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A state grant is helping a small-scale biodiesel processor manufacturer start a local biodiesel buyers club. Springboard Biodiesel, which was a recent recipient of a grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC), is using that money to build a new and larger biodiesel production facility in Chico, Calif. and sell the fuel to local buyers.

“With the help of the CEC and countless organizations in and around Butte County, Springboard is ready to produce ASTM-grade biodiesel in its new, state-of-the-art facility and enable businesses and individuals to enjoy the many benefits of burning biodiesel,” said Springboard CEO Mark Roberts. “While our target market will remain primarily local, corporate and municipal consumers of diesel, who want to incorporate biodiesel into their fleets, we wanted to compliment that with a local buyers club.”

The Company has long been recognized as a leader in the small-scale biodiesel production market, having sold almost 1,000 automated BioPro™ systems (50-100 gallon batch processors) throughout the US and internationally. Springboard intends this new, larger production system to create a complimentary market opportunity. “We believe that producing locally and consuming locally is a sustainable and profitable energy model that will benefit the local communities where our systems are located,” says Roberts. “Ultimately, we plan to build a broad network of these ‘micro-facilities’, all of which are designed to provide competitively priced, cleaner burning biodiesel to local communities that have a natural and more easily accessible feedstock”

The new facility in Chico will be able to produce up to 350,000 gallons a year. Check out their website, www.springboardbiodiesel.com/buyers-club, for more information.

It used to be, biodiesel producers were not that concerned about the quality of the glycerin they produced. But these days the by-product of the biodiesel process is getting more attention in the quality level and where it will be marketed. This article from Biodiesel Magazine outlines some of the aspects of glycerin quality and offers three examples of how the Next Generation Scientists for Biodiesel scientists are producing glycerin.

There are many grades of glycerin beyond crude, including technical- and pharmaceutical-grade (USP). USP Glycerin is 99 percent minimum with very tight limits on a multitude of potential contaminants, [Darol Brown, president of Portland, Ore.-based Sego International Inc.] says, and each shipment of USP requires a certificate of analysis. The applications for USP glycerin are endless. It’s used in an almost unlimited number of products. USP-grade glycerin is found in pharmaceuticals, food materials, nutraceuticals, cosmetics and personal care items. Some are less known applications, such as its use on raisins to keep them chewy, or as a cleanser for dairy cow udders to ward off infection.

There really is no set specification for crude glycerin, Brown says. “But each potential buyer has his own limits,” he explains. “Crude sellers must supply a lab test showing the assay of glycerin, the amount of methanol, ash, salts, and water and, in some cases, the amount of fatty acids. In general, unless you have changed the raw materials used, the plant will produce a consistent product and, if you know the producer, you can have some surety that the product will not vary, although most still require the test results to come with the shipment.” Some of the more common applications for crude glycerin include propylene glycol (anti-freeze), dust control and use an animal feed ingredient. “Crude glycerin is a cheap source of carbon and can be used in place of corn, grains or molasses in cattle feed, but it’s the lowest price and gives the least return to the producer,” Brown says. “Dust control is a major user of crude glycerin, but it is formulated with many other additives and is a rather cheap net back to the producer of the glycerin.” Brown says other applications are somewhat small and dependent on low-cost product.

The article goes on to look at the research Karthik Gopalakrishnan from Clemson University, Derek Pickett at the University of Kansas, and Michael Morgan from Utah State University are doing on glycerin.

While the trend is to build big, commercial-sized biodiesel refineries, a smaller business model might be what some rural communities need. This article from inArkansas.com tells the story of a refrigerator-sized biodiesel microbrewery that could turn 870,000 acres of farmland near the Delta town of DeWitt into the green fuel.

The box is a miniature biorefinery. It turns waste vegetable oils into biodiesel. Its operator is Johnny Davis, a semi-retired farmer who owns the crumbling gas station, a feed business and a cattle farm.

The nonprofit’s idea was to scale the refinery project from small to large and factor out transportation costs.

When the current biorefinery is in stable use, alt.Consulting reclaims it and replaces it with a larger micro-refinery that can turn the camelina into biodiesel. Read more about alt.Consulting’s Farm to Fuel program here.