Fwd from Biofuels:
>To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com
>From: "girl_mark_fire" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 18:19:47 -0000
>Subject: [biofuel] quality control, customer service, and big industry
>
>The thing I wonder about, is whether this quality control problem
>would have been even reported (or found) if Dr Dan's Alternative Fuel
>Works hadn't reported it or if individual enthusiasts hadn't put
>pressure on Industry to " 'fess up". (and as I said, it's not just
>World Energy that this happens to, I just found out about a similar
>recall happening with another company so don't take it personally,
>Graham)
>
>This brings up the issue of small,local, biodiesel-only businesses,
>versus large, central, faraway, petroleum of Big Agribusiness
>producers of BD, and the issue of "who's going to provide the
>consumer with better service?"
>
>
>In our area the Berkeley co-op and other local (reasonably
>influential) biodiesel advocates have noticed that petroleum
>companies who distribute biodiesel tend to have what we call a "pump
>and dump" attitude. Biodiesel is only a small part of their business,
>they go after fleet accounts, and are terrible at the 'handholding'
>that is sometimes required if anything goes wrong (which it DOES in a
>fleet situation)- they're just not prioritising the customer service
>aspect because in the petroleum business customer service and
>education isn't as necessary as it is with a new (and variable-
>feedstock, therefore variable-properties) fuel.
>
> In our area there's also a different couple of biodiesel advocates
>(most audibly Lisa Gaultier of Excess Acess and "the Biodiesel
>Solution Consortium" which I believe Josh Tickell is either a part of
>or is some kind of informal advisor to, they throw his name around in
>conjunction with it) who are just salivating over working with oil
>companies and how great it'll be when the oil compainies fully jump
>on the biodiesel bandwagon- because, they reason, they "already have
>all the infrastructure" and other (poor) reasoning (including Lisa's
>wonderful term, "we'll be easing the energy industry into
>sustainability (!!!!!)". to which statement one of the other local
>activists replied, "WOuld you say that to a Nigerian?" in reference
>to the Shell-backed murder of Ogoni environmentalists a few years
>ago...
>
> In actual experience, though, I've actually heard of a number of
>cases of service problems, one of them big and local, which would not
>have been as likely if the Industry was composed of more locally
>accountable, locally owned, small business, biodiesel-only businesses
>rather than larger oil distributors or big agribusiness producers,
>for whom biodiesel is just another random, low-profit-margin product
>rather than their sole business. Since Graham and keith make the
>point that 'problems' like quality control or poor education of users
>are a setback in the public acceptance of biodiesel, it is important
>to point out that some of these problems seem to be very much tied to
>whether biodiesel is the industry's primary focus, or whether it is
>just some kind of sideline product. I think people like Lisa Gaultier
>(and Josh Tickell?) are so convinced that bigger-is-better and that
>the route to a rapid spread of biodiesel use is for grassroots
>activists to support and enable Big Industry. This false assumption
>is high on our co-op's Advocacy committee's "hit list" of myths to
>rally the locals against.
>
>(for instance, one story (I hope I have it straight) this spring was
>that our local petroleum co BD distributor counseled a large fleet to
>put the very first biodiesel they bought, directly into their
>underground diesel tank without cleaning out the 30-year-old tank
>first (or perhaps the petroleum co just didn't counsel them NOT to,
>that's the part I admittedly don't have straight since the fleet
>isn't exactly talking about this embarrassing situation), and of
>course there was 30 years of nasty bacteria-infected sludge in that
>tank, and of course (and I DID see this personally while using the
>fleet's facility this spring) the fleet had an environmental cleanup
>specialist in there for a couple of weeks cleaning up the horrible
>mess that resulted (several thousand ruined gallons of baceria-
>infected biodiesel) that resulted in the underground tank). You won't
>hear about this story in the news, and I don't want to name the fleet
>it happened to, but it is an example of what we immediately started
>calling the "pump and dump" attitude on behalf of larger industry
>rather than smaller biodiesel specialists.
>
>What this story and others like it made our locals realize is that we
>REALLY need small producers who ONLY focus on biodiesel to spring up,
>we REALLY need local distributors who ONLY focus on biodiesel, we
>REALLY need local control of this industry without the distraction of
>Big Agribusiness (ie ADM/Cargill and the like pushing their soy
>agenda) or petroleum business (ie distributors who are used to
>thinking in only petroleum terms).
> We REALLY need to see honest, informed customer-service and
>transparency in the industry be a high priority. We;re halfway
>there, with all the enthusiasts who do a lot of the unpaid research,
>educatin, and sleuthing that helps promote public acceptance of this
>fuel.
>And our local grassroots advocacy group feels that the educational
>aspect of the biodiesel business isn't just about 'convincing' fleets
>to use the stuff- the fuel ISN"T like diesel and there is more to
>making and selling it than there is to making and selling petroleum.
>
>
>Now, local production/distribution is no guarantee of quality control
>and honesty- but several of us including people in the business (or
>commercial, fleet users of BD) believe that biodiesel-only small
>businesses would devote more of their attention to 'getting it
>right', and for distributorship in particular, it really can't come
>to users through the large petroleum companies without problems
>eventually arising- they just don't treat it as their primary
>product...
>
>IN the World Energy case, I wonder about two things:
>
>did the lab screw up on the initial analysis, or did they send out a
>poor quality untested batch, and had to recall it only when Dr Dan's
>(locally owned, biodiesel-specialist distributor) "caught" them at
>it?. the other explanation that comes to mind is that it's not
>glycerine in their fuel, but some byproduct of rotting in transit,
>which is possible but unlikely, and would of course not be a slipup
>on World Energy's part (other than water content or shipping method).
>
>I believe that the ASTM requirements don't stipulate how often you
>have to do testing. The local (well sort of) WVO plant here in CA
>(Imperial Western Products) sends out an analysis with every batch,
>they're apparently a batch plant. But in a continuous plant using
>WVO, I wonder how often quality variations slip past "quality
>control". One railcar worth of this stuff coming out of a continuous
>plant isn't a very high percent of that large plant's daily output,
>yet if it is one railcar of poor quality fuel that came out before
>they caught the 'problem', it can conceivably do some serious damage
>in the area where that railcar ends up. If I hadn't made this point
>clearly yet, it's very telling to me that it was a smaller,
>enthusiast-based business who 'caught' the problem...
>
>arright, end of soapbox lecture.
>mark
>
>
>
> >
> > And now this. "Floaties or separate", "high glycerine content and
> > possibly other particulate"? My, my. There are some FLAKEY
> > homebrewers who make FLAKEY fuel, as we all know ("there's no
> > evidence it does any damage", yeah), but how would you go about
> > getting it this flakey? Now what was that you were saying about the
> > commercial guys only having to test one sample a year to meet
> > requirements, and what sort of guarantee was that? Others said
> > homebrewers were more likely to do quality because they'd be more
> > likely to take pride in it and it's for their own vehicles, rather
> > than just doing the minimum that the bottom line dictates.
> >
> > Anyway, though I'm sure there's been some chortling about all this,
> > Graham was right about one thing in the first place even if he
> > pointed the finger in the wrong direction - this kind of stuff is a
> > setback for biofuels development, no matter who's responsible.
> > Hopefully industry will take it to heart and tighten up their act a
> > bit.
> >
> > The really puzzling bit though is the different test results - the
> > first "lab analysis showing that it met ASTM spec", and then the
> > "independent lab and found it did not meet spec". What is going on
> > here exactly? Is this what we've been saying about only one sample
>a
> > year, or is there more to it than that?
> >
> > Graham's still around on the list, maybe he'll give us some more
>information.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Keith
> >
> >
> >
> > >By the way we just had some kind of unrelated recall of out of
>spec fuel
> > >locally, also due to glyceride content being too high. this was
>from a
> > >different producer.
> > >
> > >the thread is here:
> > >http://forums.biodieselnow.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=941
> > >
> > >quote:
> > >Graham Noyes, the West Coast Representative for World Energy
>responded to
> > >the email with a posting at Fred's. Here is his answer-
> > >"This is Graham from World Energy here. We apologize for the
>inconvenience
> > >of the presence of crappy biodiesel and are doing our level best
>to solve
> > >the problem. I think some more information on the situation could
>be helpful.
> > >
> > >First, this biodiesel is crappy not because it is Yellow Grease
>(aka
> > >recycled) biodiesel but because it is out of spec biodiesel. Prior
>to
> > >triggering this railcar, we received lab analysis showing that it
>met ASTM
> > >spec. The good work of Dr. Dan alerted us that there might be an
>issue with
> > >the fuel. We sent samples to an independent lab and found it did
>not meet
> > >spec. We then pulled all product and stopped supplying. If you
>have product
> > >that does not meet spec, we will replace it with ASTM spec fuel. We
> > >guarantee that our fuel meets ASTM spec and back that up as
>necessary.
> > >
> > >Second, there are differences between recycled and virgin product.
>Most
> > >significantly, YG product has a higher cloud point and CFPP than
>virgin.
> > >For this reason, we do not typically supply YG product except in
>warm
> > >climates or warm seasons.
> > >
> > >The floaties or separate that was observed is high glycerine
>content and
> > >possibly other particulate. This is not present in fuel that is in
>spec,
> > >including YG biodiesel.
> > >
> > >We have returned to soy product in the Northwest until quality
>control
> > >issues have been resolved. Our goal is to expand the use of
>biodiesel and
> > >provide honest information on product differences. Thanks for
>helping us
> > >toward this goal!
> > >
> > >Best,
> > >
> > >Graham"
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