Singing praises of soy-diesel fuel

nwitimes.com (Indiana) ^ | 10/23/2006 | LOUISA MURZYN

[Red Badger]

HAMMOND | The crisp autumn air remained odorless and free from petroleum-based smoke as U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar, standing next to a Hammond school bus powered by locally produced soy-diesel fuel, praised the innovation.

Lugar, R-Ind., visited Evergreen Renewables on Tuesday as part of a statewide tour of companies that are developing alternative energy sources and lessening dependence on imported oil.

The facility located at Wolf Lake Terminals began making fuel from soybeans in May and was Indiana's first online biodiesel production plant. Today, it makes 120,000 gallons weekly and soon will process and ship the around the clock.

"There are people of great talent right here," Lugar said. "It's their confidence and cooperation and management of all these resources that make this a first-class product. The employees have enormous responsibility."

Lugar was given an operations overview, visited the one-room testing laboratory and walked through the outdoor production and storage tank facility. The well-informed senator was engaged, and he fired off a variety of questions throughout.

"We start with soybean oil just like you'd find in your kitchen," said Evergreen President Brian Engel. "They're Indiana-grown soybeans. It's not a real hot process or under pressure. It's like making soup. You slowly mix and cook it until the reactions take place."

Annual sales are $15 million, with projections of $105,000 million as capacity increases to 36 million gallons yearly. The Omaha-based company has doubled its base to 20 customers along the Interstate 80/94 corridor in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.

Customers include retailers with truck stops, farming cooperatives, and vehicle fleet managers who buy 1,000 to 7,000 gallons of the pure soy fuel B100 blend.

Evergreen employs 10 workers and soon plans to hire five more.

Engel told Lugar the company's entry into the marketplace has been smooth because the Hammond location had an existing skilled labor force and infrastructure. Proximity to railroads and highways has been critical to growth, he added.

Engel also announced future plans, which include a higher quality fuel that has better winter characteristics and won't plug fuel filters.

Mark Happer, environmental compliance manager at U.S. Steel's Gary Works, said the steelmaker will begin using a 5-percent blend in January for two-thirds of its heavy mobile equipment fleet. The fuel has helped equipment idle and perform better as it lubricates, he said.

It will also begin testing trials for railroad locomotives, he added.

Evergreen also announced it will open a second Indiana biodiesel plant in Jeffersonville, where it expects to produce 60 million gallons per year.

Garland Middendorf, president of Wolf Lake Terminals, urged Lugar to support engine manufacturer warranties for biodiesel fuel blends of up to 20 percent.

"As consumers spend thousands of dollars on a new car or truck, they have to pay attention to warranties," Middendorf said, "and standing behind it would be a real push for the industry."

[Red Badger]

Politicians in Agri-States are beginning to take notice.........

[Red Badger]

Diesel Ping List
If you want on or off the DIESEL "KNOCK" LIST just FReepmail me........

[EQAndyBuzz]

I wonder how this will play 10-20 years down the road in regards to our food supply.

[Red Badger]

Bio-diesel can be made from many plants that are not edible and grow in non-agri land. The Chinese Tallow Tree is just one. AKA "Popcorn" tree here in the US.........

[EQAndyBuzz]

That's pretty cool. Then they should grow the stuff along our nations highways.

[Red Badger]

Here in Florida and I suppose the rest of The South, popcorn trees are an invasive species and grow incredibly fast and multitudinously! IOW, they DO grow along the roads!..........

[BookaT]

It wont play.

If it starts to have an effect we can start to stop paying farmers for not growing food.

Food prices may go up, or not.

As far as supply of land, we are not in any danger of running out.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Garland hails from Columbia Missouri.

[newcats]

Nice dream, but it will never happen.
Too much power (money) held by too few.
If you know what I mean....

[Red Badger]

In a world that's already hostile to "Big Oil" companies, biodiesel begins to look like a light at the end of the tunnel............

[Mr. Lucky]

It will have no negative effect on our food supply.

Beans processed for bio-diesel still yield protein meal and corn processed for ethanol still retains all of its nutrients (except sugar).

[TKDietz]

"As far as supply of land, we are not in any danger of running out."

I don't know about that. Every year we pave over several thousand acres of prime farm land. It's generally flat and drains well and it's perfect for building on. Farming doesn't pay well so a fewer and fewer acres are being farmed every year and increasingly prime farm land is being built up. One thing I think is good about biofuels is that the crops tie lot of the prime farm land up as farmland, instead of as new subdivisions or strip malls. Ethanol and biodiesel probably won't ever supply but a small portion of our fuel needs, but growing the feedstocks for these fuels does at least keep more acres being farmed so that less of this valuable land is built up. Our population has just hit 300 million and within forty years it's supposed to hit 400 million, and it will grow from there. It seems to me that it is in our best interests to keep our best farmland available as farmland, rather than building it up. We'll need it to produce food later. Let people build on hillsides and swamps and other land not suitable for farming.

[B Knotts]

I think algae is a more promising means of producing biodiesel than soy, but it's a good start, anyhow.

[newcats]

In a world that's already hostile to "Big Oil" companies, biodiesel begins to look like a light at the end of the tunnel............

As I said, in a perfect world this is great but....
Where is all the research and startup money going to come from?
Remember money = power. And who has more money.. "Big Oil" or the farmers?

[TKDietz]

In case you haven't noticed, there are billions of dollars in private investment pouring into biofuels now. A good bit of it is actually coming from oil companies. Mostly the investment is in ethanol, but a good bit is going into biodiesel as well. The problem with biodiesel so far is that we don't have good feedstocks available. Corn isn't the best feedstock for ethanol, but bushels per acre corn yields have improved a lot over the years as have gallons per bushel yields. Now we're getting up there close to 400 gallons per acre ethanol yields on average from corn. They only get around 40 gallons of biodiesel per acre of soybeans, plus a lot of high protein animal feed. They can get over a hundred gallons per acre from rapeseed, the stuff canola oil comes from, but it still takes an awful lot of land to produce a little biodiesel. They could get something like 650 gallons per acre from palm oil, but we can't produce much of that in the U.S. Theoretically, they might be able to get several thousand gallons per acre with shallow ponds producing oily algae, but they haven't figured out how to keep the right kind of algae growing. We're farther away from that then we are cellulosic ethanol, and while it may be that someday we are producing several gallons of ethanol per acre from cellulose as many think we will be able to do, that may not pan out either. The money is rolling though. People are getting rich and and there is more R&D than ever in biofuels.

[weps4ret]

Add me to the Diesel ping list, please.

Gunner

[rusty millet]

Some DDGS can be used in livestock diets, but carbohydrates (the "sugar" in corn) are still necessary in animal diets. The ethanol industry demand for corn will raise prices for corn-based and meat products. Good for farmers, but expect higher prices.

[thackney]

Compare that yield per year to +1,000,000 Barrel per Day from disturbing 2,000 acres in the frozen wasteland of ANWR coastal plain, really makes the environmentalists stance seem ridiculous.

[TKDietz]

I don't think it's just the environmentalists who would like to supplement our fuel supply with alternative fuels.

[thackney]

I guess I place equal value on all domestic production of fuel.