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News & Resources
January 4, 2008Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA)
Cooking oil useful for fries and fuel
Oakland's Blue Sky Biodiesel is joining others in converting a waste
product to a truck fuel that's greener than diesel
Author: Janis Mara, Staff Writer Section: Business Page: c1
Next time you buy french fries at McAfee Coliseum, pat yourself on the
back. The oil that crisped your fries will soon be powering school buses
in this city, as well as trucks at the Port of Oakland, thanks to a new
local company.
Blue Sky Bio-Fuels Inc., founded 18 months ago by brothers Patrick and
Ralph MacIntyre, collects kitchen grease from the Coliseum, UC Berkeley
and other local sources and makes it into biodiesel, which generates
fewer harmful emissions when burned than conventional diesel fuel.
"It's a win-win," said Ralph MacIntyre, a Sebastopol resident who fires
up his 2003 Dodge truck, which runs on biodiesel, at 4:30 a.m. five days
a week to drive to the company's 49th Avenue location near the Coliseum.
"We give the restaurant owners free collection, and by selling within a
50-mile radius and keeping down our transportation costs we give buyers a
better deal," he said. Normally, the restaurateurs must pay for the FOG
(fats, grease and oil) to be collected.
Biodiesel from Blue Sky sells for around $3.80 a gallon. The brothers
make 50 cents to 75 cents a gallon in profit. They sold 30,000 gallons in
November and expect to make about 2.8 million gallons in 2008. Ev!
entually, the plant will ramp up to 20 million gallons a year, Ralph
MacIntyre said.
Blue Sky has five employees and expects to have 30 once it hits full
production capacity. And the MacIntyres aren't the only ones in the
biodiesel business hereabouts.
A team of developers is seeking to build a 40-million-gallon biodiesel
plant in Richmond, making it the state's largest such facility, they say.
That's a lot of french fries (and seed oils and other fats).
American-West Bio Energy of Larkspur and Greenline Industries of San
Rafael say their proposed 28,000-square-foot plant would employ 40 people
once built.
The area boasts other companies involved with the alternative fuel,
including Richmond-based Bay Area Biofuel, which also makes biodiesel,
and "gas station" BioFuel Oasis in South Berkeley, where you can fuel up
your diesel-engine car. (Blue Sky only supplies its wares to companies.)
These businesses should be a big help as California labors to mee! t its
state-mandated target of 20 percent in-state production ! of biodi esel
by 2010, 40 percent by 2020 and 75 percent by 2050.
So far, Blue Sky customers include Vallejo-based Michael's
Transportation, whose 80 buses whisk children to school in the Oakland
Unified School District, and Oakland-based AB Trucking, which serves the
port.
"The air at the port needs to be cleaned up," said MacIntyre, who has
helped design and build biodiesel facilities since 2000.
Truck drivers who serve the port daily have an increased risk of cancer
because of the diesel emissions, according to a December study by the
Natural Resources Defense Council. And one in five children in West
Oakland, which surrounds the port, has asthma, according to the West
Oakland Environmental Indicators Project.
AB Trucking's 13 vehicles at the port are now running on a 20 percent
biodiesel blend, known as B20, and the company is ramping up to higher
percentages, Ralph MacIntyre said.
This means people who live near the port will be exposed to fewer har!
mful emissions, according to Bill Van Amburg, senior vice president of
CALSTART, a Pasadena-based nonprofit transportation industry consortium
working to help private industry adopt cleaner fuels.
"One gallon of diesel fuel produces about 22½ pounds of carbon dioxide,"
said Van Amburg. "B20 uses about 15 percent less, so it would produce
about 19 pounds of CO2." He added that these measurements are approximate
because it depends on what source the biodiesel comes from.
Moreover, biodiesel has almost no particulate exhaust, he said.
Particulates are tiny sootlike particles that contribute to respiratory
problems such as asthma.
Van Amburg did note that biodiesel is not perfect, because it creates a
little more nitrogen oxide, or NOx. "At the B20 level, it's not
considered a big difference," he said.
"We highly recommend it (biodiesel)," said Bill Aboudi, owner of AB
Trucking. "We're here to show other people that it does work." Aboudi
said his ! trucks get about the same gas mileage on biodiesel as they do
! with tra ditional fuel. The company was able to start using the
biodiesel with almost no modifications to its trucks, he said.
"We developed a few leaks — if the hoses are not tight or it's not the
right material, it will leak because the biodiesel lubricity
(slipperiness) is very high," he said. Also, it might be necessary to
change the oil filters a few times because biodiesel "cleans all the gunk
out of your engine," he said.
"People have a belief that to be green means you have to spend money. But
it can save you money. The deal we worked out with the truckers means
they don't have to spend an arm and a leg," MacIntyre said.
Blue Sky also uses FOG supplied through San Francisco's Greasecycle
program, which launched in November. Greasecycle picks up grease from San
Francisco restaurants for free.
In 2006, California produced 11.6 million gallons of biodiesel, according
to the California Energy Commission. With companies such as Blue Sky and
its counte! rparts on the job, it seems likely that 2008 will break that
record.
"This is the re-use of what would be a waste material to make a cleaner
fuel, and a smart use," Van Amburg said of Blue Sky. "It's a great idea."
Janis Mara can be reached at 925-953-3671 or jmara@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Check out her Energy Blog at www.ibabuzz.com/energy.
Caption:
RALPH MCINTYRE, co-owner of Blue Sky Biofuels, holds a vial of grease
before it has been through the filtering process in his left hand and a
vial of the fuel after it has been filtered in his right hand. Biodiesel
produces less pollution when burned than diesel fuel. (Alison Yin/Staff)
All content copyright (c) 2008 Contra Costa Times and may not be
republished without permission.
Record Number: 11E0A3649691EC70
