Bio Fuel Feasibility Report _ Walker Kehrer Page | 7
TomKat Ranch- Bio Fuel Feasibility Report
Background & Biodiesel Basics
Biodiesel is a diesel fuel made from vegetable oil, methanol, and a catalyst. It is the only alternative fuel that has passed all EPA clean air fuel requirements. Biodiesel is fully compatible with any diesel engine. It has been tested more thoroughly than any other alternative fuel. Biodiesel is safe to handle and is biodegradable. It is also less toxic than table salt. Best of all, Biodiesel can be made quite easily using recycled waste vegetable oil.
Key Benefits of Biodiesel
· Decrease Fuel Costs
· Increase Performance of Vehicles
· Significant reduction in lifecycle carbon emissions
· Reduced Dependency on Petroleum Diesel
· Increased Safety: Non-toxic; far less damage if spilled or released
· Additional detail on benefits on DOE’s Alternative Fuels Data Center website
Blends & Performance
In general biodiesel is not 100% free of petroleum and typically relies on a blending of the vegetable oil and petroleum diesel. The most commonly used biodiesel blend is B20. B20 is a blend that contains 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel. It is the most commonly used blend because it is a good balance of overall cost, emissions, cold weather performance, and materials compatibility. Other blends that are popular are B02, B05, B50, B99, and B100.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office, engines using B20 display similar horsepower, fuel consumption and torque as engines running on conventional diesel. In addition, biodiesel has a higher “cetane” number, which measures the ignition value of diesel fuel, and a greater ability to lubricate fuel pumps and fuel injectors. As a result, biodiesel combusts easier and actually lubricates fuel systems better.
Biofuel Case Studies
Pinnacle Farm and Phil Foster Ranches
Phil Foster at Pinnacle Farm and Phil Foster Ranches uses biodiesel in all of his trucks and tractors. This practice began in 2004 with the goal to lower fuel costs and lessen dependence on petroleum products. These operations do not produce their own biodiesel, instead they purchase it from Blue Sky in Oakland and store it in a 4500-gallon tank.
The first vehicle they converted was their then 13-year-old farm truck and after seeing favorable results they quickly converted all their farmers market trucks, box delivery trucks, and tractors. Impressively, even their older vehicles like a truck with 250,000 miles and a tractor with 8,000 hours have transitioned well to biodiesel and continue to perform consistently. Most of the trucks run on B50 or B99, and the tractors are fueled with B10, which entitles the ranch to certain tax breaks. (Details on California laws and tax incentives and federal incentives for biodiesel can be found in the additional resources section.)
One concern that was voiced by Phil Foster was that by not producing the fuel on their ranch, they are subject to market fluctuations in the price of the bio-diesel. While their system was cheaper to implement, in the long run the return on investment may be lower if fuel prices climb sharply.
Leavitt Lake Ranches
Leavitt Lake Ranches in Vina, CA raise grass-fed, grass-finished beef and are currently in the planning stages of implementing a biodiesel program on their ranch. Based on rough estimations they concluded that they would require a processing system that produces 32,000 gallons per year in order to fuel their vehicles and irrigation pumps. They are considering using oil seed, waste grease, or leftover animal fat as their unprocessed fuel source.
They will be purchasing their processing infrastructure from Springboard Biodiesel, a very well-known and respected leader in the marketplace known for their easy-to-use automated processors. Assuming that they can obtain their unprocessed fuel sources for free, Levitt Lake Ranch estimates that their total cost per gallon of biodiesel will be $0.95 and would pay for itself in just a few years.
A good resource for the feasibility of biodiesel here at TomKat Ranch, could be Arkansas State University researcher Kevin Humphrey, who has helped Leavitt determine whether it was worth it to make biodiesel on their ranch. No contact information was given.
Case Study Analysis and Takeaways
· One advantage of a biodiesel is that when you put one gallon of oil seed or waste grease in, you get about three gallons of biodiesel out. However, this benefit doesn't apply to Phil Foster since they don't actually make it themselves.
· Drawbacks to the Phil Foster program include: Need for a steady supply of biodiesel, cost is still an issue, NOx (Nitric Oxide and Nitrogen Dioxide, fuel filter servicing, less energy provided by the fuel, and warranty issues.
· There is no cost data provided in the Phil Foster example. However, it is unlikely there are costs other than what they are paying for the fuel itself.
Note: Many of the above drawbacks can be mitigated by producing biodiesel on TomKat Ranch itself. Cost data, return on investment and recommendations for TomKat Ranch are covered in the accompanying spreadsheet and discussion, also showing payback time for any size biodiesel processor. Recommendations will argue against a system of simply purchasing biodiesel – rather than producing it. A purchase system fails to mitigate cost factors, and the environmental benefits alone may not be enough to warrant adopting such a system.
Expected Environmental Benefits of Bio Fuels
There are many potential environmental benefits of switching from exclusive petroleum diesel use to biodiesel. The largest and simplest off-set comes during the bio-diesel creation stage. Unprocessed fuel resources, such as waste grease, that would have otherwise have been disposed of, can be repurposed to create biodiesel. Biodiesel not only reduces the burning of petroleum diesel, but is itself a cleaner burning fuel (see figure 1). Further, when considering any additional environmental costs, the processing of the biodiesel produces only a small surplus waste product (glycerin) that is very easy to dispose of safely or even use to create soaps and similar products.
Figure 1: Changes in GHG Emissions with Biodiesel Use
Paul Feather and The Collaborative Biodiesel Project
There are significant reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) when switching to a biodiesel system. The one exception to this comes with mono-nitrogen oxides (NOx). Unlike particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), and hydrocarbons (HC), which decrease dramatically with biodiesel use, NOx will continue to gently rise as the percentage of biodiesel is increased. Also there is much less ozone (smog) formation with biodiesel and also sulfur emissions are reduced to zero with biodiesel. So the one issue is NOx, but this can be combated by using NOx control technologies that can be used with conventional diesel because of the lack of sulfur in biodiesel. There are also additives that can be blended with biodiesel to reduce the NOx emissions. But even without using any of these technologies or additives it is still worth it to use biodiesel because the huge reductions in PM, CO, HC, and Ozone emissions outweighs the small increase in NOx emissions.
Benefits in Older Engines (pre-2010)
According to DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office, biodiesel blends offer additional emission reduction benefits in older (pre-2010) vehicles – particularly for particulate matter, carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons. The amount of the benefit depends on the engine’s age, emission control technology and how the vehicle is operated (how hard it is driven). In general, the oldest engines and technologies reap the biggest benefits from using biodiesel fuel.
Feasibility of Biofuels at TomKat Ranch
Potential for Vehicles at TomKat Ranch to Convert to Biodiesel
There are great many types of vehicles on TomKat Ranch that could be converted to use biodiesel at relatively low cost and only one vehicle is still under warranty (which can be voided by altering the fuel system). Tractors and trucks are the simplest to convert and are the most commonly converted types of vehicles on other farm and ranch operations using biodiesel. (See the attached table for more information and a complete vehicle inventory.)
Budget for Conversion of Vehicles
When we are discussing conversion of the vehicles what we must make clear is that there is actually no "conversion" necessary. All we must do is switch the fuel from diesel to biodiesel and start using that in our vehicles. This means that after the capital and chemicals are purchased there is no other money needed to convert the vehicles. We can just start pumping the biodiesel directly into our vehicles at whatever blend we choose and go.
Existing Infrastructure for Processing Biodiesel at TomKat Ranch
Currently, TomKat Ranch has little existing infrastructure that can be used to process biodiesel. Aside from some limited storage capacity that is available on site, basic equipment and supplies for processing the biodiesel will need to be purchased or otherwise acquired from elsewhere.
Budget for Processing Infrastructure
The processing equipment will be discussed at length later in this report but for now the main cost is going to be the processor, which is $7,350. That is really the only capital that is needed, besides possibly another fuel storage tank. The methanol is going to cost about $165 per 55 gallons, and about 20 gallons of methanol are used per batch of 100 gallons. KOH (catalyst) will cost about $65 per 50-pound bag and only a very small amount of that is used per batch. Sulfuric is about $33 per 2500 ml and only 150 ml are used per batch. After that the only remaining costs are electricity and water. About 25 kWh of electricity are needed per batch. For comparison a large window AC unit requires about 1.5 kWh. What this means for the processor is that it requires 521 watts for one hour of production.
Community Infrastructure and Resources
There are several informational and physical resources around biofuels from which TomKat Ranch can draw in the surrounding community.
Waste Grease Resources
The Pescadero Country Store, Tres Amigos, and Duarte’s all have significant and ongoing waste grease resources that are currently available and unspoken for. Any of these resources individually would be sufficient for producing the amount of biodiesel that TomKat Ranch would require. This is where we are really able to set an example by recycling this grease that would otherwise be disposed of. This way we are able to reuse a resource and in the process create a fuel that is environmentally friendly.
Information Resources
There do not appear to be any local experts who specifically work on or specialize in biodiesel processors. However, in terms of having someone local to consult with for finding experts, the Markegard Family would be a good option as they already use biodiesel in all of their vehicles and have done so for many years.
In terms of suppliers for the chemicals needed for biodiesel fuel production, there does not appear to be any single local source that has all of the necessary components to create and treat the after-products. The easiest and cheapest method would be to order supplies online from well-known suppliers such as DudaDiesel.com, which can provide everything TomKat needs and have it shipped directly to the ranch. The after-products should not be a worry because they are so minimal when looking at the big picture.
Recommendations and Implementation Schedule
Test and Learn: In the short-term – as a test or proof of concept – it is recommended that TomKat Ranch consider an initial step similar to Pinnacle Farms where TomKat would purchase biodiesel from a supplier and use it in select Ranch vehicles for a pre-determined time. This will allow the Ranch to monitor how its vehicles perform with this alternative fuel and determine if biodiesel is a good option for vehicle operation. Measuring emissions from such a small fleet sample would not likely create meaningful data, so this short-term option would be only to test and compare day-to-day vehicle operations with biodiesel vs. regular diesel.
Longer term Plan: If trial results prove positive, the plan should be for TomKat to produce its own biodiesel on the ranch to capture the environmental benefits as well as cost benefits. This would first require these steps:
· Securing a steady waste grease supply. As discussed previously, this could come from Cindy's, Duarte's or Highway 1 Brewery. Cindy’s has already indicated a willingness to partner with TomKat if the ranch chooses to implement a biodiesel initiative.
· Equipment and supply acquisition. A storage tank and biofuel processor are the two major capital purchases. TomKat should purchase and install an additional fuel storage tank. This would allow the ranch to continue producing biodiesel on a regular basis to ensure steady availability, much as the ranch currently does with regular diesel. The most important piece of machinery will be the processor, which should be purchased online from Springboard Biodiesel, which is believed to produce some of the best automated biodiesel processors on the market, and is manufactured in the U.S. The recommended processor is the BioPro 380, which has a capacity of 100 gallons per batch and 15,600 gallons per year. Production time of a batch is 48 hours so this should allow sufficient capacity to create enough fuel for all of TomKat’s vehicles/tractors. The cost of this machine is $14,995. Waste oil will be free, chemicals are cheap and filters are also cheap.
· Chemical, filters and drums for storing the waste oil can be bought from Duda Biodiesel or Utah Biodiesel Supply.
The above items cover the most significant needs to create a biodiesel production initiative. Waste products are another consideration. The two waste products are methanol and glycerin. Methanol is slightly toxic, but is only created in very small quantities. It will have to be transported away or distilled on or off-site. Glycerin can be turned into soap or just disposed of. Neither of these poses a significant obstacle.
Creating TomKat’s Own Turnkey Program