Ever since biodiesel&rsquo;s commercial inception, the industry has been limited by feedstock. Several years ago, when only 25 MMgy of U.S. biodiesel was being produced, a theoretical maxim of 2 or 3 billion gallons may have been of little concern. Now, with a record year of production nearing a billion gallons in the books, feedstock limitation becomes a serious consideration, one that cannot be ignored. This is why we are focusing on feedstock in this issue, which is being distributed at the National Biodiesel Conference &amp; Expo in Orlando, Fla.
 Articles on growing the feedstock base, and various pretreatment techniques allowing the utilization of less desirable waste materials, are featured in the pages of this magazine. In his featured article, Associate Editor Bryan Sims asks, &ldquo;While biodiesel demand in both on- and off-road applications is likely to remain strong, the issue of whether a sufficient feedstock supply can support growth under RFS2 can&rsquo;t be ignored, and raises the glaring question: When will the biodiesel industry no longer be marginalized by a 2 or 3 billion gallon feedstock limit?&rdquo;
 For the story, Sims speaks with Gene Gebolys of World Energy, who also chairs the National Biodiesel Board&rsquo;s feedstock working group, and Alan Weber, partner at Marc-IV Consulting and lead economic advisor to the working group. &ldquo;In the modeling report, the group determined that it&rsquo;s possible to reach 3.3 billion gallons of biodiesel by 2022, an increase of 2.5 billion gallons from projected 2010-&rsquo;11 marketing year levels,&rdquo; Sims writes. &ldquo;In this scenario, nearly 80 percent of the increase comes from three feedstocks: soybean oil (31 percent), corn oil (22 percent) and palm fatty acid distillate (26 percent).&rdquo; Check out the full story on page 28.

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GROWTH &  LIMITATIONS

It has been said that feedstock flexibility is the key to making money in the biodiesel industry. It&rsquo;s d&eacute;j&agrave; vu all over again with the biodiesel tax credit lapsing just as biodiesel plants have established new production records. Whether or not the biodiesel tax credit is reinstated, the renewable fuel standard (RFS2) sets real production mandates that are binding to obligated parties. Still, process flexibility and feedstock procurement strategy separate the highly successful operation from the highly stressed biodiesel producer.
 When choosing feedstock, there are many factors to consider such as price, quality, availability and ability to meet product specifications. Understandably, higher quality feedstocks are typically more costly. Refined soybean oil is more expensive than degummed. Tallow is more expensive than yellow grease and so on. But why is soybean oil more expensive when it is the most abundant oil in the marketplace? Quite simply, the answer resides in the processability of the feedstock and the inherent characteristics within the oil or fat that impacts cloud point and cold filter plugging point (CFPP).&nbsp;
 It cannot be disputed that what the industry needs now more than anything else is an emerging feedstock that is less costly than soybean oil with equivalent or better cloud point characteristics. Could corn oil be that feedstock? Currently trading at more than a 20-cent discount to soybean oil per pound, there will be at least twice as much corn oil on the market in 2012 compared to 2011. Plus, corn oil has a cloud point typically lower than soybean oil, even though their CFPP is similar. The cloud point of corn oil is approximately minus 3 degrees Celsius, nearly 5 degrees better than soybean oil. This can be an advantage when selling to obligated parties who have more stringent cloud point requirements during winter months.
 Not only is it imperative to secure sufficient quantities of feedstock, but the plant must be capable of converting that feedstock into acceptable product. Don&rsquo;t forget that a 1 cent per pound differential in feedstock cost results in roughly a 7.5 cent per gallon difference in cost. Corn oil from ethanol plants has a higher free fatty acid (FFA) content than soybean oil, however, so pretreatment must be employed to convert the oil to an acceptable transesterification feedstock. In addition, corn oil has an inherent reddish color that must be minimized to meet ASTM specifications and satisfy end-user requirements. This may require distillation or caustic refining, which will add to processing cost and impact the biodiesel yield.
 Whether corn oil or another lower-cost feedstock is desired, the plant will most certainly need the ability to process higher FFAs since they are synonymous with lower-cost feedstock. The ability to convert FFAs into methyl esters instead of soap increases product yield and reduces feedstock cost per gallon of biodiesel. This does not occur in a traditional caustic catalyzed transesterification process, however. A pretreatment step is required to process high FFA material in a conventional biodiesel plant. The actual method of pretreatment depends on the size of the plant, technology preference and other factors.
 The four main pretreatment routes available to traditional biodiesel producers are: blending of lower quality feedstock with higher quality feedstock, acid esterification with a solid catalyst, acid esterification with a liquid catalyst, and glycerolysis. Other pretreatment routes are possible, but the four listed previously are most widely used. Blending is the least capital intensive option, but the FFAs still produce soap and are not converted to biodiesel. Acid esterification is the reaction of methanol and FFAs to produce methyl esters. The catalyst may be a solid resin or a liquid acid, such as sulfuric acid. Glycerolysis is the reaction of glycerin and FFAs to produce mono, di and triglycerides, which can then be converted into methyl esters in the traditional transesterification reactors. All of the options produce water that must be removed prior to transesterification. Before choosing a pretreatment method, it is recommended that site-specific analysis be performed to determine the optimal technology for that particular location.
 2012 is going to test the capabilities of the biodiesel industry in general, and the ability of individual plants to secure sufficient feedstock to meet the RFS2 requirements. As the industry gears up to meet the mandated demand for biodiesel, feedstock strategy will be one of the most critical factors in plant profitability&mdash;with or without the tax credit in place. Author: Pete Moss President, Frazier, Barnes &amp; Associates (901) 725-7258 <a href="mailto:fbapete@frazierbarnes.com">fbapete@frazierbarnes.com</a>

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Feedstock Flexibility:  Key to Future Profitability?

Kumar Plocher, CEO and founder of Yokayo Biofuels Inc., a small 500,000 gallon per year biodiesel facility in Northern California, is not only confident in his long-term business plan, he&rsquo;s excited. His plan features feedstock acquisition, infrastructure enhancement and new hires, and the five-year overall growth outlook is not linked to any sort of biodiesel tax incentive. But it doesn&rsquo;t hurt that Plocher and his team were recent recipients of a $24,000 USDA Bioenergy payment for advanced biofuels producers. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s definitely going to help us expand,&rdquo; Plocher says, admitting that Yokayo&rsquo;s expansion efforts started earlier in 2011. &ldquo;In the past year we&rsquo;ve grown our staff tremendously,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;We went from 10 employees last year to 18 right now and I can see us adding another five or 10 in the next year.&rdquo;
The eight additional employees might not seem important, but the expansion at Yokayo Biofuels has drawn the attention of U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif. &ldquo;Yokayo Biofuels is a model of how green businesses can grow our economy,&rdquo; Thompson said after Yokayo received the USDA funding.
With added employees, Plocher&rsquo;s plans for 2012 involve hiring new drivers for waste vegetable oil collection and installing more efficient processing equipment. &ldquo;We are looking at getting beyond some of the older types of processes,&rdquo; he says. And the combination of new technology at his Ukiah, Calif., facility, additional feedstock supply possibilities and more employees are all contributing to his excitement about the new year. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good time for us to be getting exposure,&rdquo; he says of local press and Thompson&rsquo;s recognition of their award. Plocher&rsquo;s not worried about life without an incentive: he&rsquo;s focused on the business of biodiesel, securing feedstock and producing gallons, hiring extra drivers and installing new, more efficient technology. Last year was a productive and economically positive year for biodiesel, as Plocher&rsquo;s story exemplifies. If everyone else in the industry approaches 2012 with the same excitement as he, 2012 will be business as usual.
&mdash;Luke Geiver

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For this northern California producer, business is good

Expansion Plans

In 2008, now 13-year-old Cassandra Lin began an initiative to benefit her local community in Westerly, R.I. According to Lin, the inspiration for her project began at an environmental expo she attended at the University of Rhode Island. &ldquo;There, I found out that you can collect waste cooking oil and turn it into biodiesel,&rdquo; she says. Around the same time, Lin became familiar with a local charity program that provides heating assistance to families and individuals who cannot afford to heat their homes. Together with a group of her friends, Lin hatched a plan to collect used cooking oil, convert that oil into biodiesel, and use the resulting fuel to help provide heating assistance to members of the local community.&nbsp;
 The initiative, known as the Turn Grease into Fuel recycling program, currently sources used cooking oil from approximately 109 restaurants and several public receptacles located in the region. According to Lin, the initiative is currently able to collect approximately 4,000 gallons of waste cooking oil per month, and has generated about 72,000 gallons of biodiesel to date. Overall, the program has provided more than 14,400 gallons of Bioheat to local charities for distribution to their clients.
 Lin and her team enlist restaurants and local residents to donate their used cooking oil to the initiative. They also work to establish collection points for used cooking oil at city transfer stations, fire departments, and other public facilities. According to information released by the United Nations, the TGIF project is responsible for a mandate in Rhode Island that currently requires all businesses that consume cooking oil within the state to recycle their waste grease.
 &nbsp;The waste cooking oil collected by the program is currently converted into biodiesel by Newport Biodiesel LLC. Lin says a portion of the sale price of the cooking oil goes to TGIF, which donates those funds to local charities that provide heating assistance.
 The TGIF program was recently featured on the home page of the United Nations Environmental Programme. &ldquo;That was a really cool honor,&rdquo; Lin says. She has participated in several U.N. youth events in the past, including conferences in Norway, South Korea and Indonesia. In June 2012, Lin will be one of more than 1,400 youths who travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to participate in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Lin has also been named one of America&rsquo;s top 10 youth volunteers for 2011 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and has won a national Prudential Spirit of Community Award for her volunteer service.
 Lin says the feedback her team has received from the charities it donates to has been overwhelmingly positive. She also notes that TGIF has plans to expand its reach. Last year the program began to operate in additional Rhode Island communities, and is currently expanding into Connecticut. &ldquo;In the next five years we want to be in all six New England states,&rdquo; she says.
&mdash;Erin Voegele

YOUTH MOVEMENT: Cassandra Lin, left, and her team launched the Turn Grease into Fuel (TGIF) recycling program in 2008. 

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Rhode Island teenager recognized by U.N. for biodiesel project


An Outstanding Achievement

A legume tree native to tropical and temperate regions around the world is attracting attention as a potential new biodiesel feedstock. Pongamia Pinnata&mdash;also known as Millettia Pinnata&mdash;produces oil-rich seeds that can be harvested via the same mechanical shaking methods employed in the olive and macadamia nut industries.
 Peter Gresshoff, a professor at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, is currently working to unravel and understand the plant&rsquo;s genetics. &ldquo;We are trying to understand it&rsquo;s DNA, we are trying to understand which traits and characteristics are controlled by which gene, and we are trying to understand the causation between genes and phenotype characteristics,&rdquo; he says.
 According to Gresshoff, there are several reasons he has chosen to work with the Pongamia tree. One of the most important factors is that the tree is a legume. This means it can generate its own nitrogen fertilizer. &ldquo;The reason this is important is that nitrogen is needed for a plant to grow,&rdquo; he says, noting that adding nitrogen fertilizer to a crop is expensive and can pollute local water sources when over-applied.
 Another factor that makes the tree attractive is that it produces a great deal of oil. Gresshoff estimates that an average six-year-old tree will currently produce about 20,000 seeds per year, each weighing 1.5 to 2 grams. &ldquo;The seed itself contains about 40 to 50 percent oil,&rdquo; he says. This equates to approximately 77 pounds of oil per year. In addition, the tree is drought-tolerant and can be grown in saline soils, Gresshoff adds.
 While Gresshoff stresses that the tree could currently be used to generate oil on a commercial-scale, he also notes he is working to improve several of the plant&rsquo;s traits. For example, Gresshoff says that he would like to improve the repeated flowering of the plant so that yields are higher, and more consistent on a year-by-year basis. He is also investigating the environmental factors that could limit seed yield and working to develop disease resistance. As part of his research, Gresshoff is also trying to identify specific varieties of the trees that are best suited to different environmental regions.&nbsp; According to Gresshoff, he is actively seeking funding and investment to help support his work.
&mdash;Erin Voegele

SEEKING ALTERNATIVES: Peter Gresshoff, a professor at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, is researching to understand the genetics of the Pongamia tree. 

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Pongomia shows promise as new oil source  

Exploring New Feedstock Sources 

In a recent quarterly financial report, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP outlined expected additions to its biodiesel distribution infrastructure, and noted that its Products Pipeline business segment has realized solid growth in biodiesel barrels handled. According to the report, Kinder Morgan is investing more than $35 million to continue to expand its renewable fuel handling capacities at several of its terminals across the nation. Regarding additions on the West Coast, Kinder Morgan says facility modifications to provide for the receipt, storage and blending of biodiesel will be installed at its Las Vegas, Phoenix, Colton, Calif., and Fresno, Calif., terminals in July. The company will also be making infrastructure additions in other regions of the country. Biodiesel blending modifications were to be completed at Plantation Pipe Line&rsquo;s Collins, Miss., terminal by the end of December. According to Kinder Morgan, that project will provide for expanded biodiesel blending into the Plantation Pipe Line system, which stretches from Louisiana to near Washington, D.C. In Florida, Kinder Morgan noted that it already offers automated biodiesel blending at its Orlando terminal.&nbsp; The company has also completed modifications to allow its Tampa terminal to receive both railcar and vessel biodiesel deliveries.
&mdash;Erin Voegele

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Kinder Morgan Energy Partners plans to increase biodiesel infrastructure

Expanding Access 

Since he joined the Algae Energy Systems branch at Utah State University&rsquo;s Energy Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, in 2009, Kevin Shurtleff has been working on finding low-cost avenues for algae cultivation and harvesting techniques during scale-up. Shurtleff and his team are working on a unique, floating, open-pond concept and, since moving the project from Logan to Vernal, the group is demonstrating that the lipids harvested from the one-acre cultivation pond can be used for biodiesel production.
 &ldquo;You kind of have to use what nature gives you,&rdquo; Shurtleff tells Biodiesel Magazine. While work is ongoing, Shurtleff estimates that approximately 1,400 gallons of biodiesel per acre per year could potentially be produced based on 20 percent by weight lipid yield derived from the floating algae pond design.
 &nbsp;According to Shurtleff, EDL is working in partnership with Washakie Renewable Energy LLC, noting that discussions are in the works to potentially integrate an algal cultivation and harvesting facility co-located with WRE&rsquo;s existing 12 MMgy biodiesel plant near Plymouth, where WRE could extract the algal oil to be used for biodiesel production. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re planning on that to be sometime mid-2012,&rdquo; he says.
&mdash;Bryan Sims

FLOATING ALGAE: The quarter-acre floating algae pond was built by students and researchers at Utah State University EDL algal biomass group in Logan, Utah. The team built a one-acre floating algae pond in Vernal, Utah, earlier this year.

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Utah State University optimizes algae lipid yield for in-state biodiesel producer

Algae Synergizing Biodiesel 

The city of Smyrna, Ga., is putting to use $208,000 of federal stimulus funds to implement a biodiesel program in January that calls for the expansion of an existing public works building to create an area for two 55-gallon biodiesel processing plants with assorted storage tanks and containers to produce 2,200 gallons of biodiesel monthly from used cooking oil collected from area restaurants.
 The proposed program in Smyrna, to be operated in-house by city employees, will be modeled after a similar program currently implemented by the city of Hoover, Ala. Public works employees will oversee the construction and maintenance of the building addition, assembly and operation of the processing plants, collection of the cooking oils and production of biodiesel. According to a statement by the city, &ldquo;General public participation by local restaurants will be vital to the success of the program, but citizens will be able to participate in the program.&rdquo;
 Once operational, the city plans to gradually supply B20 into its service fleet. Once the service fleet is operational on B20, plans are to make a portion of the service fleet capable of running on B100. If the program is successful, and pending available funding, the city may consider expanding the program to add additional processing plants.
&mdash;Bryan Sims

A small town in Georgia collects used cooking oil for biodiesel to fuel city fleet

A Community-Wide Effort

National Biodiesel Board members selected their trade association leadership recently during a meeting in Washington, D.C. Members elected seven returning governing board members and one new member to serve on the leadership committee. The NBB is the industry&rsquo;s central coordinating entity and works to create sustainable biodiesel industry growth. Governing board members serve to represent the diverse membership base that sets the course for the industry.
 Officers elected to lead the board are:
 Gary Haer, chairman, Renewable Energy Group Inc. (producer).
 Ed Ulch, vice chair, Iowa Soybean Association (farmer).
 Ron Marr, secretary, Minnesota Soybean Processors (producer).
 Jim Conway, treasurer, Griffin Industries (producer).
 Biodiesel board members also voted to fill eight board member spots. Board members elected to the governing board include the officer team and:
 Ed Hegland, Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council (farmer).
 Kris Kappenman, Archer Daniels Midland (producer).
 Bob Metz, South Dakota Soybean Research &amp; Promotion Council (farmer).
 Robert Stobaugh, Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board (farmer).
 The following members continue to serve on the governing board:
 Greg Anderson, Nebraska Soybean Board (farmer).
 Ramon Benavides, GEN-X Energy Group (producer).
 Steven Levy, Sprague Energy (producer).
 Dave Lyons, Louis Dreyfus (producer).
 Doug Smith, Baker Commodities (producer).
 David Womack, Tennessee Soybean Promotion Board (farmer).
 John Wright, Owensboro Grain Company (producer).
 During the November membership meeting, Darryl Brinkmann was honored with an award for his many years of leadership and service to the biodiesel industry. Brinkmann, a former NBB chairman, long-time board member, and farmer from Illinois, leaves the board.
 &ldquo;Darryl&rsquo;s leadership and extensive work on behalf of the biodiesel industry has played a major role in helping us get to where we are today&mdash;a vibrant industry producing America&rsquo;s first advanced biofuel,&rdquo; says NBB Chairman Haer.

National Biodiesel Board members elect governing board, officers 

Farmer leaders from throughout the country recently descended on the Big Apple to see the bourgeoning Bioheat industry in action. The National Biodiesel Board arranged a biodiesel and Bioheat tour of New York City for about 20 farmers from supporting organizations.
 &ldquo;New York City is a major energy center,&rdquo; said Tom Verry, director of development for the NBB. &ldquo;High volumes of biodiesel are used here too, which makes it the perfect place to show soybean farmers how their long-term vision for biodiesel and Bioheat has become a reality.&rdquo;
 New York City is a major biodiesel market. Starting in October, all heating oil sold within New York City will contain at least 2 percent biodiesel. New York City Department of Parks &amp; Recreation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the New York City Department of Sanitation all use 5 to 50 percent biodiesel blends in their diesel vehicles totaling nearly 11 million gallons of biodiesel blends a year.
 &ldquo;It's exciting for us to see the passion in New York City among biodiesel's many champions,&rdquo; said Greg Anderson, a soybean farmer from Newman Grove, Neb., and NBB governing board member. &ldquo;New York City represents more than just another market for biodiesel. It's a strategic partner in furthering biodiesel acceptance in the Northeast, and nationwide. Our champions here want to leverage their position as energy leaders to promote biodiesel growth. That's a powerful partnership.&rdquo;
 While soybean farmers benefit from a healthy biodiesel industry, the industry continues to benefit from strong farmer support.
 &ldquo;The biodiesel and Bioheat industries would not be where they are today without the support of farmers, the United Soybean Board, and the soybean check-off in developing this fuel,&rdquo; said Paul Nazzaro, who runs the Bioheat program for the NBB. &ldquo;It's a pleasure to show them how their vision has materialized into reality.&rdquo;

Farmer leaders visited biodiesel and Bioheat user The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Officials showed attendees the snow removal and emergency response equipment at JFK International Airport that runs on biodiesel blends.

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Farmer-leaders see biodiesel investment in action on NYC Bioheat tour

The trademarked word Bioheat was coined in a basement home office, at a meeting between two National Biodiesel Board consultants and a visionary oilheat state executive. Who knew that Bioheat, through the efforts of NBB, would go on to create infinite opportunities for the oilheat industry? Today Bioheat is touted as the &ldquo;Evolution of Oilheat,&rdquo; taking its rightful place among the thousands of fuel dealers excited about delivering a fuel that will compete well into the 21st century.&nbsp;
 NBB&rsquo;s Bioheat program is blanketing the oilheat states in its largest campaign to date. Led by Paul Nazzaro, Advanced Fuel Solutions, and a group of professionals selected for their comprehensive understanding of both industries, the Bioheat team is working to reach every oilheat dealer with a simple message: If you&rsquo;re not carrying Bioheat, there&rsquo;s never been a better time to start.&nbsp;
 In case you&rsquo;ve missed it, here are some of the new key pieces of this critical effort:
 &bull; Bioheat Playbook: A comprehensive manual that includes technical and marketing materials for dealers. It also comes with in-person training from the AFS team.
 &bull; Bioheat Advertising Campaign: You&rsquo;ve seen the New York City ads on buses and subways, and heard the radio commercials, but that&rsquo;s only the beginning. The campaign will be customized to other oilheat markets, such as Boston.
 &bull; Bioheat Jeep: This biodiesel-powered vehicle is a lean, mean awareness machine! It travels to home shows and other events throughout the Northeast, and may be available for Bioheat dealers to use upon request.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
 The team is also hosting workshops throughout the Northeast, has redesigned Bioheatonline.com, is spearheading a new social media presence, and is contributing monthly articles to five industry publications. The majority of this effort is funded by the United Soybean Board and the Nebraska Soybean Board.

The Bioheat advertising campaign is blanketing New York City buses, subways and radio airwaves. The campaign will target Boston and other cities next. 

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Bioheat outreach and education is hot, hot, hot

San Diego-based biodiesel producer New Leaf Biofuel LLC has forged an agreement with the San Diego Unified School District to supply biodiesel to its fleet of more than 500 buses through the city&rsquo;s intergovernmental fuel contract by the end of the 2014-&lsquo;15 school year. The San Diego Unified School District Trustees voted in favor of the plan in December to use B20 in its entire school bus fleet. The company already provides biodiesel to businesses in San Diego, as well as surrounding cities such as Chula Vista and Oceanside, including local universities, the U.S. Navy and Allied Waste, a local waste management firm. New Leaf produces approximately 2 MMgy of biodiesel from recycled cooking oil, much of which is sourced from more than 1,500 local restaurants. The company experienced a growth year in 2011 with the hiring of 10 employees, bringing its workforce to 25 employees. Plans are underway to double annual production capacity to 4 MMgy by June, which is expected to open six more jobs. New Leaf is also working on becoming BQ-9000 certified.
 Lee Enterprises Consulting of Little Rock, Ark., the world&rsquo;s largest biodiesel consulting group, recently announced its plans for expansion this year of the group&rsquo;s services into ethanol, biomass, wind, solar and geothermal, and the addition of consultants and strategic partners. Wayne Lee, principal owner, says the expansion is a natural progression for the group, and that each of its larger strategic partners&mdash;Stoel Rives (legal), Christianson &amp; Associates (accounting), IMA of Kansas (insurance), FCStone Merchant Services (feedstock financing), and Executive Leadership Solutions (staffing)&mdash;already has a significant presence in these other alternative fuels sectors. Lee says that alternative fuels present a solution to many of the world&rsquo;s problems&mdash;economic, environmental and security&mdash;and that the ramifications of failing to strengthen alternative fuels very quickly may be drastic. Lee says that the group&rsquo;s expansion into other alternative fuels will clearly involve the addition of new consultants and strategic partners this year and beyond. His first goal will be to create strategic relationships with companies that are experienced and have a stellar reputation in the design and building of these other types of alternative fuels projects.
 Verenium Corp. has announced the launch of Purifine phospolipase C (PLC) enzyme for the pretreatment of oils for biodiesel production. The product has been used to process food-grade oils since 2008. According to Janet Roemer, Verenium&rsquo;s chief operating officer, Purifine PLC is designed to remove phosphorous impurities from crude soybean, rapeseed and canola oils. While some similar enzymes on the market can actually increase the free fatty acid level of a feedstock, Roemer stresses that is not the case with Purifine PLC. &ldquo;One of the key benefits of our product is that it actually gets an increase in the oil from the degumming step,&rdquo; Roemer says. It also provides a more environmental and cost-effective method to degum oils when compared to caustic refining. In addition, Roemer says customers using the product have noted that it makes their products flow through processing systems better, and it&rsquo;s easier on their pumps. While it is easiest to add an enzyme pretreatment process to a new plant during construction, it is also possible to retrofit the process into existing plants. According to Roemer, the infrastructure costs are relatively low, and the payback period is swift. Biodiesel facilities located adjacent to crush facilities and those that purchase crude soy oils will benefit most from the process.
 Connecticut-based Greenleaf Biofuels LLC and Omaha, Neb.-based Tenaska BioFuels LLC have signed an exclusive, multiyear agreement for Tenaska to supply feedstock to and sell biodiesel from Greenleaf Biofuels&rsquo; 10 MMgy production facility currently under construction in New Haven, Conn. The multifeedstock plant is expected to come online in late second quarter. Greenleaf Biofuels&rsquo; future production facility will feature access to water, rail and road transportation for inbound and outbound transport. Additionally, the facility will feature a Greenline Industries system that was purchased at auction. The company is working with JatroDiesel and Innovative Design Engineering Associates to redesign and upgrade the process to include methanol recovery, distillation systems and cold filtering as part of the final polishing process. Construction is progressing on schedule with the majority of the foundation already nearing completion in preparation for walls to be erected shortly. Most of Greenleaf Biofuels&rsquo; future biodiesel product will end up in the Northeastern heating oil market to be blended into Bioheat.

Business Briefs

A wide variety of feedstock pretreatment materials and technologies is readily available in the marketplace. From steam stripping, to acid esterification, glycerolysis, enzyme pretreatment or even adsorbents, biodiesel producers have a number of options to consider and vet for possible implementation at their facilities.
 Each method clearly has its relative advantages and drawbacks when compared to other technologies and materials available to the industry. Not all pretreatment methods are appropriate for a given plant, however. In most cases, economic considerations coupled with feedstock characteristics and plant design will be driving forces in the final selection of a pretreatment solution.
 While existing plants can be retrofitted with new equipment and pretreatment systems to allow more feedstock flexibility, Klaus Ruhmer, BDI-BioEnergy&rsquo;s business development manager for North America, cautions producers not to think of pretreatment solutions as some sort of magical &ldquo;black box.&rdquo;
 &ldquo;We are often approached by customers who have an existing facility designed to process virgin vegetable oils,&rdquo; Ruhmer says. They want to be able to take in lower-cost, lower-quality feedstocks, such as waste cooking oil. Oftentimes, those producers are looking for some sort of magic device, Ruhmer says, that can turn these lower quality feedstocks into something suitable for their existing plant. There is no magic black box of a solution, he says. &ldquo;An efficient pretreatment solution has to be integrated with the rest of the plant,&rdquo; Ruhmer says. &ldquo;It can never be looked at as a standalone solution.&rdquo; Rather, pretreatment solutions should always be considered an integrated component of a plant, and one that is designed to make plant operations more efficient and economical. &ldquo;The ultimate thing about the biodiesel business is really to maximize yields,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You can always take a feedstock and remove the free fatty acids and make biodiesel. It&rsquo;s not a question of [whether] you can make biodiesel; it&rsquo;s how much biodiesel you can make out of a given feedstock stream, because margins are razor thin.&rdquo;
 Raj Mosali, president of JatroDiesel, adds that the ability to be feedstock flexible has almost become a mandatory requirement for a plant to be profitable and successful. For this reason, he says, the future looks bright for pretreatment technologies. He also stresses that existing processes and technologies should be more than capable of handing the needs of new feedstocks, such as pennycress and camelina, as they become more widely available. &ldquo;Primarily any technology that works with the existing and commonly available chemicals has a good future,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Anything that needs a customer or plant to buy new chemicals or enzymes is a tough sell.&rdquo;
 Fighting FFAs
 The presence of FFAs in biodiesel feedstocks is a chronic problem, says Jon Van Gerpen, professor and department head of biological and agricultural engineering at the University of Idaho. The problem is made more complex by the fact that feedstocks can contain FFA levels as low as 0.5 percent, or as high as 100 percent. While at least a half dozen solutions are available to reduce these FFA levels, most are only effective and economical with a relatively small range of FFA levels.
 &ldquo;For example, if you have an oil that has 10 percent free fatty acids in it, the distillation approach&mdash;or the steam stripping of fatty acid approach&mdash;works very well,&rdquo; Van Gerpen says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s natural in that range of [10 to 15 percent] free fatty acids. If you only have 1 or 2 percent free fatty acids in your oil, that has been a real challenge because it&rsquo;s high enough free fatty acids that you are going to have problems with high soap formation during your reaction. You&rsquo;d like to have some recourse to deal with that, but most of the other technologies [are equivalent to] hitting that problem with a sledge hammer. They are really expensive, they are really high technology and they are energy intensive. They just cost too much.&rdquo; In those cases, materials like adsorbents can make much more economic sense.
 According to Masali, JatroDiesel currently offers three different types of pretreatment methods designed specifically to deal with FFAs, including acid esterification, a glycerolysis process known as MGEN, and FFA stripping. He notes that his company has also assessed enzymatic technologies developed by third parties to reduce FFAs. Although those enzymatic solutions work well in the lab, he says they still face some technical issues when it comes to implementing them on an industrial scale. When considering the need for a pretreatment technology, Masali recommends that biodiesel producers first consider how their existing production system works. That alone can drive which method to use, he says. Second, producers also need to consider what their primary feedstock will be over the long term, and the FFA level of that source. Existing plants also need to consider what type of existing equipment is onsite and how the pretreatment technology ties into those systems.
 While each process may have its own unique range of FFA levels it is most appropriate for, each solution also has challenges that must be considered. Although Van Gerpen stresses that adsorbents can be very effective when dealing with low levels of FFA, generally up to 2 percent, he also notes that the method results in a fairly significant amount of waste material that a producer will need to deal with. &ldquo;The adsorbents are extracting the free fatty acids out and adsorbing those free fatty acids into the powder,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;That powder then needs to be disposed of, and typically you do that by putting it into a landfill.&rdquo;
 Acid esterification also results in a significant amount of waste. Although the method can effectively deal with fatty acid ranges a high as 100 percent, Van Gerpen notes that the disadvantage is that you are working with concentrated sulfuric acid at the facility. &ldquo;Ultimately, that sulfuric acid has to be neutralized and disposed of,&rdquo; Van Gerpen explains. &ldquo;You end up with a waste stream there. The acid esterification is a very versatile technology, but it does involve handling more hazardous materials than certain biodiesel producers might be comfortable with.&rdquo;
 When it comes to enzyme treatments for FFA reduction, Van Gerpen seems to agree with Masali&rsquo;s assessment. &ldquo;They are limited by most of the same factors as acid esterification, except they tend to be slower and they are still constrained by things like chemical equilibrium,&rdquo; Van Gerpen says.
 Removing Impurities
 While enzymes might not be currently considered the most effective solution to reduce FFA levels in a feedstock, enzymatic solutions can be a highly effective means to reduce impurities like metals. Verenium Corp. offers one such product that is specifically designed to remove phosphorous from vegetable oils, predominantly soybean oil.&nbsp; The product, Purifine phospholipase C (PLC), was originally developed for use with edible oils, but is also an effective way to lower the phosphorous levels of feedstock destined for conversion into biodiesel. Although other enzymes on the market can actually increase the FFA level of feedstocks as a side effect of the degumming, Verenium Chief Operating Officer Janet Roemer stresses that is not the case with Purifne PLC.
 &ldquo;One of the primary benefits of our product is that it actually [achieves] an increase in the yield of oil from the degumming step,&rdquo; Roemer says. &ldquo;Some of the oil that would otherwise be lost in that step is redeemed using our product. It&rsquo;s really a very nice economic boost for the plant.&rdquo; She also notes that feedback Verenium has received from plant operators indicates that the use of enzymes can make products flow more effectively through the conversion process of a plant.
 According to Van Gerpen, adsorbents can also be used to effectively remove phosphorus. While there are less expensive methods to do so, especially if a plant is willing to buy a degumming system, he says that adsorbents can offer additional flexibility to facilities that usually take in low phosphorous oils as feedstock. &ldquo;If you are a producer that is normally buying low phosphorous oil, but you have access to buy a load of low-cost oil that still had some phosphorus in it that has not been degummed, you could use an adsorbent on a discretionary basis to take advantage of opportunities that might arise in the marketplace,&rdquo; he explains.
 The presence of sulfur is another area in which pretreatment solutions would be beneficial. Van Gerpen says that his group has been working to identify an adsorbent that would be effective in reducing the sulfur level of a feedstock. &ldquo;Typically when people are starting out with an oil that is high in sulfur, they have to distill the biodiesel to reduce the sulfur content,&rdquo; Van Gerpen says. The process would be much simpler if an adsorbent were available that could effectively reduce the sulfur level of a feedstock.
 Chris Abrams, general manager of the Dallas Group, notes that Magnesol 600R is just one product in his company's R series of adsorbents. Different adsorbents in that line are designed to remove a broad range of contaminants from oils, esters and surfactants. &ldquo;What it removes are predominantly metals, especially phosphorous and sulfur,&rdquo; Abrams says, &ldquo;but they also pick up soaps, sterol glucosides, polymers, and polyethylene. They increase oxidative stability of the feedstock, and they also can remove free fatty acids, which is what 600 R is specifically designed to do.&rdquo;&nbsp; He says by using the product on feedstocks with FFAs, producers can remove that material and will not have to address that either with acid pretreatment or as a soap from transesterification. &ldquo;With adsorbents, you get a broad range of removal,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There are some pretreatment options that specifically address acid, some specifically address soaps&hellip;but with the adsorbents you can remove a broad range. You really get the full spectrum of contaminants that could affect the quality of your fuel.&rdquo; Abrams stresses, however, that the use of adsorbents is really an economic consideration. &ldquo;If you have grossly contaminated feedstock, then our products become less viable,&rdquo; he says.
 &ldquo;We&rsquo;d love to find something that was really effective for sulfur,&rdquo; Van Gerpen says. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s kind of the Holy Grail right now, to find an adsorbent that will pull the sulfur out. We have had fairly good success looking at things that could take out phosphorous and some calcium and magnesium, those types of materials, but not very good luck with sulfur. And sulfur is the one that we really need.&rdquo; Author: Erin Voegele Associate Editor, Biodiesel Magazine (701) 540-6986 <a href="mailto:evoegele@bbiinternational.com">evoegele@bbiinternational.com</a>

CLEAN-UP: Filtering feedstock oils is just one of many aspects of pretreatment that must occur before transesterification at a biodiesel plant.

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ENZYMATICS: Verenium Corp.'s Purifine PLC enzymes can help pretreat crude vegetable oils, allowing producers to buy cheaper, less refined oils. 

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Choosing the most appropriate feedstock pretreatment method for a given facility can make or break plant economics

A Critical Component

Biodiesel production reached an all-time high of 908 million gallons through the end of November, according to U.S. EPA figures. This is well above the mandated 800 million gallon biomass-based diesel requirement prescribed under RFS2 and shatters the previous annual record production of 690 million gallons set in 2008. At current production, the biodiesel industry will conceivably fulfill the volumetric mandate of 1 billion gallons this year and, pending federal support and favorable supply and demand dynamics in the marketplace, appears poised to hit a proposed 1.28 billion gallons by 2013. After 2013 and beyond, the minimum volumetric threshold for biomass-based diesel can be no less than 1 billion gallons.
 While biodiesel demand in both on- and off-road applications is likely to remain strong, the issue of whether a sufficient feedstock supply can support growth under RFS2 can&rsquo;t be ignored, and raises the glaring question: When will the biodiesel industry no longer be marginalized by a 2 or 3 billion gallon feedstock limit? If the industry stands a chance competing with Big Oil over the next decade, it will need hard data and realistic feedstock projections to keep pace with increased production and demand.
 Fortunately, industry stakeholders are working hard at addressing this question and finding answers. In July 2010, a working group was appointed by former NBB chairman Ed Hegland to analyze and assess possible constraints to overall feedstock supply, consumption, industry production capacity and global market conditions to develop recommendations to the EPA regarding future RFS2 volumetric compliance levels. The group is also charged with advising the NBB on what recommendations it should make to the EPA. In June, the group made its recommendations to the NBB, outlining a sustained growth of the volume mandate over a five-year period that would start at 1.3 billion gallons in 2013 and increase by 300 million gallons per year, increasing the volume requirement for biomass-diesel to 2.5 billion gallons by 2017.
 Gene Gebolys, CEO of World Energy and chairman of the NBB working group, tells Biodiesel Magazine the committee hired IHS Global Insight to conduct econometric modeling to assess the long-term availability, price structure and market dynamics of a variety of feedstocks in order to determine a sustainable path forward. In the modeling report, the group determined that it&rsquo;s possible to reach 3.3 billion gallons of biodiesel by 2022, an increase of 2.5 billion gallons from projected 2010-&rsquo;11 marketing year levels. In this scenario, nearly 80 percent of the increase comes from three feedstocks: soybean oil (31 percent), corn oil (22 percent) and palm fatty acid distillate (26 percent). Animal fats, yellow grease and other low-grade waste oils supply another 16 percent of the total with the remaining 3 percent coming from canola and palm oil.
 &ldquo;One of the first things we identified was how important it was going to be to get our arms around the feedstock question,&rdquo; Gebolys says, noting that the data was conservatively generated by design. For example, the group considered feedstocks that either have approved pathways or are currently under review by EPA, including taking into account gross domestic product growth and other ancillary factors, such as global supply and demand. Gebolys says the group intends to generate data on an annualized basis for its volumetric recommendations to EPA.
 &ldquo;Overreaching is probably the worst thing that we can do as a working group [rather] than erring on the side of caution,&rdquo; Gebolys says. &ldquo;The models indicate you can get to a robust industry twice the current size or more within current levels of global feedstock without dramatic supply disruption. We&rsquo;re in a good position going forward.&rdquo;
 An important aspect from within the modeling work Gebolys pointed out was that while traditional virgin oils such as soybean and canola oils, and waste oils such as used cooking oils and yellow greases, will continue to be predominantly used by biodiesel producers, they will all inevitably substitute each other in some form or another when a demand response is signaled. In other words, for example, if an insufficient supply of yellow grease is identified, palm fatty acid distillate will respond to the supply shortage and vice versa.
 &ldquo;You&rsquo;re going to have the classic supply curve and the products that exist farthest left of that supply curve are going to be the lowest cost and are going to be the ones that get taken off the market the earliest,&rdquo; Gebolys says, &ldquo;and you&rsquo;re going to continue to move out that curve with greater demand until you&rsquo;re into the higher value oils. As that&rsquo;s happening, there&rsquo;s greater economic incentive for substitution and the like.&rdquo;
 Although opportunities exist for a variety of feedstocks, the group primarily focused on fats and oil sources that are either currently commercially available or that have historically been utilized for production. For example, the model didn&rsquo;t include what the group deemed to be &ldquo;experimental technologies&rdquo; such as algae-to-biofuel processes.
 &ldquo;While we discussed algae a lot, we thought that there is a reasonable likelihood that it will be an important part of the picture in the future,&rdquo; Gebolys says. &ldquo;It is not part of the present and therefore it&rsquo;s really hard to model it in because it&rsquo;s not commercially viable today.&rdquo; Additionally, camelina and jatropha were not included in their modeling in any meaningful way, Gebolys says.
 Corn Oil Advancements 
 Among the most promising feedstock currently in use today, one that&rsquo;s factored into the working group&rsquo;s econometric assessment, is corn oil extracted from the backend of ethanol plants, thanks to improvements in extraction technology over the past several years. In fact, corn oil becomes relevant to the group&rsquo;s projections around 2013 and it continues to become more relevant as greater technology adoption increases throughout the ethanol industry. By 2015, the group estimates the feedstock will provide an even more meaningful contribution to the biodiesel industry.
 According to Alan Weber, partner at Marc-IV Consulting and lead economic advisor to the committee, the group assumed that about 30 percent of the dry-grind ethanol plants incorporated corn oil extraction technology from DDGS in 2011. By 2016, the group model determined that half of all ethanol plants are assumed to be extracting oil from DDGS and by the end of its 10-year horizon, nearly 70 percent of all ethanol plants will have this capability.
 &ldquo;I think those assumptions are going to be proven true and probably even quicker,&rdquo; Weber says. &ldquo;Most industry discussions have indicated that within the next couple years, at least half of the ethanol plants will probably have installed capacity.&rdquo;
 &nbsp;How much corn oil yield could potentially come from an existing bushel of No. 2 yellow dent corn used in ethanol production? According to Weber, the group assumed that corn oil yields from de-oiled DDGS per bushel of corn processed will increase from 0.5 pounds in 2010 to 0.6 pounds by 2015 and one pound by 2020.
 &ldquo;Even moving up to one pound is probably only, at most, two-thirds the oil potential in that bushel of corn,&rdquo; Weber says. &ldquo;A lot of this also comes down to market dynamics of what the value of the oil is versus its value as a feed ingredient in DDGS, the region where the ethanol plant is located and what the markets are for the DDGS in that region, because the type of livestock can impact how much protein and fat is desired.&rdquo;
 Weber notes that if the biodiesel industry were to pull 0.6 pounds of corn oil from de-oiled DDGS and every dry-grind ethanol plant in the U.S. were to install corn oil extraction technology, &ldquo;we&rsquo;re talking 370 to 375 million gallons worth of corn oil potential,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If we move up to removing one pound per bushel, that&rsquo;s more than 600 million gallons of inedible corn oil that could be utilized if all of the dry-grind ethanol facilities were removing corn oil from DDGS.&rdquo; Dedicated Oil Crops
As it&rsquo;s being considered now, camelina appears to be a promising dedicated oilseed or rotational cover crop that, at least in trial plots, has shown it can viably fit into wheat rotations in the Pacific Northwest, Weber says, with potential applicability in other regions as well.
 &ldquo;If you look at a three-year rotation, for example, and that three-year rotation historically was wheat-fallow-wheat, the concept is to insert camelina into that rotation without impacting those other two crops,&rdquo; Weber says. &ldquo;And maybe even more likely, it&rsquo;s a four-year rotation, wheat-fallow-wheat-fallow, but you can have one additional crop of camelina. This rotation has the advantage of creating additional amounts of oil for biodiesel production.&rdquo;
 A heavy amount of research is currently underway into effectively capturing a maximum amount of oil without impacting edible markets. Weber notes that if camelina were to yield approximately 1,500 pounds of oil per acre and, assuming the oil is crushed in a mechanical expeller versus solvent extraction, &ldquo;you&rsquo;re probably talking about 55 to 60 gallons of oil per acre,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If you add a couple million acres added into the rotations in the Pacific Northwest, this would be about 120 million gallons worth of biodiesel potential.&rdquo;
 Weber says he&rsquo;s aware of some elite lines of camelina breeds that are yielding 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of oil per acre in test results, but he emphasizes that while those yields are exceptional, one must take into account what the average yield would be from a farm application standpoint.
 &ldquo;When you think about the number of acres of wheat that are grown in [the Pacific Northwest], 2 to 4 million acres of camelina would be possible if it made sense economically for the growers,&rdquo; Weber says.
 Pennycress is another dedicated cover crop that has garnered interest as a biodiesel feedstock. While a significant amount of research is underway, the challenge, according to Weber, lies in being able to move pennycress into a rotation with soybeans that doesn&rsquo;t cause yield drag on the soybean crop following the harvest of pennycress. In either case, he says the potential of pennycress providing a meaningful contribution to the biodiesel industry is enormous.
 If the state of Illinois has 8 to 9 million acres of soybeans in rotation with corn, then Weber says there&rsquo;s good potential for pennycress. &ldquo;If half the farmers in Illinois adopted this in their rotation,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;that&rsquo;s 4.5 million acres and even at [pennycress] yields of 1,500 pounds per acre, that&rsquo;s more than 250 million gallons worth of oil for biodiesel production.&rdquo; Author: Bryan Sims Associate Editor, Biodiesel Magazine (701) 738-4974 <a href="mailto:bsims@bbiinternational.com">bsims@bbiinternational.com</a>

MORE FOR LESS: IHS Global Insight, contracted by NBB to conduct econometric feedstock modeling, indicates that it's possible to reach 3.3 billion gallons of biodiesel by 2022, a 2.5 billion gallon increase from last year. Soybeans, above, will repres

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FEEDSTOCK DIVERSITY: While soy oil will continue being used by U.S. producers, corn and palm oil along with low-grade wastes will make meaningful contributions to the overall feedstock mix. 

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SUBBING: World Energy CEO Gene Gebolys says shortfalls in one feedstock will be substituted by surpluses in others. 

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COVER UP: Alan Weber, Marc-IV Consulting partner, says rotational or winter cover crops like camelina or pennycress should provide additional oils for the industry. 

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Is there sufficient supply of feedstock to support the build-out of a 6 billion gallon biodiesel industry over the next decade?

Keeping Pace

For residents in the Northeast, winter is expected to be slightly colder than normal, on average, with below-normal precipitation and near-normal snowfall. In fact, according to the Old Farmer&rsquo;s Almanac, November 2011-October 2012 Long-Range Weather Forecast for the Northeast, the coldest periods are expected to occur in late January, February and mid-March, with the snowiest periods expected in mid- to late January through late February.
 But irrespective of what the colder temperatures might bring, one thing is certain: Northeasterners will be cozying up to heat that primarily comes in one of two forms&mdash;heating oil or natural gas&mdash;and the competition behind the scenes between the companies supplying those fuels seems to have reached a fever pitch. With aggressive marketing campaigns unveiled over the past year by each industry proclaiming their advantages over the other, one might ask: which fuel is the more clean-burning, efficient and cost-competitive fuel source to heat my home or business? Let&rsquo;s look at the facts.
 Currently, when it comes to rates, it would be hard to ignore the favorable price advantage natural gas has over its competitor. According to the Energy Information Administration&rsquo;s Winter Fuels Outlook released in October, the EIA predicts that the average price for heating oil in the Northeast this winter (October 2011 through March 2012) may be the highest ever, nearly $27 per MMBtu ($3.71 per gallon), up from $3.38 per gallon the previous year, or more than double the projected average cost of natural gas ($12.93 per MMBtu).
 Because diesel futures aren&rsquo;t traded on world commodities markets, heating oil is often traded as a proxy, therefore the two products are closely linked and to a large extent subject to the volatile price swings of a barrel of crude oil, an aspect that has been the curse of the oilheat industry for nearly half a century, says John Huber, president of the Northeast Oilheat Research Alliance.
 &ldquo;We are essentially a price taker in that market,&rdquo; Huber tells Biodiesel Magazine. &ldquo;On the other hand, natural gas is a domestic product because it&rsquo;s not priced internationally to the extent that the price of heating oil is tied to the price of a barrel of oil.&rdquo;
 Despite the price disparity natural gas enjoys, oil heat industry proponents contend that, historically, this wasn&rsquo;t always the case. In fact, at one point, oilheat enjoyed a significant price advantage over natural gas 20 out of the last 25 years up until 2008 when the price of oil spiked to nearly $150 per barrel. But the price hasn&rsquo;t stabilized since, says Michael Devine, CEO of Earth Energy Alliance, a Mass.-based organization that assists fuel oil marketers in rebranding their corporate image and increasing their current customer base through the marketing of Bioheat.
 &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t lose [customer] base because somebody wakes up and has done the math on the difference between natural gas and heating oil,&rdquo; Devine says. &ldquo;One of the things that always kind of hurt the oilheat industry from a marketing standpoint was its economies of scale. What I mean by that is, for better or worse, natural gas is a utility that doesn&rsquo;t have multiple competitions within its own space. Heating oil, on the other hand, has traditionally and still is marketed through independent family-owned entities so it&rsquo;s always a bit challenging to get all the independent companies on the same message.&rdquo;
 Bioheat&rsquo;s Edge on GHG Reduction
 The message that&rsquo;s clear to all oilheat dealers and that it continues to educate its current and potential customers on are the quantitative environmental advantages Bioheat holds over natural gas. Contrary to its name, the term &ldquo;natural gas&rdquo; is a misnomer. Natural gas is a fossil fuel and, its primary ingredient, methane, is one of the world&rsquo;s worst and most potent greenhouse gases. Coupled with questionable underground extraction and drilling methods such as hydrofracking in the Marcellus Shale region, increased imports and transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Gulf to the Northeast, gas leaks from underground pipes, contamination in drinking water and the likelihood of explosions, oilheat holds a distinct advantage.
 Launched in 2006 as the trade name given to a blend of heating oil containing between 2 and 5 percent biodiesel under the heating oil specification ASTM D396, Bioheat was the oilheat industry&rsquo;s answer to providing a domestic fuel to lower emissions. And, according to Devine, the renewable component is &ldquo;changing the paradigm&rdquo; today when it comes to having an equal, if not better, environmental profile than natural gas.
 &ldquo;Would I be bullish in oilheat if it were not for biodiesel? Absolutely not,&rdquo; Devine says, &ldquo;but biodiesel provides a lot of what oilheat was lacking for so many years and I see there&rsquo;s an opportunity with what&rsquo;s happening in these industries for a resurgence because we still have over 300 dealers in the Northeast and we&rsquo;re still distributing close to 8 billion gallons, most of it in the Northeast, and the infrastructure is there.&rdquo;
 One of the things that makes the oilheat industry unique is its voluntary effort to continually strive to improve the environmental profile of the fuel. In 2010, NORA, in partnership with the National Biodiesel Board, formed a Bioheat Steering Committee to evaluate how to get approval for higher biodiesel blends in oilheat, with the ultimate goal of reaching 20 percent. In 2010, Huber says one of the investigations involved a study that successfully compared a ULSD/biodiesel blend with 12 percent biodiesel fired in a high-efficiency, noncondensing, oil burner and a natural gas condensing boiler. The study, according to Huber, determined that the B12 blend delivered equal, if not lower, annual CO2 emissions than a natural gas condensing boiler.
 &ldquo;When we did the research we asked, if you look at the global warming potential of oilheat versus natural gas, at what level of Bioheat and biodiesel blends with ULSD do natural gas and heating oil become equivalent for greenhouse gas emissions?&rdquo; Huber says. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s where the 12 percent comes in. When we say we&rsquo;re at 12 percent, we&rsquo;re equivalent to natural gas from a greenhouse gas standpoint; anything above that we&rsquo;re better.&rdquo;
 According to Michael Ferrante, president of the Massachusetts Oilheat Council, Bioheat continues to be oilheat&rsquo;s hallmark in a counterstrike campaign against aggressive marketing attacks from natural gas utility companies. Ferrante says his state is at the epicenter of an aggressive gas utility campaign from United Kingdom-based National Grid, which owns four different natural gas utilities in the state. Formerly KeySpan Energy Delivery, National Grid serves more than 8,000 residential customers and thousands of commercial customers.
 To illustrate the point, Ferrante played a sound byte from a radio ad from National Grid during Biodiesel Magazine&rsquo;s Bioheat Northeast event held in Pittsburgh in October. The commercial, he says, was cleverly worded to &ldquo;confuse&rdquo; listeners into thinking oilheat is &ldquo;dirty&rdquo; and &ldquo;expensive.&rdquo; The unfortunate part about the commercial, Ferrante says, &ldquo;is that most of it is true,&rdquo; he says. While his oilheat members may not have the robust marketing budget of National Grid, which spent roughly $700,000 on the radio commercial spot reaching roughly 1 million homeowners, MOHC is working with the American Energy Coalition on a radio spot to promote oilheat and the benefits of using Bioheat.
 The NBB also launched a Bioheat workshop held at Citi Field in New York City this fall to empower oilheat customers who want a better, cleaner fuel. Also, on Oct. 24, Bioheat ads blanketed city buses and subway systems. Radio commercial spots also began airing on six highly rated CBS stations. Additionally, dealers at the workshop were the first in the nation to receive the &ldquo;Bioheat marketing playbook,&rdquo; which offers a comprehensive breakdown of the definition, production, advantages, benefits and market overview of Bioheat, as well as a sales and marketing strategy for registered Bioheat dealers.
 &nbsp;&ldquo;Natural gas utilities have done a good job at spinning this tale,&rdquo; Ferrante says. &ldquo;Even if we did have a price advantage, we still have to burnish our image and we still have to send that Bioheat message out contained within that message. There&rsquo;s only a couple of ways to clean our fuel and that is blend it with biodiesel and use an ultra-low sulfur diesel blendstock as the base product. I think once we do that with biodiesel, we have an incredible story to tell, but it gets lost when you have to battle the natural gas utilities.&rdquo;
 Customer Service: Core Strength
 Although the heating oil business might be considered old-fashioned, one of the oilheat industry&rsquo;s core strengths lies in the exceptional customer service delivered with its product. This is something that clearly trumps price disparity, according to Danny Falcone, regional wholesale manager for Ultra Green Energy Services LLC.
 &ldquo;The exuberance of a good price never outlasts the bad taste of poor service,&rdquo; he says. Falcone adds that the level of trust between dealer and customer is a unique characteristic that natural gas is without. In fact, some relationships are multigenerational. Falcone says oilheat providers like UGES across the country typically have keys to homes for deliveries in case homeowners aren&rsquo;t home, which speaks volumes about the valued intimate relationships an oilheat dealer has with its customers.&nbsp; &ldquo;I probably have 200 house keys in my possession for deliveries,&rdquo; Falcone says.
 The personal touch that comes from the oilheat industry likely never comes through more than in a time of crisis, according to Ferrante, such as when Hurricane Irene swept inland over the Northeast last year and caused many to lose heat and power. Ferrante says that oilheat providers were able to restore heat to thousands of homes where natural gas utilities couldn&rsquo;t.
 &ldquo;I think the utilities showed that during a time of real need they&rsquo;re not equipped to handle the service needs,&rdquo; Ferrante says. &ldquo;Our service is another thing&mdash;we want to be able to tell customers that if you&rsquo;re looking at natural gas, you better be keenly aware that they&rsquo;re not as nimble or don&rsquo;t have a service-driven approach like we do. That means a lot to people in this day and age. We have to capitalize on our skill set and that&rsquo;s one of them.&rdquo;
 Another customer service advantage, Devine explains, are the flexible payment options that oilheat providers offer to their customers. For example, customers have the choice to pay by credit card, do direct billing or pay a fixed price.&nbsp;
 &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a much more customer-friendly environment than doing business with a natural gas utility,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;When you call an oilheat provider oftentimes you&rsquo;re going to have someone pick up the phone on the other end and they may know your name and you may know theirs. That&rsquo;s never going to happen with a utility. I think we&rsquo;re starting to move into a time now where that&rsquo;s becoming less palatable, particularly in times of crises due to natural disasters.&rdquo; Author: Bryan Sims Associate Editor, Biodiesel Magazine (701) 738-4974 <a href="mailto:bsims@bbiinternational.com">bsims@bbiinternational.com</a>

BLANKET CAMPAIGN: A Bioheat marketing effort on New York City buses and subways was enacted in October. 


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PR SPIN: Massachusetts Oilheat Council President Michael Ferrante says despite smear campaigns by large natural gas utilities, Bioheat delivers clear benefits. 

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Winter heating fuel prices diverge in the Northeast; heating oil price is up 10 percent over last winter

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POSITIVE PROPONENT: Michael Devine, Earth Energy Alliance CEO, says GHG reduction and customer service give Bioheat an edge over natural gas. 

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Can oilheat compete with natural gas in the Northeast? 

Oilheat's War of Attrition

With biodiesel hitting a new production record of 823 million gallons through October and expected to reach 1.28 billion by 2013, more biodiesel will ultimately be blended into our diesel fuel. This boom in production has opened the doors to a number of potential biodiesel feedstock sources from algae and jatropha to grease from food production or municipal waste.&nbsp;
 More blends mean an increased need to measure the ratio of biodiesel in petro diesel. Infrared technology, used in both the European EN14078 and the ASTM D7371 methods, offers a quick and easy way to make the measurement.
 Biodiesel Feedstocks and Measurement Accuracy: A common concern of individuals measuring the percent of biodiesel in diesel is if different feedstock will affect the blend analysis. Knowing more about how mid-infrared analysis detects biodiesel and the chemical structure of the feedstock oils will help show that infrared is a convenient and accurate tool for blend determination.
 How Does Infrared Measure Biodiesel Content? Fortunately for manufacturers of infrared instrumentation, biodiesel has a unique signature from diesel in the infrared range of the spectrum at the carbonyl band (5.73 micrometers or 1745cm-1). Carbonyl infrared absorbance is due to the stretching vibration of the carbon-oxygen double bond (C=O). At this infrared wavelength specific to biodiesel, the intensity of the absorbance increases as the concentration of biodiesel increases (see Figure 1). Calibration standards of different biodiesel blends are used to correlate the infrared absorbance to a percent concentration. In general, the wavelength and intensity of a carbonyl absorption will be affected by the mass and nature of the atoms attached to the C=O group.&nbsp;
 What Effect Does the Feedstock Have on Finished Biodiesel? The primary difference between the fatty acid esters in oils from various feedstocks is the length of the hydrocarbon chains and the number and position of the C=C bonds (carbon-carbon double bond).&nbsp; Most feedstocks such as soy, canola and yellow grease (or waste vegetable oil, WVO) have chain lengths between C16 and C22 with C18 predominating. The chain lengths and their position affect cold flow properties such as the cold filter plugging point and cloud point.
 How Do the Differences in Feedstock Affect Infrared Measurements? As mentioned above, the wavelength and intensity of a carbonyl absorption will generally be affected by the mass and nature of the atoms attached to the C=O group. Table 1 shows that the average molecular weight (mass) for five different feedstock oils is very similar for all except one. Different chain length means that the chains have different masses. These aliphatic chains, however, are quite flexible so that a few carbon atoms more or less at the end far removed from the carbonyl group will have no significant affect on the infrared absorption. When C=C bonds are present (unsaturated oils) they are found near the center of the chain, i.e., far removed from the carbonyl group, so they too have little effect on the carbonyl absorption.
 How Does This Translate to the Primary Concern of Whether Your Biodiesel Blend Measurements Will Be Accurate? Table 1 shows the results from a B20 blend with five different feedstocks measured with a Wilks InfraCal Biodiesel Blend Analyzer. As indicated in the B20 column, most of the feedstocks are measured quite easily by infrared analysis with the exception of coconut oil.
 The third column of the table shows the average molecular weight of the fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). Notice that the coconut oil is significantly different from the other oils with a molecular weight of 180. According to the molecular weight, the coconut-based FAME should give a response of about 26.1 percent. Any infrared analyzer can be calibrated specifically for a coconut oil so the concentration measurement will be correct in spite of the molecular weight difference. Conveniently, the biodiesel made from coconut oil does not perform well in cold or temperate climates so its use is restricted to more tropical parts of the world.
 While the development of new nonfood crops as well using oils from meat packing plants or municipal and industrial wastes as feedstock is perpetually in the news, none have yet made a significant inroad into the marketplace. As these new feedstocks enter large-scale production, keeping an eye on the average molecular weight will help determine if the infrared blend results will be in line with traditional feedstocks or if the calibration needs to be updated to obtain accurate measurements.
 Since mid-infrared measurements are compatible for a majority of the biodiesel feedstocks, it is a simple and reliable analytical technique for checking biodiesel blend.&nbsp; The technology lends itself to compact and easy-to-use analyzers that enable petroleum terminals, fuel distributors, fleet operators and regulatory agencies to make quick, on-site or laboratory measurements with little or no technical training. Author: Sandra Rintoul President, Wilks Enterprise Inc. (831) 338-7439 <a href="mailto:Srintoul@WilksIR.com">Srintoul@WilksIR.com</a>

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Figure 1: IR Spectra from a Wilks InfraSpec VFA-IR Spectrometer of different biodiesel concentrations

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IR can be a simple, effective way to measure biodiesel blend 
ratios from a variety of feedstocks

January/February 2012

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Feedstock Flexibility: Key to Future Profitability?

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A Critical Component

Keeping Pace

Oilheat's War of Attrition

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The Effect of Feedstocks on InfraRed Blend Measurements

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Business Briefs

Business Briefs

Columns

GROWTH & LIMITATIONS

Feedstock Flexibility: Key to Future Profitability?

Featured

A Critical Component

Keeping Pace

Oilheat's War of Attrition

Contributions

The Effect of Feedstocks on InfraRed Blend Measurements

January/February 2012