> Todd - is this the technology or the application? If owned cooperatively by > the farmers, the problem you describe would not occur, correct? > > Ed B. .........
Ed, Caveat on application. Granted, your summation of cooperative ownership is correct. This thought though. If a 1,500 gallon per day plant consumes 9,000 acres (projected against soybean), we are talking only 14 square miles. Understood that not every agricultural setting is going to be denuded and all 14 square might not be exactly adjacent to each other. But if they were, as in many sectors, this is less than a 2 mile radial swath. Mobility is considerably less a factor in such an environment. I would think that cooperative ownership of a transport vehicle and a brick and mortar facility would be a less expensive option, rather than resettling a mobile plant every "x" number of days. That almost starts to sound like "carnie" work (read "carnival"). Mind you, I am talking about extruders and expeller presses in this equation, not just tanks, pipes and condensers for strictly biodiesel. The reason for considering the former, rather than the latter? Somehow, someone has got to get the oil out of the feedstock. Extruders and expellers are an integral part of the process and they are the limiting factor, not the biodiesel refinery. You can only chew up so much feedstock each day. Couple of diesel motors running PTO extruders, expellers and hydraulics, a small genset under 50 kW, a few other odds and ends, add a small biodiesel refinery and you're in. Not to discount the idea entirely, I could easily support the "Mobile Carnival Biodiesel Facility," especially when put in the hands of not-for profit organizations who utilized it in remote, impoverished areas. But then again, what to do with all the finished product? To optimize utility of the mobile plant, daily production could easily exceed the daily regional need. Excess production would need to be transported to market or storage required. In the latter, spoilage becomes a concern. Inevitably, transportation/road infrastructure becomes mandatory in the mobile scheme of things. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Todd Appal Energy [EMAIL PROTECTED] Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
