[Biodiesel News] Rendering plant branches out into biodiesel fuel production

Rendering plant branches out into biodiesel fuel production
ChronicleHerald.ca - Halifax,Nova Scotia,Canada
... Its newest venture, started a couple of years ago, involves making biodiesel fuel from vegetable waste collected from restaurants around the province. ...


CANARD — Dale Scott has been around the family business for a long time: Most of his life.

So when he sees an opportunity to diversify, create new products and meet new markets, he’s willing to use his own resources and take a risk.

The family business, S.F. Rendering Ltd., began almost 40 years ago, rendering chicken and pork waste into animal feed. It has since expanded into manufacturing products for the mink and fur industries and making pet food.

Its head office is in Canard, a farming community north of Port Williams, and it has a processing and freezing facility in New Brunswick. The company also has 200 hectares of farmland in Kings County.

Its newest venture, started a couple of years ago, involves making biodiesel fuel from vegetable waste collected from restaurants around the province.

With help from the National Research Council, the company hired chemical engineer John Houck two years ago to begin doing trials on biodiesel. The company has been, in essence, a pilot project for the manufacture of biofuel, said Mr. Houck.

"We’re now at the point where we can make biodiesel fuel from waste vegetable oil," he said in an interview at the Canard plant. The biggest challenge so far has been making a consistent product.

The company is producing 3,600 litres of biodiesel fuel per eight-hour shift. Some of it is being used in company vehicles to replace the more environmentally harmful petroleum products. But most of it is being burned in the plant’s boilers.

"We tend to use the worst, nastiest raw materials because it’s cheaper than using canola oil," said Mr. Houck.

"The problem is there is a finite supply of waste vegetable oil."

Now the company is looking at other sources of raw material, including canola oil, which is plentiful in Western provinces but is not grown commercially in Nova Scotia.

S.F. Rendering has capacity to make two million litres of biofuel and Mr. Scott is growing six hectares of canola. But to manufacture fuel, huge amounts of canola oil would need to be grown. And infrastructure is needed, particularly seed crushing facilities.

Although the environmental benefits of switching to biofuel are significant — it’s biodegradable and has no sulphur and therefore no greenhouse gas emissions — the profit margins are extremely low.

In other countries, like the United States and Italy, the world’s third-largest producer of biofuel, the government provides financial incentives, mostly tax credits, to make and consume biofuels. There are no such incentives in Canada.

Mr. Scott said he’s willing to use his own resources and accept the risks, but he needs a financial incentive from government to make it worthwhile. So far, he has received lots of encouragement but no cash.

"We’ve gotten to the point where Dale is willing to assume more of the risks to go bigger," said Mr. Houck. "But you need volume to make it work."

Mr. Scott would like to make up to 10 million litres a year and sell it to large institutional consumers, like hospitals, schools, prisons and government buildings.

He’d like to see a fuel tax credit, like those in other countries.

Representatives of several provincial government departments will visit his plant this week to view the biofuel operation.

--
Posted by Vince to Biodiesel News at 9/14/2006 05:26:00 AM