To have all the cooking oil used by fast food restaurants is a biodiesel producer’s dream – and for one company that dream has become a reality. California-based biodiesel marketer Tellurian Biodiesel has partnered with fast food supplier Golden State Foods to recycle used cooking oil from McDonald’s and other quick-service restaurants into high-grade biodiesel.
The new venture, Encore BioRenewables, is expected to open its first production facility in southern California in early 2009. Joe Gershen, president of Encore and vice president of sales and marketing at Tellurian, was reluctant to release the plant’s specific location, adding that all Encore facilities will be strategically located in urban areas closest to feedstock and end-users. The plant’s production capacity is expected to be 5 MMgy, with the option to increase to meet demand.
Golden State Foods, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., is a $3.3 billion company that services quick-service restaurants world-wide. It has distribution centers on both the east and west coasts, as well as in Texas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and Egypt.
Tellurian currently has offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
“Our focus is to recycle second-use fats and oils,” Gershen said. “This joint venture with Golden State Foods really speaks to that real sustainable solution for doing biodiesel. That’s been our [Tellurian] focus - to create the most sustainable biodiesel.”
Gershen added, “we don’t get into the food versus fuel debate. Although there’s a lot of flaws in the argument. We just think it makes sense to use sustainable [feedstocks] first.”
Tellurian’s acquisition of Superior Process Technologies should be finalized this spring and will provide Encore with the process to turn lower grade waste oils from Golden State Foods into biodiesel that meets or exceeds ASTM and EN specifications, said Gershen.
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Tellurian is also working on technology to convert the least desirable brown grease, which comes from the grill and fryer traps, into biodiesel. Gershen said Encore will be able to produce biodiesel from brown grease but will probably need to have separate collection sites and possibly other production locations. “We would certainly look at that,” he said. “But I think we’re going to have plenty of feedstock for the 5 [MMgy] and to expand beyond that.”
Encore has the potential to produce 100 MMgy system-wide using feedstock acquired through the collaboration with Golden State Foods, Gershen said.
Encore will employ a closed-loop system – in that Golden State Food’s fleet will be fueled with biodiesel produced by Encore from feedstock collected from Golden State Food’s customers. Bill Sanderson, Golden State’s corporate vice president of finance, said the company’s fleet consists of 250 tractors in 11 markets around the United States. Some of the company’s vehicles are already being fueled with various blends of biodiesel and the switch to BioRenewable’s fuel will happen “where its economical,” he added. The company currently fuels its Illinois vehicles with B11, B20 in Hawaii and in the Los Angeles area with a B2 blend.
Sanderson said he’s “very excited about the green initiative” being taken on by Golden State. “We wish we were open today, given the current market,” he said. “We’re happy to help our customers, including McDonald’s and Starbucks, achieve their social and environmental responsibilities.”