http://www.ecori.org/renewable-energy/2013/5/9/newport-biodiesel-takes-ri-back-to-the-future.html
Newport Biodiesel Takes R.I. Back to the Future
By KYLE HENCE/ecoRI News contributor
[image in on-line article]
NEWPORT — Newport Biodiesel takes us back to the future. The very first
diesel engines built by Rudolf Diesel in 1893 were designed to burn
vegetable oil. Today, through a simple chemical process that uses small
amounts of lye and methane, waste oil from deep fryers across eastern
Connecticut, Rhode Island and western Massachusetts is transformed into
what company chairman Bob Morton called “the best fuel on the planet.”
Newport Biodiesel, a for-profit renewable energy company created in
2008, was the primary focus of an all-day conference May 3 organized by
Wendy Lucht, the URI-based coordinator of the Ocean State Clean Cities
Coalition, a coalition within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean
Cities Program.
“The idea is to talk about sustainability in the big picture and how
biodiesel fits in,” Morton said.
The event began with tours of the company’s production facility and
office off Connell Highway and then moved to Ochre Court at Salve
University, where participants heard from a number of speakers,
including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Marion Gold, director of
the state Office of Energy Resources.
The company’s business model is built entirely around recycling waste
vegetable oil from restaurants and cafeterias, more than 1,500 of them,
and turning that oil into a fuel for car, trucks and ships and into
heating oil for furnaces. Three tanker trucks specially equipped with
vacuums visit 18-20 restaurants daily to collect 1,200 gallons each of
used vegetable oil, according to Chris Benzak, managing partner and
designated tour guide.
The unprocessed oil is then heated in a series of tanks to remove all
water and moisture. What Benzak and his crew euphemistically call
“schmutz” also is removed and sent to an anaerobic digester in Maine,
where this “waste” product becomes food for microorganisms that produce
methane that powers electric generators connected to the grid.
“We are a zero-waste facility,” said Benzak, who noted that he would
prefer to see the schmutz used in a Rhode Island digester closer to
their processing facility. “We want to keep the loop as a close as
possible.”
Glycerine, another byproduct removed from vegetable oil during
processing, is sold for use in soap.
Prior to distributing their biofuel, Newport Biodiesel thoroughly tests
the product for quality. Only then is the 100 percent biodiesel blended
with petroleum-based diesel to form four primary blends: B99 (99 percent
biodiesel), B50 (50 percent biodiesel), B20 (20 percent biodiesel) and
B5 (5 percent biodiesel).
Most of biodiesel produced by the company is sold as B20 “winter blend,”
according to Jim Malloy of T.H. Malloy & Sons, a Cumberland-based home
heating oil distribution company that delivers the fuel to tanks across
the region.
There are a range of benefits to using biodiesel aside from supporting a
small local business, according to Malloy, whose company has switched
more than 4,000 customers to a biodiesel blend.
He said there is a decrease in maintenance with such a switch. “Instead
of a servicing every year we are now doing it every two years,” Malloy said.
There also are environmental benefits. Use of biodiesel in place of
diesel results in an 86 percent reduction in greenhouse gases, according
to Morton. In addition, there is no ultra-fine or fine-particulate
matter produced by burning biodiesel, both of which can cause heart and
lung problems. Also, as a result of “super-high lubricity,” trucks run
quieter and there is “no more black smoke.”
One conference attendee related a story from Keene State College in New
Hampshire. After a summer of using 100 percent biodiesel in the
college’s fleet of maintenance vehicles, employees had reported less
headaches and threatened a wholesale revolt if the college reverted to
petroleum-based fuels.
Room for growth
There is considerable room for biodiesel growth. Three keys to continued
growth were cited by Morton: a similar price point to diesel; an
adequate source of waste vegetable oil); and the stability of government
support.
Some 20 million gallons of home heating oil are used in New England
annually, according to Morton. In Rhode Island, only 1 percent is
biodiesel. Growth into that market is only limited by the company’s
capacity to collect waste oil, Benzak said.
“Sustainability is profitability,” said Benzak, quoting Rhode Island’s
composting guru, Mike Merner of Earth Care Farm in Charlestown. “We
built this from the ground up ourselves. This was a concrete slab in 2007.”
Six years ago, Newport Biodiesel produced it’s first 200 gallons, when
founder Nat Harris decided to take the energy needs of his family into
his own hands. This year Newport Biodiesel, led by a group of six
owners, will be produce more than 80,000 gallons of fuel a month.
“We touch thousands of homes and businesses in Rhode Island every day,”
Benzak said.
Less green gases
Gold, who is crafting a comprehensive 25-year energy plan for Rhode
Island that is heavy on renewables, spoke about the growing pressure to
lower greenhouse gases. Biodiesel is part of the answer, she said.
That point was echoed by Morton.
“Climate change is the driving issue right now,” he said. “Fifty years
from now, people will ask why didn’t you tackle it? They won’t remember
the economy.”
For his part, Whitehouse spoke of the need for Congress to renew tax
credits for renewable fuel sources.
“Each year it’s a battle,” he said. “I have to threaten to stop the
Senate to get those credits.”
The senator called for a three-pronged strategy on climate change: ramp
up regulatory forces against polluters by levying fines on violators;
create a “green” super PAC to support election campaigns; and gather the
clans of unlikely allies who can work together stop the rise of
atmospheric carbon, including military and intelligence agencies,
insurance companies, corporations, the faith community, and fishing and
hunting groups.
These groups, he said, were like divisions on a battlefield, but without
field marshals and an allied command.
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