Like everyone else in community scale biodiesel, Piedmont is powering its plant with scraps of fat.We live on what we can collect, and on what we can buy that is affordable enough to turn into fuel. We can easily convert a 6.00 oil into a 3.75 fuel, but we have a hard time making any money doing it.
One of our scrap fat suppliers is a nutraceutical plant. They start with algae oil. And fish oil. And they put omega-3 fatty acids into little capsules which show up on the shelves of health food stores for lots of money. I’m guessing algae oil is worth about 500.00/gallon right now, which is why it has yet to arrive as a biodiesel feedstock.
We get lots of it. Whenever they are changing product runs they send about 4000 gallons of sunflower oil through their three inch lines as a purge.
We buy the dregs. It comes in with water, and sunflower oil, and the last few drums are completely solid. Fish oil. Algae oil. Solid goo.
For years we have been vacuuming out the drums, dewatering the material, and spinning the oil into fuel. And for years we have been setting the solids aside.
I’ve been working in “Production” for the last couple of months. One of the ways that I have been welcomed to the crew is the assignment of “solids.” Whenever someone has a mystery drum that cannot be converted into fuel it becomes my job.
I typically lop the top of the drum off with a trusty Sawzall and go to work. Fish goo liquefies at 110 degrees. We bought band heaters and an immersion heater and I have been turning it into a liquid and drizzling it into our plant.
It is fiendishly complex stuff from a material handling standpoint. When you dump it hot into our cold metal trough, it leaves a thin layer behind, which means the trough backs up every couple of weeks and needs to be shoveled out by hand. When you pump it directly into our 160 degree settling tank it clogs the hose when you are finished.
When siphoning it from one drum to another, to lighten the amount of fishy liquid in each steamy pour, a mouthful of goo will send you running for your toothbrush, generally with the dry heaves. And it behaves the same in your mouth as it does in pumps and pipes and troughs. At 98.5 it coats your entire mouth and makes it impossible to spit.
I was at the plant on Saturday, rendering my daily barrel when Ray stopped me to say there was a couple in the yard looking to buy fuel.
I went out to greet them in my oily steel toed boots and my hot goo splashed garments. As is frequently the case these days, I smelled like fish.
They were seminary students from South Carolina who were passing through in their VW Beetle TDI. They had just been to Larry’s Beans to load up on locally roasted coffee, saw our B100 dispenser and found their way to the plant.
We talked about fish fat, and sustainability, and as I filled greasy carboys in their trunk I asked, “When is the faith based community going to enter the fight against climate change?”
I decried the fact that whenever our community meets at a church to fight the impending landfill, the snacks are served on Styrofoam plates and aluminum cans go directly into the garbage.
“Have you guys made the shift from ‘dominion’ to ‘stewardship?’” I asked.
They were at a Lutheran Seminary, and they assured me that people of faith are “getting it” quickly. It was a delightful conversation. They were young. And engaged. And inspirational.
They paid their fuel bill and I happily trudged back to work. Striking up a conversation about religion with complete strangers was a nice break from shoveling fish fat.
Mind you, while I was filling them up, Ray found four more barrels of solids in the yard. He brought them to me on a forklift and said he would have tied a ribbon around them, if he had one long enough…
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