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'Farming our fuel'
Officials from a local company will tout the jatropha plant today in
Tallahassee. "We're doing things right here in Orlando that are going
to change America."
Rich Mckay | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted April 17, 2007
ABOUT BIODIESEL
What is it?
Biodiesel is a fuel made from rendered vegetable oils or animal fats
refined through a chemical reaction with an alcohol.
What can be used to make it?
Soybean oil is used to make most of the biodiesel in the U.S.
Restaurant grease or any vegetable oil such as corn, canola,
cottonseed, mustard oil also can be used. Jatropha oil is widely used
in India and Asia. Other companies are developing ways to make
biodiesel out of algae, restaurant scraps and even animal carcasses.
Why bother?
Biodiesel is considered an alternative to petroleum diesel because it
can be grown, rather than pumped from a well. It is also considered a
neutral gas. It doesn't put back into the atmosphere anything it
didn't absorb when it was part of the environment.
Is it as powerful as diesel?
It is considered to have the same power as petroleum diesel.
What engines can use it?
It can be mixed with petroleum diesel and used in unmodified diesel
engines. Engines can be modified to run 100 percent on biodiesel.
What does biodiesel smell like?
That depends its source. Some say it smells like french fries.
Biodiesel made from jatropha doesn't have a strong odor.
SOURCE: Sentinel research
America, meet your next tank of gas -- made from superpowered seeds.
A couple of Orlando entrepreneurs say that a Malaysian variety newly
approved for U.S. import could help solve America's energy woes and
boost Central Florida's economy with a new cash crop.
State Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, along with executives
from the Orlando-based Xenerga Inc., are scheduled to introduce a
patented version of the jatropha plant today in Tallahassee.
"We're doing things right here in Orlando that are going to change
America," said Dave Jarrett, a company spokesman. "Just wait and see."
The oil pressed from the jatropha nut can be used to make biodiesel,
producing six to eight times the amount of energy extracted from
soybeans -- the most common crop used for biodiesel in the U.S.
Xenerga president Jason Sayers and his business partner Victor Clewes
have the exclusive patent on the high-octane version of the plant
with seeds that grow inside bunches of fat green pods the size of
peach pits.
It can produce 1,600 gallons of biodiesel per acre, compared with
soy's 200 gallons, Sayers said.
A Lake Wales farmer is ready to grow 5,000 acres of the genetically
enhanced jatropha, Jarrett said. And unlike soy, which takes lots of
tending, fertilizer and water, the jatropha plant can grow happily in
arid soil, with little water and almost no tending.
"Think of it as farming our fuel," Sayers said.
President Bush mandated that refineries should have renewable fuels
blended into 7.5 billion gallons of the nation's fuel supply by 2012.
Only about 75 million gallons of biodiesel were sold in the U.S. last
year, compared with about 6 billion gallons of petroleum diesel,
according to the National Biodiesel Board, a trade organization.
"Biodiesel is huge in Europe and Asia," Sayers said. "America is just
now catching up."
So Sayers and his associates are also launching a venture with
Xenerga that will sell prefabricated mom-and-pop biodiesel refineries
for about $2 million.
Their plan is to sell turnkey operations, manufactured in Germany and
shipped here, and promise a steady supply of raw materials and
customers. They have contracts to build about 16 of the refineries.
Each refinery, if running at capacity, can produce 5 million gallons
of biodiesel a year. Jarrett said they already have a slew of
inquiries and expect to have 100 refineries throughout the country up
and running in 18 months.
Besides the jatropha nut, his other sources will include a plentiful
supply of restaurant grease. Through Sayers' other business,
FiltaFry, which cleans restaurant fryers, he spotted a potential
energy source in leftover grease.
The National Biodiesel Board said the industry is growing fast, with
about 90 plants operating now and another 60 under construction.
While Xenerga won't have its first plant, in Kissimmee, up and
running for two more months, Silver Bullet Energy has a small plant
in Groveland that started making biodiesel this year out of grease
extracted from sewage.
Another company, Southeast BioDiesel, plans to make about 6 million
gallons of fuel a year from restaurant grease or soybean oil. It
expects to be up and running in Sanford this summer.
And MetroWest developer and entrepreneur Kevin Azzouz said he's
getting into the business with a company called Clean Fuel. He
envisions using restaurant grease at a plant in Orange County that
would create about 400 jobs.
Azzouz already made the rounds to potential customers, including
Orange County Public Schools, which runs 1,000 buses each school day
using a total of 14,000 gallons of diesel.
"We buy our diesel by the tanker-truck load," said Arby Creach, a
transportation manager for Orange County schools.
School Board member Karen Ardaman said that biodiesel is promising,
especially if produced locally.
"If it's cost-effective, hopefully it would help us stretch our
dollars," she said.
Rich McKay can be reached at
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] or
407-420-5470.
