Biodiesel Fundamentals at Howard College
By · CommentsFor those of you who are nearby San Angelo, Texas (or who might like a weekend trip there), West Texas BioEnergy’s President, Jon Hall, will be teaching a course in Biodiesel Fundamentals on Saturday, February 20, 2010 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Topics will include:
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Biodiesel history
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Biodiesel workshop handbook
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Introduction to making biodiesel
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Advanced biodiesel processing
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Catalysts
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Alcohols
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Accelerating the process
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Varying the process
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Handling Mono-Glycerides and Diglycerides
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Vehicles and equipment for use with biodiesel
Sign up at the Howard College website by clicking here. We hope to see you there.
Greens Fuels – Not Just for Garage Biodiesel
By · CommentsGreen Fuels America offers 20 gallon per batch individual processors up to 5K gallon continuous commercial units that can make ASTM D 6751 quality biodiesel from high free fatty acid material like yellow grease. With a FuelPod, small companies and municipalities can now make quality biodiesel easily. View how easy it is to make and decide for yourself.
Green Fuels America Distributor
By · CommentsWest Texas BioEnergy LLC is now a Green Fuels America distributor. Green Fuels is a U.K. manufacturer of quality biodiesel production units for both personal and commercial use. This partnership allows us to bring this line of processors to people and investors that want to take advantage of the local feedstock to make biodiesel.
Feedstock is the key to any biodiesel production dream. It can be made from nearly any natural substance that produces an oil or grease. Waste cooking oil is the most common input, but any nut or seed, animal fat rendering (12-15% yellow grease), algae, or other oily substance can also be used. We’ve seen reports of out of spec (stale, contaminated, etc.) coffee beans and even used coffee grounds being used which provides for a very aromatic engine exhaust. Industry accepted air pollution reduction from ASTM quality biodiesel is 70% – 80%.
If you are interested in exploring making biodiesel in your area, contact us. There are units that make just 20 gallons per batch (MyFuelPod), to commercial units that range from 400 – 5,000 gallons of biodiesel daily.
Wind Energy Volatile
By · CommentsForecasting the wind is critical in our ability to integrate wind energy with the existing energy grids in many parts of the country. In an article in the Wall Street Journal, “Unbridled Energy: Predicting Volatile Wind, Sun”, the author Jeffrey Ball outlines how our ability to predict weather, most importantly, the wind, is critical to our ability to stabilize the production of sufficient electricity minute by minute.
Electricity must be used at the time that it is created. We don’t often think about this, since electricity is always available when we flip on the switch. But for those people and processes involved in electricity generation, this is a common fact. Much of the power we generate is squandered because it can’t be stored. Sure, there are batteries that can store some of the power that is generated, but for the most part, it is wasted — waiting for us to flip those switches. Battery technology still isn’t able to store the amount of electricity we need consistently.
To integrate wind energy with an existing power grid, here in Texas that could be nuclear power or coal-fired plants, with the wind turbines seen dotting the west Texas landscape to produce a consistent level of power means turning down the existing plants when the wind blows and turning them back up when the wind dies down (it really doesn’t blow all the time in Texas!) Most of these existing plants weren’t designed to be quickly turned up or down, so keeping the level of power constant means very accurately predicting the wind in a given area. Sudden gusts of wind can cause problems as well as technicians scramble to stabilize the wind generators which may need to be stopped if the wind speed is too fast. As the wind generators are stopped, the power grid monitors must bring other power sources online to keep the level of power more or less constant.
As we move forward as a nation in using our natural resources in new ways, our ability to forecast and anticipate what Mother Nature has for us will determine our success in keeping our switches ‘On’.
References: “Unbridled Energy: Predicting Volatile Wind, Sun” by Jeffrey Ball, Wall Street Journal, Friday, October 2, 2009
Ethanol Plants Making Biobutanol
By · CommentsYou may have heard in the last few months that many of the US ethanol plants have closed their doors. Even while the federal mandates for ethanol mixes in our petroleum gasoline increase, the amount of ethanol that we produce is decreasing. Some of this is due to the pressure on the most common ethanol feedstock, corn. Corn prices have risen, and gas prices have fallen, making the profit from ethanol production very limited and volatile.
But some entrepreneurs are looking into the possibility of converting the idle ethanol plants to produce biobutanol instead. Biobutanol is made from a variety of inedible crops as well as the more popular edible feedstocks, corn and wheat. Biobutanol has few of the drawbacks of ethanol and can be mixed in with gasoline in higher concentrations and moved in the existing gas pipelines — unlike ethanol which is limited in the percentage mixed with petroleum gas and cannot be moved in the pipieline.
In addition to its application in the gasoline market, biobutanol can be used in the plastics industry in flat-screen television sets and water bottles.
Biobutanol as an industry, is still in its infancy, but is showing promise as an alternative to ethanol in our gas tanks.
Reference: “Makers of Ethanol Ponder Alternative”, by Russell Gold, Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Workshops
By · CommentsBiodiesel Workshops…
West Texas BioEnergy provides quality workshops regularly for anyone interested in learning more about producing biodiesel.
During the workshops, you’ll have a chance to see first-hand the process of making biodiesel using on-site equipment. We demonstrate how to perform the titration test to determine the amount of lye (catalyst) for your batch, and then go through the process of mixing and making a batch of biodiesel. The titration test is the most critical part of the process and getting this right nearly ensures that you will make quality biodiesel every time.
The workshop usually lasts about 4 hours and are held at 301 Ellis Street, Menard, Texas 76859.
Call for reservations at 1-888-440-1112.
