Good, articulate summary from Ben about local production, etc. But I agree with Keith about standards and the fact that they're no barrier to production. I took a class on biodiesel analysis last month. I heard a lot of stories about why certain specifications are in the standards- some of it seems really stupid (like the distillation temperature, which does not apply to biodiesel at all but is a holdover from petrolwum industry and was insisted on by a member of the ASTM committee on the biodiesel standard which operates by concensus. It's a test that's hard to do in-house if I remember correctly, and it's meaningless to biodiesel). It's not something you'll ever 'fail' however.
Main thing is that assuming you wash your fuel and all that, it's absolutely easy to meet any of the standards, besides glycerol content. ANd the commercial guys have every bit as much trouble with that one specification as we do. In class we did glycerol analysis of four samples (using enzymatic method for all four, and AOCS (american oil Chemists Society) periodic acid method, and GC for one commercial sample). One of the samples was some really poorly-produced homebrew that my friend made, which she just sort of 'threw together' carelessly without titration or good measurement while in a hurry one day. We'd driven to Iowa on this stuff and had some residue of it in our fuel cans. The result was that, as expected, we didn't pass ASTM spec on total glycerol (we were best on 'free glycerol' due to the extent to which homebrewers wash their fuel rather than the extent to which industry does). But neither did two of the three commercial samples (to the surprise of their owner, in my impression). The only sample which did pass was some isopropyl esters experimental biodiesel which ISU made, which was something they were quite extra-careful in producing (my impression). The other commercial samples: one was a lot higher in total glycerol content than our sloppy homebrew, and another was a very little bit better than ours but quite similar. I don't believe the idea that standards were designed to keep small producers out. I've talked ato a LOT of big and small producers about this at this point, and I think the standard for total glycerol is equally difficult or easy for anyone to achieve. We all complain about it. By the way there's a lab which charges about $500 for the full round of ASTM tests, I'll have to dig out the info on who it is. Free and total glycerol analysis, which is the one you'd be likely to have to repeat a few times if you have trouble with your process, is $89 at Williams lab I believe. The periodic acid method- AOCS wet-chemistry method for total glycerol- seems relatively cheap and easy to do in-house for a small producer's process feedback, though the materials are quite nasty to store, use, and dispose of, so don't do this if you're a homebrewer. mark > > > >-Ben > > Note, however, that the bit about the big guys shutting out the > little guys is no longer true, if it ever was. But the myth persists. > > Mark (Girl Mark) asked me recently to summarize the situation with > small-scale producers in the US. It's here: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/message/27426 > > There are no barriers for small producers now other than meeting ASTM > spec, which isn't a problem. A lot of would-be small producers are > going right ahead. > > Also I don't think World Energy actually produces anything itself. > They're broke ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ 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/
