New diesel fuel regulations should pave the way for more biodiesel manufacturing, says a new entrant to the field.
Canada has adopted legislation requiring the sulfur limit of on-road diesel fuel to decrease to 15 milligrams per kilogram, down from the present level of 500 mg per kg.
The new rules took effect for the production and import of diesel fuel on June 1 and will apply to the sale of diesel fuel on Oct. 15, allowing a few months for the new low-sulfur fuel to be distributed and the old high-sulfur supplies to be blended down.
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The regulations are being implemented to ensure sulfur levels do not impede the operation of advanced emission-control technologies on diesel engines, but they are not without consequences.
“When the sulfur is removed from the diesel fuel it also removes a good deal of the lubricity,” said Harvey Haugen, president of Beechy Industries, a new company in Beechy, Sask., that is producing small amounts of a biodiesel-based lubricity additive.
He sees this as a real opportunity to expand sales of the fledgling company’s Bio342 additive.
Beechy Industries started three months ago when Haugen’s other business, Touchwood Resources, a magnesium sulfate mining company, experienced a slowdown in operations.
Haugen, who was involved in the development of Milligan Biotech Inc., a small biodiesel plant in Foam Lake, Sask., decided, along with two local farmers, to pick up the slack by setting up a similar biodiesel production facility in the Touchwood warehouse.
The company’s pilot plant can produce 365,000 litres of the additive a year, but is not yet running near capacity.
Bio342 retails for $8 to $9 per litre and is sold at bulk fuel dealerships in Saskatchewan. Haugen said initial feedback has been positive.
“We have a trucker that has been running on this material for the last three months. He has determined that he is getting a 20 percent improvement in fuel economy.”
Revenue from additive sales will be reinvested in what will become a three-million-litre biodiesel production facility that will require 7,000 tonnes of canola annually from farmers in the Beechy area.
Beechy Industries is refining a unique technology that will allow for the continuous production of biodiesel, a shift in thinking from the current approach that calls for a complete oilseed crushing and refining plant in addition to a separate biodiesel production and refining facility.
“Our determination is that the two should be one,” Haugen said.
“What we have come up with is an extremely simple, extremely inexpensive catalyzed reaction.”
The new technology requires smaller equipment and should pave the way for communities to build biodiesel plants for a fraction of the cost of a traditional plant.
But the process still needs fine-tuning.
“We have flutes and fiddles but we don’t have an orchestra,” Haugen said.
He feels it is important to immediately establish a network of small biodiesel plants in rural Saskatchewan, an approach to biodiesel development that is under attack by influential groups such as the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association.
Earlier this month the executive director of the association urged members of parliament to adopt a renewable fuels strategy that would promote the development of large plants at the expense of smaller projects.
“The government should not pursue policies that encourage the creation of an inefficient industry,” said Kory Teneycke.
Canada already has two large-scale production facilities: a 30 million litre plant in Montreal and a 60 million litre plant in Halifax that is scheduled to be on-line this summer.
Work has also begun on a 20 million litre plant in Sudbury, Ont.
Saskatchewan has Milligan Biotech in Foam Lake, Diesel Services Group Canada in Saskatoon and now Beechy Industries: three pilot-scale plants producing diesel fuel additives. Alberta and Manitoba also have small plants.
It is a distinctly different approach to the production of biofuel, one that Haugen is intent on fostering. He wants small communities to band together to fight the bigger-is-better philosophy of biodiesel development.
“We think that’s exactly the way it is going to go by default if we don’t hustle and put up the small plants,” he said.
Once the company has refined its continuous production process it hopes to see similar plants developed in other small communities.
“I don’t see any reason why a dozen small communities shouldn’t be running 15 million litre a year plants,” Haugen said.
