Biodiesel boom is fueling thefts

Biodiesel boom is fueling thefts

CRIME: As oil prices rise, grease haulers find what once was trash is now treasure.
By Garance Burke, The Associated Press
Article Launched: 05/20/2008 10:48:12 PM PDT

A few years ago, drums of used french fry grease were only of interest to a small network of underground biofuel brewers, who would use the slimy oil to power their souped-up antique Mercedes.

Now, restaurants from Berkeley to Sedgwick, Kan. are reporting thefts of old cooking oil worth thousands of dollars by rustlers who are refining it into barrels of biofuel in backyard stills.
"It's like a war zone going on right now over grease," said David Levenson, who owns a grease hauling business in San Francisco's Mission District. "We're seeing more and more people stealing grease because it lets them stay away from the pump, but it's hurting our bottom line."
Levenson, who converted the engine in his '83 Mercedes to run on straight canola oil, has built up contracts to collect the liquid leftovers from 400 restaurants in the last two years.
Last week when his pump truck arrived at Thee Parkside, a dive bar known for its chili-cheese fries, his driver found someone had already helped himself to their barrel of yellow oil.
Grease is transformed into fuel through a chemical process called transesterification, which removes glycerine and adds methanol to the oil, leaving a thinner product that can power a diesel engine. Biodiesel can also be blended with petroleum diesel, and blends of the alternative fuel are now sold at 1,400 gas stations across the country.

But as the price of diesel shoots up, so, too, does the value of grease.

In the last three years, the price of soybean oil - the main feedstock for biodiesel made in the United States - has tripled. Last week, a gallon of crude soybean oil fetched 66 cents on the open market, according to the National Biodiesel Board.

Those kinds of numbers have encouraged biofuel enthusiasts to plunder restaurants' greasy waste, and have even spurred the city of San Francisco to get into the grease-trap cleaning business.

"Restaurants and staff are no longer looking at this material as trash, they're looking at is as something that's about to go into city vehicles," said Karri Ving, who runs the city's new waste cooking oil collection program. "Unless you lock down every trash can, thefts are going to happen."

Drivers for Blue Sky Bio-Fuels, a grease hauler that also manufactures biodiesel for San Francisco's municipal program, often find the 300-gallon dumpster they store outside the Oakland Coliseum nearly dry, despite the dozens of concessions stands that regularly dump their oil there. Losses at that one site alone have cost the company $3,700 in oil revenues in the last year, said Wesley Caddell, the Oakland firm's business developer.

Here are some facts about Biodiesel

Can I use Biodiesel in my vehicle?

Biodiesel can be used in any Diesel engine with no modification required, unless you have rubber fuel lines. If your vehicle was made from about 1995 on, you are pretty safe. Newer vehicles in the 2000s have synthetic fuel lines and are totally safe as far as I have read. The problems with older vehicles are that Biodiesel can attack rubber fuel lines over time cause leaking, etc. Another concern it that it can clean fuel lines and tanks so much that it can lead to clogging of fuel filters, etc. To be sure, CHECK YOUR FUEL LINES. If they are rubber, replace them with a synthetic line and you'll be fine. You should also check your owners' manual to be sure they don't recommend Not using Biodiesel. If in doubt, a blend of b20 (20% Biodiesel) is considered safe for most any vehicle.

Biodiesel is a legally registered fuel and fuel additive with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Will I get the same or different MPG with Biodiesel?

You will get the basically the same MPG as with Petro Diesel.

What are the drawbacks?

Solvency - Biodiesel has a solvent effect that may release deposits accumulated on tank walls or pipes from previous diesel fuel storage and precautions should be taken when first switching over to Biodiesel. This rarely happens, and mostly happens to very high mileage vehicles with over about 80,000 miles. This solvency can lead to Filter plugging. Read below.

Filter Plugging - Biodiesel has some solvent properties and will act as a solvent in the fuel. Blends greater than B20 may have enough of a solvent effect to break down the varnish deposits on the walls of the existing fuel storage tanks or fuel systems. The break-down of these varnish deposits will contaminate the fuel with particulate, which can cause fuel filters to plug rapidly. Once the contaminant is removed from the fuel, subsequent fuel filter service intervals should return to normal. Biodiesel blends up to B20 should have minimal solvent effects on existing fuel systems and blends below B5 should have no solvent effect above that of regular diesel fuel meeting ASTM D 975 specification. Blends of B5 and below should also meet the ASTM D 975 specifications for diesel fuel. Filter plugging problems can be prevented by effectively cleaning storage tanks before introducing biodiesel. Filter plugging can also be minimized by using low blends of biodiesel and/or ensuring the biodiesel that you are using is from a quality source meeting the ASTM D 6751 specifications. BQ9000 is a quality certification that certifies biodiesel suppliers that provide quality biodiesel meeting the ASTM D 6751 specification

Cold weather - Biodiesel will generally start to gel at higher temperatures than #2 diesel fuel which can be a problem if you are running B100. But a simple fix is to run B50 or less. You can run B50 in some pretty cold climates without worry. Our Book (included with all processors) explains this in detail, along with methods to improve the cold weather performance of Biodiesel.

Nitrogen Emissions - NOx - Fueling with Biodiesel that is not additized does tend to increase emissions of oxides of nitrogen commonly known as NOx. This increase can be anywhere from 1% - 15% depending on the engine type and blend of Biodiesel used.
But, NOx emissions can be reduced using additives at a rate anywhere from 5% to 30% depending on the additive and feedstock used to produce the Biodiesel.

Maybe this ethanol bubble has some legs to it after all.
66 cents a gallon for soybean crude equals $27 a barrell.
A barrel of crude oil sells for $130.

Hat tip to my fellow Colliers researcher, Michael Soto.