Ormat: No Retrofit, No Fuss Biodiesel
by Karin Kloosterman, Jerusalem, Israel on 12.22.06
Considered one of the top 5 geothermal energy companies in the world, Israeli company Ormat recently released news of a new biodiesel formulation that may green wheels everywhere. TreeHugger spoke with the company's CEO Dita Bronicki who said the company’s R&D in Yavne, Israel has formulated a biodiesel that requires no retrofit on your diesel engine and that can be used in its pure form of 100 percent, without mixing. Bronicki expects the fuel to be good to go in about 2 years, but it is too early for her to say which continent will get it first.
Ormat is a 40 year-old renewable and alternative energy company that excels in building electrical power plants from recovered and geothermal energy. We love one of their Kenyan projects where they made the installation safari-friendly for the giraffes.
In 2005, the company trading on the NY stock exchange and valued at over $1 billion reported sales of a not-so-shabby $270 million. The company also has stakes in the OptiCanada tar sands project in Alberta where it is helping Canadians, says Bronicki, ensure fuel security for the future. ::see related here and here
Unless you have a really old car, biodiesel doesn't require a retrofit, nor does it require mixing. I'm currently pumping 100% biodiesel into my completely stock 2004 VW Jetta TDI, with no problems at all.
I'm a bit surprised to read the "biodiesel requires a retrofit" misconception here on Treehugger. Running your diesel car on straight veggie oil requires a retrofit, but biodiesel does not. This misconception is probably what causes the most public resistance to biodiesel, even though it's available today as a green car option.
Hopefully this is just a gaffe on the part of Ormat's PR. If Ormat is indeed developing a new formulation, it would be nice to know more about it and what advantages it has over today's biodiesel. There's definitely a lot that can be improved with biodiesel and its production, but the ability to pump it directly into stock diesel cars is nothing new.
I agree with Steve on this. The whole point of biodiesel is that it's diesel made from non-petroleum sources, so you can use it as you would any diesel fuel. I own an '82 Mercedes running pure biodiesel, and I constantly have to remedy people of the notion that I "converted" the car. For all intents and purposes, the only "conversion" required is pulling up to a different pump at the gas station.