The Changing Face of Biodiesel Production

biodiesel magazine ^ | August 2008 | By Peter Brown

[Kevin J waldroup]

Imagine a three-way chicken and egg question. What came first: the chicken, the egg or the nest? That is the latest conundrum facing anyone trying to get started in the biodiesel business. How does one ensure that over a plant’s life that production will find an open market, access to feedstock, will not contravene local ordinances, and will have a trained and efficient pool of employees?

The best answer begins with feedstocks because they determine how far and how fast one can adapt to changing market conditions. Feedstock prices typically represent approximately 85 percent of the price of biodiesel. Never assume that the present choice of feedstock will be available, acceptable or within a reasonable price range when needed.

[null and void]

And never assume that any petty bureaucrat at any level is immune to having his or her little head turned by vast quantities of Saudi petrodollars and won’t find some pretext to shut you down at any moment.

Sayyyyyy, didn’t clinton declare a whole bunch of coal country in Utah an international treasure, the month before the mining company was ready to start operations?

It took them nearly a decade to get all the permits, and God knows how much money and effort to get to that point.

Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool...

[Ildiko]

The idea of turning food into fuel is flawed on so many levels, not the least of which is that it takes more oil to make the biofuel than it replaces.

If we focused on biofuel from non-food agricultural wasteproducts, we wouldn’t be spending any extra fuel to make it, and we wouldn’t be jacking up food prices just as more of the developing world has decided that meat is pretty tasty.

[null and void]

No argument here!

Welcome to FR...