WINNIPEG – When the founders of Milligan Bio-Tech first set up the company in the early 1990s, one key fact of Canadian life was pivotal to their business plan.
Canada is a net exporter of petroleum products. Farmers and biofuel developers here are unlikely to ever see the level of government incentives available in Europe and the United States.
The people at Milligan knew from the start that if their biodiesel facility at Foam Lake, Sask., was to be successful, a diversified line of co-products was essential.
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“If this was going to be economically viable, we couldn’t do it on biodiesel alone,” said Milligan executive manager Zenneth Faye.
“Each year we’ve been in operation, a larger percentage of our cash flow has come from co-products. For one thing, margins are higher on co-products than on fuel.”
Milligan worked with researchers at Agriculture Canada and the University of Saskatchewan, looking for co-products.
Early in the quest, they found that a biodiesel blend increased the efficiency of diesel fuel and reduced engine wear.
“Nobody else had even looked at that aspect of biodiesel. Once we realized this was a value-added factor, we began looking at ways to get a concentrate. We needed to concentrate and commercialize this chemical trait of increased lubricity.
“It’s really a combination of different things. We call it canola oil derivative. We’re in the process of patenting it now.”
The discovery occurred when North America was switching from high sulfur to low sulfur diesel fuel. The petroleum industry was searching for a suitable additive to replace the lost lubricity of sulfur.
Once the research team identified the canola oil derivative compounds, and developed a process to segregate them, the gateway to commercialization was opened.
On the agriculture front, Milligan’s products could benefit canola producers by providing a market for sample and off-grade canola.
As industrial grade canola and rapeseed varieties gain more attention, it could give producers a fresh source of income independent of edible canola.
In addition, readily available on-farm biodiesel helps insulate producers from the vagaries of petroleum fuel prices.
Guy Schuette of Saskatoon drives a seven-year old Volvo semi-truck with decals on the saddle tanks proclaiming “Canola for my horses.”
He’s talking about the 435 horsepower in his Detroit diesel. He’s been feeding it Milligan Bio-Tech fuel conditioner derived from canola for five years.
“I was in Edmonton in December 2002 and I blew the number five injector. When it was in the shop, I saw this canola fuel additive made in Saskatchewan. So I thought I should try that.
“Within a week after I added the Milligan fuel additive, the vibrations were gone and I could do my logbook on the steering wheel. When I’m parked, I sometimes have to check to see if the truck is running or not.”
Schuette said he usually runs three or four months constant with the additive, then runs about a week without.
“By the end of the first week without, the engine is running rough again and I can feel the power loss.”
Schuette said the semi had 471,000 kilometres when he bought it in 2002 and he started using the Milligan treatment that same year.
“I’ve never been in the motor and I’m just about up to two million K right now. I’ve avoided a lot of expensive repairs so far.”
He said his fuel consumption is at least equal to when he bought the vehicle five years ago.
Milligan also sells a canola oil derivative that contains properties to penetrate rust and corrosion called BioTec Penetrating Oil.
And there’s a product that replaces calcium chloride to settle dust on gravel roads.
The town of Norquay, Sask., began using Milligan dust suppressant about four years ago.
Municipal administrator Rodney Johnson said the town often spent $18,000 a year on calcium chloride, plus the cost of grader operations, for dust control that didn’t work.
Since switching to Milligan’s dust suppressant, the town’s annual chemical cost has dropped to $12,000 and grader operations were eliminated.
“We have some road sections that already had two applications prior to 2007. So in 2007, we found we still had good dust control without a single treatment. That’s a big saving for the town,” said Johnson.
He said doing away with calcium chloride also removes a source of corrosion on residents’ vehicles, municipal equipment and school buses.
Cold flow biodiesel is also in the works.
Faye said animal, canola and soy based biodiesels are not suitable on their own for western Canadian winters because they gel in cold weather.
However, U of S researchers found a way to make all three types of biodiesel flow at -25 C.
Milligan expects to have this additive commercially available in autumn this year.
In an ironic twist, another product in the works is a biodegradable lubricant for oil drilling rigs. Milligan is also marketing industrial products designed for highway department uses.
The Feed Research Center in Sask-atoon has also been working with Milligan to make off-grade canola meal more palatable for livestock.
For more information, contact www.milliganbiotech.com.
