By Tina Caparella
Sanimax Energy’s new biodiesel plant in De Forest, WI, is scheduled to begin operations in March, producing biodiesel from a variety of feedstocks including recycled restaurant oil from the Sanimax Grease facility next door.
The 15,000-square-foot plant will use a patented multi-feedstock technology developed by Nova Biosource Fuels to transform recycled restaurant grease, rendered animal fats, and vegetable oils into high-quality, clean-burning alternative fuel.
“We’re looking forward to the commissioning of the facility with a lot of excitement,” said Sanimax President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Langenhorst. “The De Forest plant will spearhead Sanimax Energy’s entry into the business of producing a renewable fuel that we believe will play an important part in North America’s energy future.”
Construction of the facility began in early 2006. Once in full operation, the plant will produce 20 million gallons of biodiesel per year and employ approximately 15 people.
Overseeing Sanimax Energy will be newly appointed Vice President Jeremy Goodfellow, who holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Wilfrid Laurier University and a master’s degree from the University of Windsor. His background and expertise is in business management and biofuels and bioproducts.
Restaurant Grease Key in Collaboration
A survey found that more than half of the restaurants in the Nogales, AZ, area dump their used cooking oil down the drain, causing sewer overflows from the wastewater conveyance impacting Nogales Wash, which runs north into Arizona. And while the local wastewater utility is developing a pretreatment program, it doesn’t yet enforce a system to properly dispose of the used cooking oil. So a team of students and government agencies has taken on the task of putting the restaurant oil to good use and is taking it international.
Sponsored by the Ambos Nogales Air Quality Task Force, the project is part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Border 2012 Initiative, a federal program to address health and environmental issues along the United States-Mexico border. For the last four years, Colleen Crowninshield, manager of Tucson Regional Clean Cities at the Pima Association of Governments, has actively participated in the task force that focuses on improving air quality conditions in the sister cities of Nogales, AZ, and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) identified the restaurant grease-contaminated wastewater as one concern to be addressed and in late 2005, ADEQ, the University of Arizona, the Nogales (Sonora) Technical Institute (NTI), and Tucson Regional Clean Cities teamed up to coordinate the effort. An NTI survey that discovered 53 percent of restaurants were throwing their used cooking oil down the drain also found that restaurant owners “overwhelming” welcomed free collection of their used cooking oil. At the same time, the students were already experimenting with converting waste grease into biodiesel and tested different formulas to ensure a high quality product.
Word spread of the project and two local fire districts from the sister cities expressed interest in using the resultant biodiesel in their trucks. As a result, the project received $90,000 through EPA’s Border 2012 program. The money will fund source characterization of waste oils and establish two biodiesel facilities – one on each side of the border. These sites will produce a total of 1,000 gallons of biodiesel over two years, which will be mixed with petroleum diesel at a 20 percent blend for use in the fire districts’ emergency response equipment.
Texas Still Deciding Biodiesel’s Fate
According to the National Biodiesel Board (NBB), the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) recently agreed to a second waiver to allow additional scientific evidence to be explored on whether biodiesel will impact the integrity of the Texas Low Emission Diesel (TxLED) fuel program. Due to past concerns of a negligible increase in nitrogen oxide (NOx) in biodiesel, the TCEQ has proposed bans on biodiesel blends twice in the past two years.
As part of the state’s plan to address ozone nonattainment problems in its major cities, the TCEQ developed the TxLED program, which is similar to the California Air Resources Board diesel program, as a means for reducing NOx emissions from diesel exhaust. The program took effect January 31, 2006, and covers a 110-county area that encompasses Dallas, Fort Worth, Tyler, Longview, Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Houston, Beaumont, and Port Arthur.
To address TxLED, the biodiesel industry agreed to additive testing grant programs with various additives. However, according to NBB, the TCEQ continued to shift positions about how biodiesel fuel should be tested, so an additive-based compliance strategy was discontinued.
In support of the biodiesel industry’s claim, the Department of Energy/National Renewable Energy Laboratory testified at an October U.S. Senate hearing that there was no change in vehicle testing data in NOx levels of biodiesel compared to petroleum diesel. In December, the TCEQ commissioners convened a public meeting and directed their staff to implement a policy to extend the biodiesel Alternative Emission Reduction Plan until December 31, 2007. This will allow further testing and input from the Environmental Protection Agency, which recently announced plans to carefully consider the new data in hopes of making a more clear determination about the potential impact of biodiesel on NOx emissions.
ADM to Increase Crushing
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company will increase its North American oilseed crushing capacity through expansions at oilseed crushing plants in the United States and Canada to support the company’s two North American biodiesel facilities in Mexico, MO, and Velva, ND.
Five soybean crushing plants will be expanded in Quincy, IL, Frankfort, IN, Mexico, MO, Fremont, NE, and Des Moines, IA. Two canola crushing plants will also be expanded in Velva, ND, and Lloydminster, AB, Canada. The expansions are scheduled to be complete in mid-2008.
AOCS Hosts Expert Committee Meeting
The American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS) hosted a biodiesel expert committee meeting in mid-December to identify areas where the organization could lend its analytical and technical expertise to support the biodiesel industry. A compendium will be produced, consisting of AOCS Official Methods that pertain to quality measurements for biodiesel feedstocks and two new analytical procedures that will be collaborative studies.
Scientists from Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Cargill, Monsanto, the National Biodiesel Board, RW Heiden and Associates, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture met with AOCS members and staff to identify quality measurements for biodiesel feedstocks. George Poppe and Mark Collison, both from ADM, agreed to lead efforts involving the list of current AOCS methods applicable to biodiesel feedstock quality as well as a new gas chromatograph with flame ionization detector analytical method collaborative study to identify more than six quality parameters in one analytical assay. Another collaborative study will look at improved analytics for acid value. The group was invited to become more active with the ASTM International task forces examining similar issues with respect to fuel specifications.
Bioheat Makes Debut
Consumers who use heating oil have a new option this winter: Bioheat, a combination of biodiesel meeting ASTM D6751 specifications and ASTM D396 heating oil. The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) and National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) have trademarked the term and launched an official logo for the product.
Oilheat distributors primarily in the New England and Mid-Atlantic states blend Bioheat fuel as B2 (two percent biodiesel and 98 percent heating oil) to B20. Inclusion of five percent biodiesel in oilheat will be the overall objective of NBB and NORA as the market progresses.
NBB secured the term “Bioheat” for use in identifying home heating oil blended with biodiesel, and sublicensed it to NORA so it can help broaden the use of the fuel and its identity. Both will share use of the trademarked term and logo. A sublicense agreement for dealers is available on the NORA Web site at www.nora-oilheat.org.
Brinkmann Reelected as NBB Chairman
For a third year, Darryl Brinkmann, a soybean grower from Carlyle, IL, will lead the National Biodiesel Board (NBB). He was elected in November by NBB’s 143 voting members.
Other officers elected to lead the board are Jim Conway, vice chairman, representing Griffin Industries, a biodiesel supplier and renderer in Cold Spring, KY; Gary Haer, secretary, representing REG, Inc., a biodiesel supplier in Ralston, IA; and Ed Ulch, treasurer, a farmer from Solon, IA, representing the Iowa Soybean Association.
California has New Plant
The picturesque Monterey Bay area got a little help in keeping its air clean with the opening of Energy Alternative Solutions’ $1.3 million, 10,000 square foot biodiesel plant in Gonzales, CA. The facility will produce 2.5 million gallons of ASTM D6751-certified biodiesel each year from a feedstock combination of vegetable oil and recycled cooking oil collected from local restaurants by area renderers.
“We want to create a community-based, closed-loop system in which we draw upon local, renewable resources such as crops and restaurant oil to produce biofuel for the local community,” said Richard Gillis, president and chief executive officer of Energy Alternative Solutions. One local user is pleased with the new facility.
“We’re really looking forward to having a commercial producer of biofuel on the Central Coast,” said Heidi Tiura, owner of Sanctuary Cruises, a whale watching company in Moss Landing. “We love biodiesel, our customers love it, and it’s better for the environment.”
Gillis and his partners, Marco Vinicio Vides and Bernard Weiss, founded the company in March 2006. The plant was built under contract with Pacific Biodiesel, a Maui, HI-based company that has been building and running commercially viable biodiesel production plants since 1996. Energy Alternative Solutions plans to open a second, one million gallon per year, biodiesel facility about 40 miles north in Watsonville, CA, in early 2007.
Canada Regulates Renewable Fuel Use
Canada’s new government announced in late December that it would regulate the use of renewable fuels in the country and deliver $345 million (Canadian) to assist farmers and rural communities seize new market opportunities in the agricultural bioproducts sector.
Minister of the Environment Rona Ambrose said the government would regulate an annual average renewable content of five percent in gasoline by 2010 and a two percent requirement for renewable content in diesel fuel and heating oil by 2012.
Two agriculture programs will help bolster the development of biofuels and bioproducts. Of the $345 million earmarked:
• $200 million through the Capital Formation Assistance Program for Renewable Fuels Production will provide producers with incentives for participation in new renewable fuels production capacity; and
• $145 million through the Agricultural Bioproducts Innovation Program will provide support for cross-sector research networks conducting scientific research and development related to the advancement of the Canadian bio-based economy.
Additional information about these Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada programs is available at www.agr.gc.ca.
ConAgra to Supply Feedstock to Texas Plant
Agribiofuels, LLC, has signed an agreement with ConAgra Trade Group, Inc., to provide feedstock oils for the Agribiofuels biodiesel plant currently under construction in Dayton, TX. In addition, ConAgra Trade Group will provide biodiesel and glycerin marketing and outbound logistics services for the facility.
Formed in 2005, Agribiofuels will produce biodiesel using vegetable and animal fats and oils using proprietary microwave technology that enables it to use lower cost and quality feedstock to produce biodiesel. Phase 1 of the plant is currently in operation and producing at a six million gallon per year rate with plans to complete the 42 million gallon per year facility in late 2007.
FUMPA Biofuels Awarded
FUMPA Biofuels, a division of Farmers Union Industries, LLC, was awarded the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute’s (AURI’s) 2006 Ag Innovator of the Year. The annual award recognizes a Minnesota company that has demonstrated innovation in its product or process, has achieved market success, and provides a positive impact on Minnesota agriculture.
FUMPA Biofuels “has been out front in developing new uses and innovative in trying to identify additional revenue streams,” commented AURI Executive Director Teresa Spaeth. “AURI has worked with them on several projects and we’re delighted to present this award to them.”
FUMPA Biofuels has also become a certified marketer under the National Biodiesel Board’s (NBB’s) BQ-9000 program after already becoming an accredited producer. The program includes procedures for fuel storage, handling, and management aimed at ensuring fuel quality in production throughout distribution. Company officials told NBB they understand that although producing biodiesel to its ASTM D6751 specification is critical, equally critical is proper handling and blending of the fuel after it leaves the plant.
The company produces Northland Choice Biodiesel at its three million gallon per year plant in Redwood Falls, MN. Its parent company also operates Central Bi-Products, an animal products renderer; Midwest Grease, a waste grease recycler; Northland Choice, a producer of pet food ingredients; and Redwood Metal Works, a trailer manufacturing company.
Microwaves Help Meatpacker
An innovative new biodiesel technology has been developed in Brazil that is in the trial stage at a meatpacking plant in the southern state of Santa Catarina. According to a report in the National Renderers Association Bulletin, the process, developed by Intech Engenharia, uses microwave energy to reduce production costs by up to 30 percent compared with conventional processes. The process also uses ethanol instead of methanol, and so makes ethyl esters of fatty acids. Brazil is the world’s largest producer of ethanol for fuel use and produces it cheaply from sugar cane.
Intech has installed a semi-industrial scale production unit for biodiesel at the poultry processing facility, which slaughters 100,000 chickens per day. If the trials are successful, a full industrial scale facility will be put into operation, capable of producing two million liters (528,000 gallons) of biodiesel per year.
Intech is a consulting company that specializes in wastewater treatment facilities for agribusiness and was originally searching for better ways to treat and dispose of waste material from slaughterhouses. Starting in January 2008, the Brazilian government has mandated a two percent biodiesel blend in all diesel fuels sold in the country, which equates to 800 million liters (211 million gallons) of biodiesel.
Northwest Group Formed
The rapidly growing biodiesel industry in the Pacific Northwest has prompted the formation of the Northwest Biofuels Association (NWBA), “a non-profit trade association structured to represent the business interests of its members while supporting the development of the biofuels industry as a whole.” The geographic range of the organization is Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.
Initially, NWBA will be a separately managed project of the Northwest Environmental Business Council (NEBC), a 10-year-old trade association serving the environmental industry. NEBC is providing infrastructure and support until NWBA can operate independently. The NWBA currently boasts 45 members consisting of producers, marketers, and industry suppliers. More information is available at www.nwbiofuels.org.
Biodiesel Bulletin - February 2007 Render