Gotta give props right up front to the readers of Domestic Fuel who passed along this story to us. What was a big waste product for the biodiesel industry could soon be fueling turbines and industrial boilers and offsetting coal use at power plants.

They found this story in Biodiesel Magazine about how Virginia-based Xcelplus Global Holdings Inc. is beginning commercial production of two fuels made from glycerin: GlyClene, for standard turbine engines and industrial boilers… and GlyCoal, to replace coal at power plants. Both are liquid fuels:

Crude glycerin directly out of the biodiesel process is the primary component of both GlyClene and GlyCoal. “We take 100 percent waste glycerin from a biodiesel plant, and we crack it, so the components are really all glycerin,” said Bill Smith, Xcelplus Global Holding’s chairman. The glycerin is treated with a chemical and thermal heat process to create the fuels. The chemical facilitating compound accounts for less than one percent of the formula, Smith continued. Patents are pending on the proprietary technology.

Xcelplus Global Holdings recently tested GlyClene as a boiler fuel source in Sony International’s Dothan, Ala.-based plant, Smith said. That test showed the fuel produced 119,000 British thermal units per gallon. Additional testing is pending at a variety of other facilities, including a chicken plant, a carpet company and an asphalt company. In addition, GlyCoal was recently tested at an 80 megawatt power plant in West Virginia. The fuel was injected directly into the boiler system, said Smith, and resulted in a 10 percent offset of the plant’s coal consumption.

And this story from EnergyCurrent.com says there is definitely a market for the fuel. Construction contractor Oldcastle Materials has entered into a contract to buy Glycoal and GlyClene, while poultry giant Perdue Farms will be buying GlyClene.