By Tina Caparella
In just a few months, another new biodiesel plant will come online, this one with a 60 million gallon annual capacity. But what makes this plant so unique is the large variety of non-food feedstocks that can be used to produce clean, clear biodiesel.
“We have successfully tested 25 different feedstocks, from palm oil sludge to corn oil from dried distillers grains,” said J.D. McGraw, president, Nova Biosource Fuels. Although the company’s proprietary technology can utilize unconventional feedstocks such as these to make biodiesel, Nova’s new Seneca, IL, plant, about 75 miles southwest of Chicago, will primarily use animal fats and recycled cooking oils from feedstock suppliers that include Lipid Logistics, a subsidiary of Kaluzny Bros, Inc., a rendering company based in Joliet, IL. This is the fourth biodiesel plant in the United States utilizing Nova’s technology.
Construction of the Seneca plant was complete in January, with feedstock first being run through the facility this February. Within 90 days of that, the plant should be running at 80 to 90 percent capacity. According to McGraw, Nova has presold 130 million gallons of biodiesel on an annual basis through its 10-year offtake agreement with ConAgra Trade Group. The remaining biodiesel will come from other Nova facilities. Long term feedstock supplies are also locked up.
The $68 million state-of-the-art Seneca plant sits on 25 of 54 acres owned by Nova. A substantial rail spur on the property allows the usage of over 100 railcars, and the remaining acreage permits room for expansion into other proposed energy projects.
Biodiesel Producers in Wisconsin Join Forces
Wisconsin’s two largest biodiesel producers have partnered to bring the state’s second largest biodiesel plant online, together producing nearly all of the biodiesel in Wisconsin.
Best Energies, Inc., is beginning start-up of a new 10 million gallon biodiesel plant located in Cashton, WI, with new partner Sanimax Energy. Best Energies will continue to operate the facility while Sanimax Energy will market all of the production from the Cashton plant in addition to their existing 20 million gallon facility in DeForest, WI.
The Cashton plant will primarily use corn oil from ethanol production and other crude feedstocks in its proprietary technology platform.
San Francisco Launches Free Grease Collection
As the “City by the Bay” continues to strive toward being environmentally conscientious, a program first announced in the spring of 2007 has been launched, offering free fats, oils, and grease (FOG) collection to San Francisco, CA, restaurants.
Dubbed SFGreasecycle, the program is touted as the nation’s first citywide program to turn FOG into fuel for municipal fleets and save residents and businesses money, unclog city sewers, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) developed the program as a sustainable alternative to combat sewer blockages caused in part by excess cooking oils and fats discharged down drains from restaurants and homes. Each year, the SFPUC estimates that 50 percent of sewer emergency calls are related to backups caused by grease blockages, costing ratepayers $3.5 million a year in repairs.
As of early January, 175 restaurants, seven hotels, and other establishments such as museums and a high school had already signed up for the program. Local residents are also recycling their FOG, with 1,000 gallons turned in during the last six weeks of 2007. Recycled FOG from the city’s restaurants is estimated to generate 1.5 million gallons of biodiesel each year, which will be used in the city’s fleet of more than 1,600 diesel vehicles. In 2006, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom signed an executive directive mandating that the entire city fleet use biodiesel by December 31, 2007. Initially, biodiesel for the fleet will be purchased through an existing contract, with future plans to procure the alternative fuel produced from the city’s FOG program.
Helping turn the waste oil collected through the SFGreasecycle program into biodiesel is Blue Sky Bio-Fuels, a biodiesel producer with a newly built 20 million gallon per year facility across the bay in Oakland, CA. The company, the brainchild of brothers Patrick and Ralph MacIntyre, received a $620,000 grant in 2007 from the California Air Resources Board toward their plant.
Besides the city fleet, Blue Sky’s biodiesel is being used in 80 area school buses. The company has also initiated a free grease pick-up program for area restaurants.
Case IH Expands Biodiesel Use
Following on the heels of New Holland’s support of 100 percent biodiesel (B100) use in all of its equipment, Case IH has extended its recommendations on the use of biofuels to include B100 on even more of its equipment models.
Pure biodiesel can now be used in nearly all Case IH medium- to high-horsepower tractors, combines, windrowers, and most self-propelled sprayers and cotton pickers – so long as proper protocols are followed for engine operation and maintenance.
“With record prices for crude oil, Case IH committed to exploring better ways to use environmentally-friendly biofuels made from renewable raw materials,” said Don Rieser, Case IH director of tractor product management. “We have conducted rigorous laboratory and in-field tests to evaluate how our engines perform with various biodiesel blends.”
Rieser said that Case IH dealers are knowledgeable about guidelines for using biodiesel fuels in the company’s equipment and can advise users on biodiesel approvals and technical requirements. All Case IH machines leave the factory with a blend of biodiesel and traditional diesel fuel.
Brazil Mandates Biodiesel
Effective January 1, 2008, Brazil required all diesel fuel to contain two percent biodiesel. In news reports, Mines and Energy Minister Nelson Hubner said he estimates some 211 million gallons of biodiesel will be needed annually to meet the two percent mandate, and that Brazil already had the capacity to produce about 650 million gallons from 44 biodiesel plants.
Earth Biofuels Locks Up Yellow Grease Supply
Earth Biofuels, Inc., has signed a purchase agreement with Alliance Processors, Inc., for the supply of yellow grease to be used as a feedstock at the company’s biodiesel facility in Durant, OK. Earth Biofuels will buy 100 percent of the yellow grease collected by Alliance at a fixed price over both an initial three-month term and a following three-year term. The fixed price is based on the current market price for yellow grease.
Initial delivered volumes are expected to be 267,000 to 400,000 gallons of yellow grease per month. Alliance Processors is based in Forth Worth, TX, and collects used cooking oil mainly from restaurants across the state of Texas.
Gift to Power New Biodiesel Testing Facility
The Vanderbilt School of Engineering in Nashville, TN, will soon have a new state-of-the-art biodiesel testing facility, thanks to a $100,000 gift from the DENSO North American Foundation.
Beginning in the fall of 2008, students from various engineering disciplines will use the Vanderbilt Multi-user Biodiesel Engine Test Facility to investigate diesel engine performance parameters and test campus-produced biodiesel fuels, according to Professor Robert W. Pitz, chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The facility will include a four-cylinder diesel engine typically used in passenger cars that will be linked to a computer for analyzing test data and engine performance with various fuels. Students will also use diagnostic equipment to monitor particulate and gaseous emissions from the biodiesel-run engine.
The biodiesel facility will be used by mechanical engineering students as part of their core laboratory curriculum; mechanical, chemical, and environmental engineering seniors involved in capstone projects in biodiesel characterization and reactor design; and student volunteers from throughout the university who are involved in campus-wide waste oil recycling and biodiesel production.
Headquartered in Kariya, Japan, DENSO is one of the world’s largest suppliers of advanced automotive technology in components and systems.
“Green” Motor Oil Created from Tallow
Green Earth Technologies has introduced “G-OIL,” a biodegradable motor oil guaranteed to protect engines as well as the leading brands but without the environmental hazards or dependence on foreign oil because it’s made from animal fat, or tallow.
In the manufacture of traditional petroleum-based motor oil, it takes three barrels of oil to make one barrel of product. Green Earth scientists have developed a way to yield one barrel of product from one barrel of animal fat. G-OIL is made utilizing a propriety process that converts tallow from a solid raw material into completely biodegradable motor oil for gasoline and diesel engines as well as hybrid cars. The product was launched to retailers at the 2007 Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo.
Guantanamo Bay to Use Cooking Oil for Biodiesel
Guantanamo Bay’s Environmental Department recently purchased a biodiesel processor to convert used cooking oil into a fuel source for the U.S. naval station’s diesel-burning vehicles.
The department is collecting approximately 1,500 gallons of used grease and cooking oil per month from the local restaurants, galleys, and barrack buildings to create the cleaner-burning fuel. Prior to the project, all cooking oil was typically discarded in the naval station’s landfill. Residents are also being encouraged to save their used cooking oil in clean containers and deposit them in their recycle bins for collection.
Groundbreaking at Biogas Facility at JBS Swift
Environmental Power Corporation held a groundbreaking ceremony in mid-December for its biogas plant at the JBS Swift beef processing facility in Grand Island, NE. The plant will generate biogas to offset a portion of the facility’s natural gas consumption and will improve its waste management practices.
Environmental Power’s subsidiary, Microgy, Inc., will construct, own, and operate the renewable energy production facility and sell the biogas to JBS Swift pursuant to a 15-year purchase agreement. The facility will use anaerobic digester technology to convert animal waste and other by-products of the JBS Swift plant into a methane-rich biogas to be used as fuel in the plant’s existing boilers. At capacity, the facility is expected to generate 235 million British thermal units, or Btu, per year – the energy equivalent of 1.7 million gallons of oil – and will offset approximately 25 percent of JBS Swift’s annual purchase of natural gas. In addition, the meat processor will be able to reduce the land application of organic waste material from its operations.
The JBS beef processing plant in Grand Island currently processes approximately 6,000 beef cattle per day. The new biogas system will consist of two 1.2 million-gallon digesters, as well as a purification system that cleans the gas prior to its use. The biogas plant is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Maryland Biodiesel Facility Opens
Together with local and state politicians, Greenlight Biofuels, Inc., officially celebrated the opening of its four million gallon per year biodiesel facility in Princess Anne, MD. The plant will use multi-feedstocks to produce the alternative fuel, including yellow grease, choice white grease, and poultry fat.
Ohio Biodiesel Plant Suffers Explosion
According to news reports, human error has been named as the official cause of an explosion at American Ag Fuels’ Defiance, OH, biodiesel plant January 4, 2008. Four employees were injured and a two-block area of residential homes surrounding the plant was evacuated. About a dozen employees and several contractors were at the plant at the time of the blast.
After an interview with a hospitalized employee who was closest to the explosion, officials learned a manhole cover on a 10,000 gallon storage tank filled with glycerin was left open, releasing fumes into a 3,200-square-foot metal building near the main plant. When an employee hit a button to open an overhead garage door operated by an electric motor, the resulting spark ignited the fumes, causing the blast.
The building was unoccupied when the explosion occurred, but two employees were just outside, one of whom had his hand inside the door. He suffered third-degree burns on his hand as well as first- and second-degree burns on his upper body.
The main plant, a 25,000-square-foot facility 30 feet from the smaller building, sustained damage to masonry and windows, forcing it to shut down until a structural engineer deems it is safe to occupy. American Ag Fuels began producing biodiesel in July 2005 and has an annual capacity of seven million gallons.
Researchers Convert Chicken Fat into Biodiesel
Chemical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have investigated supercritical methanol as a method of converting chicken fat into biodiesel. The new study also successfully converted tall oil fatty acid, a major by-product of the wood-pulping process, into biodiesel at a yield of greater than 90 percent.
Under the guidance of R.E. “Buddy” Babcock, professor of chemical engineering, Brent Schulte, a chemical-engineering graduate student in the university’s College of Engineering, subjected low-grade chicken fat donated by Tyson Foods to a chemical process known as supercritical methanol treatment. Supercritical methanol treatment dissolves and causes a reaction between components of a product by subjecting the product to high temperature and pressure. Substances become “supercritical” when they are heated and pressured to a critical point, the highest temperature and pressure at which the substance can exist in equilibrium as a vapor and liquid. The simple, one-step process does not require a catalyst.
Schulte treated the chicken fat and tall oil with supercritical methanol and produced biodiesel yields in excess of 89 and 94 percent, respectively. With chicken fat, Schulte reached maximum yields at 325 degrees Celsius (C) and a 40-to-1 molar ratio, which refers to the amount of methanol applied. The process also produced a respectable yield of 80 percent at 300 degrees C and the same amount of methanol. At 275 degrees C and the same amount of methanol, the process was ineffective.
Previous efforts, including a study two years ago by another one of Babcock’s graduate students, to make biodiesel out of low-cost feedstocks – as opposed to refined oils – have used one of two conventional methods, base-catalyzed or acid-catalyzed esterification. Although successful at producing biodiesel, these conventional methods struggle to be economically feasible due to long reaction times, excessive amounts of methanol required, and/or undesired production of soaps during processing.
“The supercritical method hit the free fatty acid problem head on,” Babcock said. “Because it dissolves the feed material and eliminates the need for the base catalyst, we now do not have the problems with soap formation and loss of yield. The supercritical method actually prefers free fatty acid feedstocks.”
Texas Gives Green Light
In a letter to the National Biodiesel Board, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality “has approved the board’s alternative diesel fuel formulation for Texas low emission diesel fuel (TxLED) consisting of a biodiesel blend comprised of five percent or less by volume of ASTM D6751-compliant B100 biodiesel and 95 percent or more by volume of TxLED-compliant diesel fuel.” This approval applies to biodiesel sold in 110 counties in eastern Texas.
More information on the TxLED program is available at www.tceq.state.tx.us/implementation/air/sip/cleandiesel.html#Formulations.
Virginia Wins Vie for Biodiesel Facility
Synergy Biofuels, LLC, plans to invest one million dollars to open a biodiesel production facility in Lee County in Virginia that will create 30 jobs. The three million gallon per year plant will utilize used vegetable oil as its feedstock.
The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission approved $487,000 from the Southwest Economic Development Committee to assist with the purchase of the building. Various state and county agencies worked together to secure the project for Virginia, which successfully competed with Tennessee. The plant is expected to be online by March 2008.
UK Renewable Fuels Agency Starts Up
A new agency to manage Britain’s commitment to biofuels has been established.
The Renewable Fuels Agency will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation, which will take effect in April and mandates that by 2010, five percent of all fuels sold in the United Kingdom (UK) come from biofuels, which could save 2.6 to 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. The chairman of the agency will be Professor Ed Gallagher, former chief executive of the Environment Agency.
Biofuels Bulletin - February 2008 Render