Organizations
& Resources
ATTRA
- National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
(http://www.attra.ncat.org) provides information and other
technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, Extension agents,
educators, and others involved in sustainable agriculture
in the United States. ATTRA produces an excellent piece
entitled “Biodiesel:
A primer” on the production and use of biodiesel,
including what equipment and materials are necessary and
safety concerns. ATTRA also puts out a work called “Biodiesel:
The sustainability dimensions” which examines
many aspects of biodiesel production including net energy
balance, the connection crop raising and soil building,
access, scale of owenership and production, the extent
to which biofuels can replace and the debate of food versus
fuel.
The
Biofuels Research
Cooperative is a community-based organization that
provides participating members with waste vegetable oil
to research its use as a clean, renewable biofuel. The
coop educates the general public about the benefits of
renewable fuels and is a model for the creation of other
such local "green fuel" coops. They have a wealth
of resources on how
vehicles can run on straight vegetable oil, the conversion
to straight vegetable oil, and sales
of diesel vehicles.
The
National Renewable Energy Laboratory is a leader in
the U.S. Department of Energy's effort to secure an energy
future for the nation that is environmentally and economically
sustainable. NREL puts out a short document called “Biodiesel–the
clean green fuel for diesel engines” which has
information on the safety and effectiveness of biodiesel
use as well as fuel standard information and storage times.
The
Clean
Cities program puts out a technical
assistance fact sheet which discusses the basics of
biodiesel technology, its availability and cost, environmental
impacts and advantages of using bioediesel. The document
also contains several stories of successful employment
of biodiesel on a large scale ranging from an Arizona
school district’s buses to the San Jose recycling
and garbage truck fleet.
The
Alternative
Fuels Data Center is an online collection of data
covering the topics of alternative transportation fuels,
alternative fuel vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, idle
reduction technologies, fuel blends, and fuel economy.
The AFDC also provides access to online tools, including
an alternative fuels station locator and route mapper,
current lists of available alternative fuel vehicles,
online decision-making tools, and links to related Web
sites. They have a good site on general
biodiesel information.
The
National Biodiesel
Board is the national trade association representing
the biodiesel industry, and they have a comprehensive
collection of biodiesel
resources.
