I have been doing the feasibility for making BD from crushed canola seeds and have come to the conculsion I could make far more money just selling the oil. In Australia, I can sell BD for around 70 cents a Litre, the oil it self has a wholesale value of around $1 per litre. If your look at it from a purely economical perspective there is no point processing the oil to make a product that is worth less. The only saving grace is the environmental benefits from displacing the fossil diesel.
No offence intended, but I don't know a single farmer that is willing to lose this much money and possibly lose his farm over the environmental benefit to be had. I am all for Bd, but this is not the way........ WVO is not the way either, not for the long term anyway, supplies are too limited for large scale BD operations, and it is NOT free! SVO from canola is too expensive and not economically feasible and unless the price crashes through the floor it won't be anytime soon. What is the answer then? >From: "John Kelley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com >To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com >Subject: [biofuel] Re: Biodiesel prices >Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 01:48:17 -0000 > >What I am trying to figure out is if there is a reasonable business >case to produce BioD to supplement farm income, not just to supply >fuel for the farm. The cost of each additional process step has to be >taken separately. If I could sell the soy-oil for $5/gal(not likely) >why would I want to add additional process steps to make BioD that >the original poster placed a max price of $1.50/gal. The cost of >shipping the soy-oil would be minimal in bulk volume around $.10/gal >max. So the price to hold back oil for use in making BioD would be >$1.10, still not able to make a profit over selling the raw oil when >you factor in conversion cost and yield, unless you charge more. I >keep getting a figure of $2.25 to $2.50/gal for sale of BioD if I >want to cover labor, equipment, maintenance, profit etc. The big >question is could I sell enough at this price to support a family of >5 along with what we can make on the rest of the farm. I think around >200/gal/day would be the critical volume to get over. Ideally you >would not store the beans but process them as you combine. Once they >are dried you would go directly to crush so as not to lose the heat >energy. The equipment to handle this in real time would be cost >prohibitive so I would have to resort to some on farm storage so >figure another $.02/gal storage. > >--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "John Kelley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I realize that rape is probably the highest oil yield/acre. There > > are > > > soybean based. 3.)There is a ready market in the area for soy >meal a > > > local hog feed lots. If we can make some BioD at a reasonable >cost > > > us, and we can convince some others to buy some at a reasonable > > > profit, then we could switch some acres over to rape or other >high > > > oil yielding crop. We don't have a long enough season for >peanuts, > > > sunflower is prob. the next most likely option. > > > > Can you reconsider your raw costs for soy oil, John?. You say it is > > 1.20 but is that what you can sell it for? Then you have to truck >it > > to Chicago or somewhere and include the price of the truck, the >costs > > then change. Sell the oil in gallon jugs to neighbors. 5.00 gallon >is > > a good price, volume is low. If you take beans at 4.00 .25 cents to > > crush it and sell the meal for 4.75, your oil costs you an -.50 a > > gallon, add .50 to process into biod and biod seems free?. How much > > does it cost to store the beans for a winter? > > > > > \ > _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Universal Inkjet Refill Kit $29.95 Refill any ink cartridge for less! Includes black and color ink. http://us.click.yahoo.com/E11sED/MkNDAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
