City makes biodiesel from used cooking oil

Tag : Vegetable Cooking Oil

WESTSIDE -- The city of Jacksonville's fleet management division isconverting its fueling stations to carry ethanol-blended gasolinewhile it prepares to become fully operational as a biodieseldistiller.
The conversion of unleaded gasoline tanks to dispense E10 -- 10percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline -- began the week of June23. Seven of the city's eight fueling stations will be convertedthe first week of July and the eighth by the end of July.
The division also is distilling its own B100 -- 100 percentbiodiesel -- from vegetable oil at its Commonwealth Avenue fueldepot. Twenty percent homemade biodiesel is blended with 80 percentpetroleum diesel to make B20, a fuel suitable for alldiesel-powered vehicles.
Fleet management picks up used cooking oil from Naval StationMayport, The Avenues and Orange Park malls and two Hooter'srestaurants in Jacksonville. The Avenues mall operations manager,Jim Leitner, said the free exchange is working well. The cityprovided stainless steel tanks about a year ago and has a weeklycollection service.
When the division can accurately gauge its weekly B100 productioncapacity, it can begin signing on other restaurants for theservice. Division Chief Sam Houston said the program will be"big business -- important, steady business" for thecity.
The city has invested about $68,000 in the plant, mostly onequipment, since it opened a year ago. Erik Preacher, who's incharge of inventory control and financial administration for fleetmanagement, estimates that the plant will pay for itself within thefirst few months of full operation.
The cost of B100 on the market now is about $4 per gallon, whilethe cost of producing it at the depot is about $1.50 per gallon.
Fleet management has bought about 80,000 gallons of B100 per yearfrom Florida biofuels distributors, including Jacksonville-based First Coast Biofuels , Ward Oil Co. in Tampa and World Energy 's Purada Processing LLC in Lakeland.
Preacher estimates that 3,500 to 5,000 city, state and federalvehicles use fleet management's fuel stations in Jacksonville. Thecity uses 4 million gallons of gasoline and 2 million gallons ofdiesel per year.
The city of Jacksonville will no longer buy regular unleadedgasoline and will begin the bidding process for its E10 contractwithin the next two weeks.
Blending biodiesel is not a new service for the city. It begandispensing B20 to JEA vehicles in 2001, enabling the public utilityto receive environmental credits from the U.S. Department ofEnergy. JEA uses about 90 percent of the renewable fuelsdistributed by fleet management as part of its renewable energiesportfolio.
The fuel JEA used in 2007 was 38 percent unleaded gasoline, 29percent B20, 26 percent diesel and 7 percent E10. JEA began usingE10 in January last year.
Fleet management installed a pump for E85 -- 85 percent ethanol and10 percent gasoline -- in 2004 at its 44th Street fuel station toaccommodate government flex-fuel vehicles. The city bought 6,800gallons of E85 in 2007 and it has already bought 7,200 gallons inthe first six months of this year.
The city's primary vendor for ethanol blends has been First CoastBiofuels, which opened its Lake City blending facility in 2006 andretails biofuels to the general public. The company's president andCEO, John Magwood, started the company in 2004 while still anassociate dean of admissions at the University of North Florida'sInternational Center.
"I sold ethanol off a railcar onto waiting trucks fordelivery," he said. "It was really hard trying to do thison my lunch hour."

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