Beginning last year at this time, I was making diesel fuel from waste vegetable oils in Kalispell. The valley currently generates at least 50,000 gallons of this fuel source every month. The two main competitors for this waste stream are: Baker Commodities Inc. (out of LA via Spokane) and L&M (out of Arlee, that's 93 on the way to Missoula). Right now it is being used as pig and cattle feed! Both of these companies are charging around $30/month/business that they service. Restaurant owners are only too happy to NOT have to pay for this disposal. However, I would suggest a $5.15/pickup fee considering the costs of a person's time, and the cost of fuel.

Yes, it is true that with special fuel systems a diesel vehicle can run on Straight Vegetable Oil's (SVO, often mistakenly misnomered as bio-diesel). However, this is only after starting and warming-up on petro-diesel, with the additional requirement that you must ALWAYS cool-down the engine on petro-diesel as well. OR ELSE you’re looking at clogged injectors, sludge in your engine (glycerin and unburnt mono-, di-, and tri-glycerides) OR WORSE yet, a failing injector pump (which incidentally is the best way to screw up a diesel engine really badly). If a person forgets to cool down on petro-diesel, they might as well buy a new rig, because that's about how much it will cost to fix, I am told! These fuel-switching modifications are available from C.J. Kelley of SVODFS out of Missoula, he advertises in the 4x4 truck section of the Missoula Independent. He might make $100-$200 per conversion for a final cost of around $1000+ if you wanted a larger heated oil tank. To do it yourself, I am told that you're looking at $850, assuming you know where to buy all the correct and most affordable parts. The next $K I get will go to CJ to outfit my truck with this capability!

However, when a chemist talks about biodiesel, they are referring to the esters produced from the chemical reaction of vegetable oils with heat and anhydrous caustic (potash or lye), in the presence of a stoichiometric amount of alcohol (EtOH or MeOH). The ratio is 3 alcohols for every triglyceride. Water is the best way to screw up this (esterification) reaction, so you can forget all those waste oil drums that the cooks have conveniently left the lids off in the rain. You will spend too much money on electricity heating the water out of the oil. A solar convection-flow apparatus should work fairly well in the summer, without breaking your checkbook and putting you in the red. Anybody out there: PLEASE build a full scale prototype and contact me soon!

Now after giving you the fundamentals, I will go on to discuss the economics of production from used oils in greater detail. It is my contention that until people see an economic benefit to using methyl- or ethyl-fatty acid esters (biodiesel), at least here in Montana where we earn something like only 80% the national average per capita (money is tight, and that is a gross understatement), they will not consider potentially f@*!ing their rig just for environmental benefits. Fortunately, I hope, for potential investor(s) who are learned, used oil IS the ONLY way to make biodiesel competitive with petroleum diesel.

As you may realize, the US does not currently have people rioting in the streets because they cannot afford to buy food. This is because of farm subsidies, and the US government buying-up excess commodities, and using them for government food programs. Basically, they know that FAT people will make poor revolutionaries (what are they going to do, sit on you?). Unfortunately, this is a double edged sword since it is why NEW vegetable oils are hovering above $2.30 and higher per gallon. So, if I told you that the supplies to make biodiesel (exempting the oil itself and your time & machinery) were $0.50-$1, AND you not being a rocket scientist would calculate that the resulting fuel would cost above $2.80-$3.30/gallon. Fortunately for us, the national soybean board has effectively lobbied for the tax credit to $1/gallon (when the biodiesel is straight, 100%, before mixing with petro-diesel). Now you non-rocket scientists can calculate that we-re back to $1.80-$2.30/gallon, that's more like it, right? WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!! You could NOT be more wrong! You are assuming a static price structure. You must be mindful of the scale of commodities we are talking about and the dynamics of the marketplace. If there is a huge demand increase on say, fresh virgin soybean oil for biodiesel, while demand for cooking oils will grow with the population/economy on a whole, then the price of soybean oil goes up and so do your final fuel costs, and probably your cooking oil as well!

Okay, the one-or-two of you who are still with me deserve a smoke break at this point ;-) OR, if you are against lung cancer step outside and enjoy a nice breath of fresh air (unless you are in the Flathead, Cabinet, or Bitterroot valley's currently under a temperature inversion) in which case the air will not be as clean as anywhere on the plains east of the mountains!

But you are aspiring non-rocket scientists and expect yourself to persevere for the end result of benefiting from the knowledge which I am about to impart (note my optimism that there is more than one of you out there).

The methyl-esters (biodiesel) produced from chemical reactions of new oil are best. Why then did I state earlier that "for potential investor(s) who are learned, used oil IS the ONLY way to make biodiesel competitive with petroleum diesel", aside form it being a true statement in-and-of itself? Restaurant owners already pay $360/year to have their 'waste' oil taken away. They will gladly give you $5.15/pickup and if they let water and other garbage in it drop them like a bad habit and let them go back to paying $30/month! The formula for success IS that simple, provided your company is not staffed with shiftless deadbeats! You're the aspiring non-rocket scientist, YOU do the math. Fifty cents to one dollar/gallon in materials, minus however much you are being paid to pick up the oil, plus your costs for the physical plant and labor. You can subtract another fifty cents/gallon (again assuming B100) for used oil recycling tax credit (and thank the soybean board for that) if you'd like. I'll give you the answer; you can sell fuel for less than $2.44 (and rising)!

Chemists will distinguish between the reactions of virgin oils versus used oil mixtures for the purposes of making highly pure methyl- and ethyl- esters which will meet ASTM D6751-03a. First of all the new oil reactions are much more reproducible, because your starting material is much less heterogeneous (and more importantly reproducibly heterogeneous), although fundamentally, mixtures (as are the used starting materials) nonetheless. The virgin oils are triglycerides of several different molecular weights depending on species, cultivar, regional growth conditions and the harvesting/extraction/purification process involved. To the extent that all of those factors stay the same, your biodiesel esterification reaction will require the same equivalents of water-free caustic and cost the same every time.

Now to compare this to the case of use oils. I'll first trust that because you have read this far you know that used oils which contain water are an unacceptable waste of your time and money, until the water has been removed using heat. That being stated (twice, to eliminate any misunderstanding) used oils contain all the inherent heterogeneities of the virgin oils from which they are derived PLUS additional breakdown products as a result of the heating/cooling cycles accompanying deep frying. In addition, used oils can contain oils from different crops (ex: corn+soybean, soy+canola, corn+canola, soy+canola+corn, etc.). I hope you can appreciate the mixtures that are possible. Specifically, mono-, di-, and tri-glycerides exist in these mixtures as a result of the frying. What this means for the bottom line is that each and every batch of an esterification reaction starting from used oils will be different, and therefore the costs of production will vary along with the quality of the starting material. The chemist is compelled to do a titration on the starting oil before the reaction to determine the amounts of anhydrous caustic to use. Clearly, the titration step consumes time (labor costs) as well. However, these costs are more than compensated for by getting paid to pick up the used oil, versus paying upwards of $2.30/gallon for your starting material.

There are only a handful of oil crops with price structures and economies that are NOT artificially inflated thanks to our government and the farm lobby. Unless you can start with virgin oil for less than $1.30/gallon, there is no way for the resultant fuel to be competitive with petro-diesel after adding $1 or more per gallon for your production costs. Supposedly, buying bulk Canola oil from Canada is an option for those with deep pockets (we're talking about railcars with tens of thousands of gallons). And you will be at the mercy of the same volatilities of global (or at least north american) pricing supply and demand from year to year NAFTA/free trade of the America’s or not!

I suggest growing your own Camelina. Never heard of it? Probably for the same reasons you haven't heard of David Thompson. Who? Exactly my point. But you've heard of Thompson Falls, right? Currently camelina can be grown without the need for irrigation, if sown early enough in the season to take advantage of the snow moisture (in Montana we're talking about 5-10 inches of precipitation per year being adequate). Camelina is not currently a food crop that there is a high demand for (can you say, "goodbye: inflated artificial prices?") The MSU Ag. extension in Creston, MT is working with Camelina.