Erie Ambassador Program: Session 6 – Biodiesel

Did you know that used restaurant cooking oil is a “hot” commodity? Did you know there are companies that make a business out of collecting used oil and selling it to biodiesel companies? If you knew those two facts, did you also know that the grease traps these companies provide to restaurants must be locked to avoid theft? Biodiesel is big.

National Biodiesel Day is celebrated on March 18, the birthday of Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913), who developed the diesel engine. That first engine actually ran on peanut oil, rather than petroleum.

Week six of the Erie Ambassador Program found us at the HERO BX biodiesel plant, which is located at the old Hammermill paper mill on East Lake Road. Our group met in the HERO BX office parking lot and carpooled down to the production area, where the company transforms vegetable oil, cooking oil, and animal fats into biodiesel fuel. The plant has 2.75-million gallons of product capacity and produces more than 130,000 gallons of product per day. It receives eight rail cars of oil and animal fat per day and ships the same number cars, containing finished product, each day.

Mike Noble, company president, was our tour guide. We adjusted hardhats to the varying sizes of our heads and donned safety glasses before heading out into the maze of pipes and tanks used in the process that turns waste into fuel. Noble told us that everything at the plant works by air compressors, and each motor has its own MCC (motor control center) cabinet in a control room for safety. Trolling through the plant, we remarked about the wits it took to design all the piping and wiring snaking through the plant.

To give you a short explanation of HERO’s process, when feed stock, from vendors like Buffalo Bio , arrives at the plant, anything with more than 1% free fatty acids undergoes a process to filter out impurities. All oil and fat then is processed to neutralize fatty acids. The solids, called soap stock, go into animal feed and soap companies, like Oil of Olay, and the fatty acids are sold or made into biodiesel, through a process called transesterification. A catalyst, such as sodium hydroxide, and heat, react with methanol and the triglyceride oils to form fatty-acid alkyl esters (biodiesel) and glycerin. HERO BX sells the biodiesel to companies like United Refining, and the glycerin is sold also. The company also produces waste, which is shipped to a landfill, but talks are in progress with a company that is interested in putting the waste product to use.

After the tour, over a generous display from Franco’s Café, Holly Koziorowski, QC/QA manager, provided an overview of the technical aspects of the plant, while Mike Noble and Chris Peterson, VP of finance, were on hand to provide facts and figures on matters that keep the plant in operation, such as the fact that biodiesel soap-stock prices fluctuate daily, which is an important determinant on which type of starter product they purchase at any given time.

Koziorowski gave an overview of the company’s onsite laboratory, which performs its own analyses and also provides R&D services to other companies. She explained that biodiesel exhaust is safer to breathe than petroleum-based diesel exhaust and that biodiesel boasts the highest energy balance of any fuel today.

At the end of our time with HERO BX, my husband, Jim, and I were again inspired by all the good work that is going on in Erie, PA, and we’re glad we enrolled in the Erie Ambassador program. Even though we’ve lived here nearly all of our lives, there is much we didn’t know about our hometown.

On the occasion of National Biodiesel Day, Joe Jobe, National Biodiesel Board CEO, said, “Nearly every product that ends up on a store shelf is dependent on diesel fuel to get it there. That heavy reliance on one fuel means our economy is directly linked to petroleum price swings. It’s in everyone’s best interest to have a choice in transportation fuel, and that’s where biodiesel – America’s first Advanced Biofuel – comes in . . . National Biodiesel Day is a reminder that diversity in fuel supply means more stable prices and less dependence on a global oil cartel. That benefits the economy, the environment and leaves more opportunities for our future.”

HERO BX is a BQ-9000 producer and is located on 15 acres of the 108-acre SB3 Industrial Park.  The company is owned by the Erie Management Group, which also owns SB3 and the Black Family Foundation.

Ann Silverthorn (Twitter: @annsilverthorn)  is a versatile blogger who’s written about a wide variety of topics in a vast number of genres. She’s a proven writer on technology topics, in addition to travel, creative, and grant writing. Ann is currently working on a biography on the life of William E. Dimorier (1871-1951), the nearly forgotten poet and assistant principal of Academy High School in Erie, PA, who dedicated his life to the betterment of young people. Dimorier’s story will demonstrate how this man of humble beginnings positively influenced many lives around the world.