Texas-based GreenHunter Energy Inc. has a distillation tower for refining glycerin. Although the facility is currently shut down due to damage from Hurricane Ike, once biodiesel production begins, the company will refine crude glycerin. According to a GreenHunter spokeswoman, the distillation tower will have the capacity to refine more glycerin than the biodisel refinery produces.

Delta Biofuels Inc. has been selling its crude glycerin to a variety of markets, including Asia. According to Clint Vegas, president of Delta Biofuels, the crude glycerin his company produces is 90 percent to 94 percent pure. “If our production would crank up to where it needs to be … we would probably go ahead and refine our glycerin closer to 100 percent,” Vegas says. Feedstock prices would have to drop in order to increase production to a level where refining the glycerin would be feasible.

Louis Dreyfus Agricultural Industries produces about 65 million pounds of crude glycerin annually with a purity rate of 80 percent. According to senior merchandiser John Meyer, the company is selling the majority of its crude glycerin into the industrial market.

Erin Voegele is a Biodiesel Magazine staff writer. Reach her at evoegele@bbiinternational.com or (701) 373-8040.

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