Mark, large-scale biodiesel manufacturers have an easier time dealing with regulations than the little guys do. The hurdles I was pointing out are the ones that slow down development of small producer business and of coops- the big plants don't have these issues as much partly because they're being built by larger corporations with more money. It's not that there is regulation that keeps commercial biodiesel plants from going up here, it's more that biodiesel has great potential as a small business, and for the small producers to fill a unique role as small-scale decentralized energy supply, and yet since energy isn't a sphere of small business usually, there are many expensive hurdles to overcome before this is a reality in city areas for instance. I think Blue Sun falls into the big guys category- BUT I don't really know the business well and I don'tknow enough about them. and I;m not sure of statistics on what constitutes a small producer versus a big one- gallons output for instance. ANyway they have some serious investment going into this, and are importing chemists from gerrmany who've worked on similar projects I believe. Pacific is I believe also building a plant i n San Jose- WVO-sourced. They are, you'll be interested to know, supposedly staying away from doing any oil collections in santa cruz so as to leave it for all the homebrewers. So I've been told by an employee whose working on the collections end of it- hope it comes true. as far as santa rosa- I think you're thinking not of that place but of Ukiah, where Yokayo Biofuels operates. They are a biodiesel broker (they buy WVO derived biodiesel) who delivers to retail customers (ie sells them a drum of fuel and a FillRite pump) all over northern california. They also are trying to set up a gas station-style business in Ukiah selling biodiesel, and got a lot of favorable press last month. They are a great example of a small business doing a lot to bring biodiesel to their region- its made it available to thousands of people without having to convince a gas station owner to dedicate a tank (which is very hard to convince one to do due to the economics). I don't have other classes scheduled yet. Join Burnveggies list and you'll hear about any others coming up in this area.. mark
At 08:06 AM 2/9/2003 -0800, you wrote: >Thanks for the information. Seems like Blue Sun has considered and >dealt with many of the regulatory hurdles if they indeed have real plans >for these large capacity processing plants. Perhaps they could provide >the model for others. Then again, if they are a for profit >organization, they may not want to share the information for fear of >competition. > >What of Pacific Biodiesel. They apparently are building plants, and >have installed at least two, one in Hawaii, and one in Japan. They must >have solved some of the regulatory problems as well, to put up a plant >in the U.S. > >Are you a part of the group in Santa Rosa who plan to open a fueling >station. This group got some good press in the Santa Cruz Sentinel >about three weeks ago. Can't remember the name though. > >Is the class you teach available at other times than the one you wrote >about? > >Mark F. > > > >Biofuels at Journey to Forever >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html >Biofuel at WebConX >http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm >List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: >http://archive.nnytech.net/ >To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
