Biodiesel Boosters Plan Co-Ops
By Mark Baard

If fans of biodiesel get their way, 2005 will be the first year in which thousands of drivers fill their tanks with the increasingly popular alternative to petroleum diesel at a network of public fueling stations.

Biodiesel co-op members will get a discount on the fuel, which is derived from natural fats and oils. But drivers of any diesel vehicles will be welcome, according to entrepreneurs hoping to establish biodiesel plants and filling stations in their communities.

That marks a change from the way many co-ops have operated in the past -- often in secret, and without legal permits. By going straight, the co-ops hope to improve their image as well as educate and attract investors, the public and government agencies.

"You can't go and speak to the DOE if you aren't legal," said Lyle Estill, vice president of Piedmont Biofuels, a biodiesel co-op in Pittsboro, North Carolina.

Estill writes a weblog that includes an account of his recent wrangling with the local fire marshal.

Piedmont at the moment operates a small plant for its members on the back porch of a double-wide mobile home. The plant is capable of producing "a couple of hundred gallons per week, depending on how motivated the people are," said Estill. Piedmont is planning to open a new facility, capable of turning out a million gallons of biodiesel annually. Estill is working to secure permits for the plant, a process he expects will not be simple.

Piedmont, which is in a rural area, has always kept its operations public. But in cities, where zoning laws can be very strict, biodiesel co-ops tend to organize "below the radar" of regulators, said Maria Alovert, a Berkeley, California, activist who teaches classes on making biodiesel.

Anyone wanting to sell biodiesel to the public must also get approval from state and federal environmental agencies, Alovert said.

"It's against the law for people to sell fuel or fuel additives to the public without registering with the EPA," said Alovert. "That is a difficult process for small-scale producers to go through."

But some city co-ops want to become more visible in their communities. In places like Boston, Atlanta and Asheville, North Carolina, they aim to make automobile traffic less polluting and to provide an alternative to expensive home heating oil.

"It's very important that we are able to locate our facility in the city, where people live," said Kris Smith, director of the Positive Energy Foundation, a co-op forming in Atlanta. While there's no need for the fuel to be produced in a densely populated area, it does need to be distributed in one, he said.

Biodiesel producers also prefer to be close to a concentration of restaurants that can donate the old vegetable oil from which the fuel is commonly made.

But co-op owners will have to convince code-enforcement officials they can make the fuel without harming themselves and others.

"You may need to be working in a room with proper ventilation, or with explosion-proof fittings," said Capt. Maurice Mahoney, head of the Special Hazards Division at the Boston Fire Department. "If it's not done properly, I can see someone blowing up their garage one day, or their basement."

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In a densely populated area, Mahoney said, safety precautions are especially pertinent.

Politicians in several cities, meanwhile, are eagerly passing pro-biodiesel resolutions to show they are doing something about the environment and America's fossil-fuel addiction.

"We have to start looking at more environmentally friendly options," said Boston City Councilor Maura Hennigan, who announced her run for the mayor's office this week. "People are going to look to the city government for leadership if this is going to take off."

Hennigan noted that one of her fellow council members, Felix Arroyo, runs his car on waste vegetable oil, which is a source of biodiesel.

But few city fire marshals and building inspectors know how biodiesel is made and stored. And in their attempts to ensure public safety, the officials are applying unnecessarily high standards to biodiesel, said some co-op directors.

"Most of the people enforcing codes regarding fuel production have a safety mentality evolved from the dangers of petroleum manufacturing," said Brian Winslett, director of Blue Ridge Biofuels, a co-op in Asheville.

Blue Ridge wants to set up a biodiesel production plant in Asheville's River District, an old industrial area that is gradually being reclaimed by artists, according to Winslett.

But the codes for industry in urban areas have become so strict that "you cannot thread one pipe or seam yourself," Winslett said. "It all has to be done by certified engineers. Those requirements can be crippling."

Biodiesel can be stored more safely than many petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel fuel, because biodiesel has a higher flash point, meaning its fumes become ignitable at a higher temperature than the others.

Biodiesel is also nontoxic. According to Estill, one can drink it or compost it.

But making biodiesel is another story entirely. In the wrong hands, one chemical mixture used to make the fuel, called methoxide, can turn a backyarder's five-gallon bucket "into a miniature bomb," said Winslett. "And that's a concern when you are going from the backyard to the micro-manufacturing level, mixing it into 55-gallon and larger tanks," he said.

Blue Ridge makes methoxide by mixing methanol with an alkaline catalyst, potassium hydroxide, or lye. The methoxide then reacts with vegetable oil, leaving biodiesel and glycerol, a byproduct.

The methoxide exists in the biodiesel reactor for only 30 minutes, said Winslett. But while in the reactor -- be it a five-gallon bucket or a 55-gallon tank -- the chemical is noxious, corrosive and explosive.

Many backyarders are learning through experience about the risks of working around methoxide. Some could be seen recently on one of Berkeley activist Alovert's websites, Veggie Avenger, mixing lye and ethanol in an open container, a definite no-no if one is trying to avoid an accident.

Winslett said he understands the concerns of code-enforcement officials.

"A lot of those codes are there for a good reason," said Winslett. "Otherwise, you might have some Joe Shmoe out there producing fuel in a reckless manner, while threatening public safety and the environment."


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