Moving Solids Around

About a month ago Rachel and I revisited the organization chart and inserted us into “Production.”For Rachel that means taking a divot out of her Research and Analytics work (translation:  enzymatic catalysis commercialization) in favor of feedstock acquisition, scheduling, personnel, process control-that sort of thing.

For me it is largely about moving “goo” around. And being a janitor.

Normally at Piedmont I spend my days with my feet on the desk taking naps and occasionally answering the phone.  But now that I am in “Production” I spend my time on forklifts, or with wrenches, or babysitting liquid moves.

One thing we have a lot of if solidified fish fat.  It’s mostly algae oil, but it smells like fish, and until it hits 110 degrees, it’s as solid as butter.

Ray suggested we buy a couple of barrel heaters, and that was a brilliant idea.  I snagged a corner of a hallway and cobbled together a “rendering plant” to liquefy those barrels of goo that refused to budge.

I think it is meaningful employment. It gets money out of the yard. I think of myself as an “industrial hygienist.”

And it is nasty work.  I smell like fish goo. My family has asked me to stop doing laundry at our house.  My uniforms are on order.

Tonight I got the call that it was my job to pick up Arlo from soccer.  I had one hour to get the tractor unloaded, move some liquefied fish goo into our settling tank, and get the heat cranked up for tomorrow’s batch.

At the same time, Xiaohu informed me that we passed our last terminal test.  So I jumped on the fuel truck, drained 1200 gallons from the terminal, filled up our Pittsboro location of the B100 Community Trail, and started to “fly.”

Earlier today I rendered about 20 gallons of solid fish goo.  It was in the bottom of  a plastic fifty five gallon drum.  One of the tricks of rendered fish goo is that you need to handle it hot.  When it cools down it is a solid again.

Normally when I am on the forklift with a pallet of hot fish fat I take it very slow.  The goal is to move the liquid into the feedstock trough without spilling.  It’s heavy, and hot, and dangerous, so I tend to be mindful of what I am doing.

But tonight I had soccer duty.  So I flew.  I didn’t think it would matter, since I was only transporting twenty gallons.

And that was a mistake.  I hit a bump in the driveway that somehow sent the fish goo into a wave which somehow became a volcano which proceeded to rain down on me, and the forklift, and the driveway.

There is nothing like a shower of hot fish fat to make you long for the comfort of the Control Room.  When I showed up at soccer I tried to keep my distance.  After all, I was soaked, and smelled like fish.  I retrieved Arlo without too much difficulty, and took him to Chatham Marketplace for a post game snack.

Josie was working the till-as she often does at quitting time.

“You smell bad,” is what she said.

I politely agreed, gathered up Arlo and our groceries and went home to wash the fish goo out of my beard.

The good news is that production is up.  Gabe and McCayrne are collecting an ever increasing amount of oil from our Partners in Sustainability.  Rachel’s feedstock acquisition efforts are paying off.  Ray and Jeremy are kicking it hard.  And I am drizzling in what I can–sort of helping out around the edges.

“Mystery” containers are vanishing from the yard.  Good oil is being converted into fuel while rotten oil is being burned in our boilers.

All of which is to say it is a good time to be at Piedmont right now.  And once the fish goo is rendered, and Production is spinning like a top I will be able to return to my afternoon naps…