead to the wide-scale and efficient use of clean renewable energy sources.

A few facts about energy use. The US used 26.6% of the world's energy in 1995, and has less than 5% of the world's population. This amount of energy use makes the US responsible for one quarter of the world's CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions. With almost three times our population, Europe used only 30.4% of world energy in 1995. The US also uses the most energy per capita for transportation. While the global average energy consumption of transport is 26.5% (20.9% for road transport only) the US uses a shopping 38.8% of it's energy budget for transportation. (31.1% road only).

The bottom line is that we in the US burn quite a lot of fuel with our cars and trucks. In 1995 alone, US citizens burned 8.06 million barrels of motor gasolene (339 million gallons) per day. This is 1.25 gallons of gasolene per day for every person in the US every day of the year! (Sources: International Energy Agency: World Energy Outlook 1998 edition, US DOE Energy Information Administration: Annual Energy Review , World Resources Institute: World Resources 1998-1999 Environmental Data Tables.)

Saturday, April 22, marked the 30th anniversary of Earth Day with the celebration of Earth Day 2000. Appropriately, the theme this year is "Clean Energy Now!" I went to the celebration on Boston's Esplanade this year, and came upon an interesting item - a Volkswagoen Rabbit diesel that runs on vegetable oil. Yes, that is right, vegetable oil! Not just any vegetable oil, but the oil of the seed of the South America Jatropha curcas L., commonly known as the Purging Nut, prevalent Africa. Apparently the Portugese used the oil from this seen for their lamps, and planted it throughout Africa and Asia during their expeditions.

I had a long talk with the scientist responsible for the the development of this energy source: Mr. Carl Bielenberg, of the Better World Workshop in Marshfield, VT. The Jatropha beans are harvested and the oil is extracted by a mechanical press. The diesel engine is not modified in any way to accept the Jatropha oil - put it in, and it burns. I am told the engine does not smoke and runs smoother than on the diesel fuel that it was made for. Unfortunately, due to lack of funding and the press of other projects, Mr. Bielenberg has not done the technical analysis on the emissions of this oil as compared to diesel. He has also been unable to perform a net energy rate of return on investment (EROI). This would compare the energy in a gallon of the oil to the energy used to create the the oil, including energy embodied in the fertilizers (nitrogen fertilizer is energy intensive), energy to pump irrigation water, harvest and prepare the beans, extract the oil, and build the extraction factory.

One reason that petroleum oil appears to be so cheap is that Nature has already done the concentration and fermentation of the plant material over millions of years. The average EROI of petroleum in 1970 was 23 (Gever, Kaufmann, Skole, and Vorsmarty, Beyond Oil: The Threat to Food and Fuel in the Coming Decades, 1991, Colorado University Press, p70). That means that we burn about one barrel of oil to generate the energy and process 23 barrels of oil from the ground. This seems like a good deal, doesn't it?

However, to put fossil fuel use in economic terms, we are liquidating our capital rather than living off the interest when we uses fossil fuels such as oil, gasolene, natural gas, and coal. While Nature is still making fossil fuels, the process is extremely slow, many orders of magnitude below required replenishment rates. Though new fossil resources are constantly being discovered, the environmental and climate impacts of fossil fuel use may mandate the use of alternate fuels long before we extract every last drop of petrochemicals from the earth's crust.

So, if not fossil fuels, what will power our BMWs in the future, assuming that we even have cars? While electric cars are being developed, the reality is that they do not have arange that will be acceptable to most drivers. Current ranges span from 50 to 200 miles or so on a charge. One way around this is a battery swap at a fill up station rather than a carge, but even the most advanced batteries are still fairly heavy. In addition, the electricity has to come from somewhere, and in the US much of it comes from coal fired power plants, which produce copious amounts of CO2, a greenhouse gas, and sulfur oxides (SOx, one of the main precursors to acid rain). Alternative energy sources include solar, wind, and biopower. THough it is anticipated that wind and solar powered electricity may make significant contributions in the future, it is unlikely we will be able to fly airplanes withough the use of liquid fuels.

Therefore, other alternatives are needed. These include the use of hydrogen as a fuel, either in fuel cells or burned in a turbine, to produce either motive force or electricity. Fuel cells run on hydrogen containing compounds, including fossil fuels. The advantage of fuel cells in that the buel is not burned in the tradtional sense. Water, rather than CO2, NOx, and SOx, is emitted from the tailpipe of a fuel cell engine. Gaseous hydrogen has a low energy density, so hydrogen must be liquefided or solidified by chemically binding it to a carrier if we are to carry it around in mobile vehicles.

BMW has been working on alternative fueled vehicles, including hydrogen, natural gas, electric, and fuel cell/electric powered hybrid vehicles for some time. See the June 1998 Roundel (Volume XXIX, number 6, p58-67) for an excellent article that discusses BMW's research on these concepts. Further information can be fond on the BMW AG web site. A few snippets from the site:

... With innovative energy concepts, BMW has taken the first step into a new era in energy. The BMW hydrogen car is no longer just a vision, it's now a reality. The world's first filling station fir kiquid hydrogen, developed by BMW together with big name partners, has already gone into operation. And BMW continues to work for the development of a system of environmentally friendly hydrogen production...

... For now, it's hybrid cars that - along sline the natural gas powered BMW models already available - represnet the immediate future of alternative fuels. Hybrids have the advantage that they can run on either petrol or liquid hydrogen, switching automatically between the two, and are an important step on the road towards a new era in propulsion technology...

So it is a good thing BMW is working on clean fuel solutions, because more and more automobile manufacturers will be forced to look for alternate forms of energy as regulations become tighter and the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gases that may contribute to climate change comes into effect.

Until clean, renewable energy is available for transportation, I urge you to be concious of your fuel use. Keep your car properly tuned. Link as many errands as you can in a day, since emissions are highest when the engine is cold. Carpool, walk, ride a bike, or take public transit when you can, instead of taking a solo car trip.

June 2000 Bimmer

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Chilling Out At Lime Rock Photo Gallery by Allison Feldhusen

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2000 Boston Chapter Autocross Series: Autocrossing 101 by Steve Hazard

Autobody Tech Session Photo Gallery by Dan Mull

Favorite Road: Mohawk Trail by Justin Hughes

2000 Charitable Contributions: In Memory of Parker Spooner by Fred Beck

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