Plant sells first gallons

DEXTER, Mo. -- The first batch of B100 biodiesel made by Global Fuels was scheduled to be pumped into a truck Tuesday. But when the truck from Bootheel Petroleum Co. arrived, some rewiring remained to be done in the plant's fuel line.

Engineers put in a full day of equipment testing at the plant on County Road 731 just east of Dexter Tuesday to make the final adjustments necessary for Global Fuels' 200,000-gallon storage tanks to begin pumping out biodiesel fuel made from soybeans.

Global Fuels plant manager Tim Hutchcraft said the entire operation should be up and running today.

The plant, which has the capacity to produce 8,700 gallons a day, presently has 30,000 to 35,000 gallons available, Hutchcraft said. It will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Jay Barbour, vice president of Bootheel Petroleum Co. in Dexter, volunteered to buy the first 300 gallons. Although he drove away empty-handed Tuesday, he said he was glad to help identify the problem.

"Even though we're in the oil business, this is good for us, too," Barbour said.

After all the electrical glitches are fixed, Barbour will start getting pure B100 fuel from the plant, which he can blend with regular diesel fuel at different percentages to let customers choose the grade they want.

Switching to biodiesel streamlines the process of producing fuel, Barbour said. "With soybean oil, you don't have to go drilling under the ocean. It's a lot easier to find."

Last week Global Fuels produced its first batch of pure B100 fuel using processed soybeans from local farms. Co-owners Jerry Bagby and Harold Williams ultimately plan to blend chicken fat from the nearby Tyson Foods poultry plant with the soybean oil to cut costs. Soybean oil is 33 cents a pound, while chicken fat is just 19 cents a pound. Bagby said the plant will eventually produce 3 million gallons of biodiesel fuel a year.

Bagby said the fuel makes ecological sense. "The air is essentially left as it was with feedstock. It's going to be a big benefit to the environment."

The market for biodiesel and ethanol started to flourish after passage of the federal Energy Policy Act in August 2005. Now oil refineries use less sulfur in regular diesel fuel because of the acid it produces in the atmosphere. Sulfur helped with engine upkeep, serving as a lubricant.

Biodiesel fuel replaces the lubricant and helps keep fuel lines and filters clean. According to Bagby, the quality of the fuel is measured by the amount of glycerin that's removed. "To an engine, glycerin is sort of like what cholesterol is to your blood stream," he said. "Basically we remove glycerin from soybean oil in our plant."

Justin Danforth, project engineer of Agri Process Innovations, has been working with Global Fuels since the groundbreaking in May.

Greenline Industries of San Rafael, Calif., and Agri Process Innovations of Suttcart, Ark., have partnered to form Greenline Fabrications to increase biodiesel production nationally.

Danforth said API has been testing devices to see if a market exists for the excess glycerin that comes from the biodiesel fuel. He said no huge market for the glycerin exists right now because of the high methanol content. If some of the methanol is removed, the byproduct could be sold to pharmaceutical and makeup companies, he said. Right now the only market for the glycerin is asphalt companies who burn it in incinerators.

Bagby did not give a price for the B100 to be sold at Global Fuels, but said it will cost about the same as regular diesel.

tkrakowiak@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137