And that's what makes the partnership work.
Where some businesses might have failed to see the potential for innovation, these companies took a chance, uniting complimentary corporate cultures and forming an exciting new biodiesel venture called BIOSOURCE Fuels LLC.
Combining Kenosha Beef's experience, resources and traditional bottom-line focus with Resodyn's proven ability to develop cutting-edge technology, BIOSOURCE Fuels is primed to become a leading biodiesel technology provider.
Mike Marquardt, marketing director of BIOSOURCE Fuels and a longtime Kenosha Beef employee, told Biodisel Magazine he was initially impressed by Resodyn's trademarked "ResonantSonics" mixing technology, which provides an apparatus and associated method for mixing materials.
"We came across Resodyn and were immediately impressed with the company's sonic mixing technology," Marquardt said. "Soon, however, we discovered that they had much more to offer—these were scientists and chemical engineers with a whole lot of talent. We pitched our biodiesel idea and they were on board from the start."
According to BIOSOURCE Fuels Program Manager Dick Talley, a member of Resodyn's Butte, Mont., team, the sonic mixing technology that impressed Marquardt affords exquisite control over mixing in a wide range of applications.
"The operating principle behind this method of introducing acoustic vibrations into liquids and slurries involves the concept of 'resonant vibration of an elastic medium,'" Talley explained. "The entire system vibrates in resonance, allowing efficient energy transport to the fluid."
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But the mixing technology wasn't the only factor that attracted Kenosha Beef to Resodyn and the possibility of producing biodiesel.
Kenosha, a renderer with the ability to supply feedstock for biodiesel and glycerin production, had its eye on pending EPA regulations pertaining to low-sulfur diesel requirements.
"Given biodiesel's excellent lubricity characteristics and low sulfur content, it becomes an excellent blend additive to help meet low-sulfur standards while providing a high-quality lubricity additive," Marquardt said, adding that biodiesel does not cause subsequent air quality emission concerns typical of some additives.
With indications of a favorable market around the corner, Kenosha Beef and Resodyn created BIOSOURCE Fuels in 2002, strategically aligning the new limited liability corporation with The Dupps Company. Dupps is an international construction firm with the ability to design, build and install high-quality process equipment and systems.
"They are the world's largest manufacturer of rendering equipment used to recycle animal protein byproducts," Talley said. "With the addition of Dupps, we are completely capable of designing, fabricating, installing, starting up and commissioning multiple biodiesel facilities throughout the world."
Multi-feedstock utilization
According to Talley, BIOSOURCE Fuels has a number of enabling features which, in his own words, "differentiate it from the current technologies on the market." The most critical discriminator, he said, is the company's proprietary ability for multi-feedstock utilization.
"Our proprietary process technology is insensitive to the free fatty acid content of feedstocks," he told Biodiesel Magazine. "This insensitivity allows the biodiesel producer to manage his production with the most cost-effective feedstock inventory—whether it's low-fatty acid virgin feedstock or high-fatty acid recycled and reclaimed oils."
BIOSOURCE Fuels' multi-feedstock approach has been developed to maximize the yield of each feedstock and, according to Talley, will result in some of the "lowest production costs in the industry."
Another factor that Talley believes gives the company a competitive edge is the elimination of the water wash requirement that is typical of some contemporary biodiesel production technologies. BIOSOURCE Fuels is also a strong advocate of recovering biodiesel's high-value, high-quality glycerin coproduct.
"Some contemporary technologies only recover a crude glycerin stream that is nominally 80 to 85 percent pure—and sometimes laden with salts, methanol, and materials other than glycerin and water."
Moreover, Talley said, many technology providers believe that glycerin recovery is not economical until large-scale production is achieved. While he admits this is true for conventional technologies, he said the BIOSOURCE Fuels technology development focused on high-quality glycerin recovery from its inception and has resulted in a cost-effective and integrated process that yields clear—97 percent pure—glycerin with nondetectable levels of salt and methanol.
"Our glycerin recovery is very economical and can provide an additional 20 percent or more revenue to biodiesel plant operations," Talley said, adding that the company utilizes a continuous process that results in low utility demands, highly consistent product quality, low risk of conditions that would result in off-spec materials, relatively few personnel and infrequent maintenance.
Armed with that technology, BIOSOURCE Fuels has set out as a full-service international biodiesel plant design/build company. The company has projects pending but, due to client confidentiality agreements, is unable to discuss them, Talley said.
Montana pilot plant serves as testing ground
At the company's Butte, Mont., testing facility, BIOSOURCE Fuels has built a biodiesel pilot plant that is helping the company reach its mark.
Initially, the pilot plant was built to demonstrate a fully integrated and continuous biodiesel production process technology developed by BIOSOURCE Fuels, Talley explained. However, as the technology matured, the pilot plant's role changed somewhat from a research plant to what the company calls a "technology viability tool."
"Clients will often ship their proposed feedstock to our pilot facility, and we can produce biodiesel through the process, allowing each client to customize their business model with actual process conditions, requirements, feedstock yield, finished-product quality, energy and mass-balance values unique to their feedstock," Talley said. "As commercial scale facilities come on line with our technology, the role of the pilot plant will again evolve into a training mechanism whereby our clients can send operators to the facility to develop a first-hand understanding of the process reactions and requirements, process conditions and final product recovery and quality."
Talley told Biodiesel Magazine that the scale of the plant is ideal for training and providing hands-on experience without the impact of a commercial facility.
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