Fueling vehicles and generators with fish and chips

An abridged version of this article was published in Skyways September 2015.

“People just don’t care”, says Paolo Cavalieri, co-owner of Allwin Biodiesel in White River, his face washed with disillusion.  Nestled in one of South Africa’s largest conservation areas, Allwin Biodiesel is surrounded by game reserves and luxury eco lodges yet Paolo and partner Brian Tilly struggle to find a market for the biofuel they manufacture from used cooking oil.

Predictably, in the battle between fossil and renewable fuel, price raises its hand.  Allwin’s biofuel sells fractionally below the pump price of regular diesel at the filling stations.  But that’s considerably more expensive than the wholesale price and despite the global furore over climate change, fossil fuel and the development of renewable energy, local businesses are voting with their wallets. 

By contrast, Port Elizabeth based Greentech Biofuels has found widespread support from both local business and private individuals across the Eastern Cape for their B100 biodiesel (100% biodiesel) and B50 biodiesel (50% biodiesel/50% standard diesel) products which they began producing in January 2012.  CEO Hayden Hill estimates that, using an average of 10 kilometres per litre consumption, some 2.5 million kilometres have been travelled on his biofuel to date. 

Hill believes that market acceptability and propensity to use biodiesel instead of petrodiesel relies on other factors.  “It’s about finding the right mix between price and quality,” he says.  In his opinion, this is not a challenge faced by biodiesel manufacturers alone, it’s applicable to all businesses. 

He adds, though, that consumers living outside major city centres are positioned further along the innovation adoption curve and resist changing to a new product.  In outlying areas, price sensitivity increases and the value placed on environmental benefits drops.

While struggling to contain his disappointment, Cavalieri becomes more animated as he enthuses over the benefits of manufacturing biodiesel from used cooking oil.  He’s proud that 50 000 litres a month of toxic used cooking oil isn’t poured down the drain or used as additive to animal feed, which we ultimately consume, because his fleet of four biodiesel powered trucks collect it for conversion.  He has small children and it’s important to him that a sulphur free fuel with 75% less exhaust and 80% less CO2 emissions is available.  Cavalieri chuckles as he refers to his vehicles running on “100% Fish and Chips!”

Biodiesel has a much higher flashpoint (120°C) than fossil fuel (70°C) and no engine modifications are necessary to use it, although Cavalieri suggests that vehicles manufactured pre-1995 check that their rubber hoses are made of Viton E rubber before switching to biodiesel, as otherwise the hoses will perish.  He also recommends that motorists changing over to biodiesel in high doses keep a fuel filter close by, especially on long trips in the early stages.  Biodiesel has excellent cleaning properties and will clean out the fuel tank and engine while it runs, resulting in a clogged fuel filter. 

Allwin’s biofuel is manufactured to SABS standard SANS833.  Making it, says Cavalieri, is not rocket science but takes time and patience, adding that it’s “a costly and stinky business”.  Happily, Allwin’s frustrating struggle to gain traction in the market for its pure product could soon be over when the new regulations regarding the Mandatory Blending of Biofuels with Petrol and Diesel come into force on the 1^st October 2015.

Cavalieri sees the future of biodiesel lying in a mixture of 5% biodiesel /95% petrodiesel, and that’s what the government thinks too, hence the mandatory blending of 5% biofuels with all petrol and diesel (part of the Biofuels Industrial Strategy published in 2007) - the final blended diesel product has to comply with SA National Standard SANS 342 (automotive diesel fuel).

Roy de Gouveia, Managing Director of Biogreen in Cape Town, is bullish about the future of biofuel, particularly as a blend – his company sells thousands of litres of biodiesel every month and de Gouveia confidently forecasts that sales will continue to grow with the new regulations.  His aim now is to gather the assortment of biofuel manufacturers, especially the “bakkie brigade” under one umbrella and to work together, sharing the same channel and logistic mechanism, operating in a similar fashion as the fossil fuel industry.  “There’s a rising tide,” de Govuveia comments “and people need to get into the boat now before it’s too late.”

Referring to the Rose Foundation, which set up a few distributors nationwide to collect and recycle used lubrication oil, he says that isn’t possible with biodiesel and cooking oil – the amount of waste oil and the diesel price fluctuate too widely.

“The cost of manufacture and waste oil is too high,” says de Gouveia, “and part of the problem is that the international price is so high, waste oil goes offshore.”  It’s certainly true that the value of waste oil in biofuels is recognised in the United States and the competitive market there scarily cut-throat, resulting in the price of used cooking oil skyrocketing.  Operating for 24 years in the New York / New Jersey area, Grease Lightning is confronting the increasing problem of oil pirates.  Illegally coupling their hoses to the waste tanks in restaurants and hotels, the rustlers blithely make off with their bounty – greasy, smelly gold they turn into black market biodiesel in backyard stills.

South Africa may be a long way from that, however, but selling their used oil, instead of slopping it down the drain, could be a useful income earner for hospitals, schools, military bases, prisons, restaurants and hotels.  And a positive environmental stride forward for us all.

Mucky oil ready for the Cinderella treatment

Turning chip oil into diesel - the Allwin Biodiesel process

-      Used oil is collected and delivered to the plant where it is filtered twice to remove fragments of fried food

-      It is then heated and a sample undergoes a Titration test, to determine the quality of the oil, and the amount of chemical additive required to achieve a reaction.

-      Methanol (alcohol base) and Potassium Hydrochloride (catalyst) are added to the oil

-     - A chemical reaction takes place to realise the three fatty acid molecules of the oil molecule, forming biodiesel (which is light) and glycerol (which is heavy)

-     - Overnight settling allows separation of the two elements

-    -  Glycerol is drained off the next day, and the process repeated and the biodiesel tested

-     - The biodiesel is then washed to remove any soap.  Initially milky, the water clarifies and once clear is left to settle overnight

-     - Next the water is drained off and heated to evaporate any water residue

-     - After undergoing one final test, the biodiesel is pumped into a storage tank  through a 10 micron water-absorbent filter

-     - The waste water is pumped onto the factory grounds for dust suppression

-     - The glycerol is sold to a company producing green bar soap

   

    Why should you consider using biodiesel?

-   Users can switch between biodiesel and regular diesel

Biodiesel ready for pumping into Paolo's trucks

-   Biodiesel can be blended with petrodiesel

-   It has a higher Cetane rating (an indicator of the combustion speed of diesel fuel) than regular fuel, improving the efficiency of compression ignition

-   Extended engine life

-   Degrades about four times faster after spillage than regular fuel