[OKC] From NY Times: Tiger in your tank? How about an alligator?

[Miles, Karen]

Tiger in your tank? How about an alligator? 
Millions of pounds of critters' fat could go into biodiesel, not
landfills, researchers say 
By MATTHEW L. WALD 
  <http://www.nytimes.com/index.html?partner=msnbcpolitics> 
Researchers at the Lafayette campus of the University of Louisiana are
looking for green substitutes for diesel fuel. The prime one now in use
is soybeans, which are used to make biodiesel oil. But soybeans are also
needed for human consumption and animal feed. The United States uses 45
billion gallons of diesel a year; making just one billion gallons from
soybeans would use up 21 percent of the American crop, the scientists
point out.  Now the researchers think they have identified a potential
source for biodiesel that currently goes straight to landfills:
alligator fat, about 15 million pounds of it every year...In a paper
published on Wednesday in the journal Industrial Engineering Chemistry
Research, Dr. Bajpai and five collaborators report on lab experiments in
which they converted 61 percent of the alligator fat to liquids that
would be usable in biofuel. 
Some 15 million pounds could become 1.25 million gallons of fuel, with
an energy content about 91 percent as great as that of petroleum diesel.
A large plant could produce the fuel at $2.40 a gallon, Dr. Bajpai said,
not counting the cost of the fat, which would presumably be zero, or the
cost of transporting the fat to the plant. 
This article, "Never Mind a Tiger in Your Tank: How About An Alligator?"
<http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/never-mind-a-tiger-in-your-ta
nk-how-about-an-alligator/>  first appeared in The New York Times. The
entire article can be found at: 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44183427/ns/technology_and_science-the_new_y
ork_times/t/tiger-your-tank-how-about-alligator/
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44183427/ns/technology_and_science-the_new_
york_times/t/tiger-your-tank-how-about-alligator/>  
 
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