He's of the colour of the nutmeg. And of the heat of the ginger.... he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient stillness while his rider mounts him; he is indeed a horse, and all other jades you may call beasts. ~William Shakespeare, Henry V

Sunday, September 21, 2008

BIODIESEL UPDATE

I was going to post this the beginning of this week, but I got to busy and forgot about it until
"Anonymous" polietly reminded me of it.

The following artical and picture was taken from The Benson County Press, Volume 125, Number 33, Wednesday, September 17th, 2008



Fire at All American Biodiesel plant has investigators stumped
BY RICHARD PETERSON

"I want to correct some misinformation that appeared in the Farmers Press last week," said Lee Dirkzwager, principal owner of All American Biodiesel in York, which suffered a fire that started late on Sunday night, August 24.

The building that burned was all wood construction with steel siding and roof and plywood on the interior walls and ceiling. Even though the building was originally constructed in about 1948, all the electrical wiring had been brought up to industrial standards in 2006.

"First, there was no chemical activity at the plant at the time of the fire," Dirkzwager said. "There were no raw materials consumed in the blaze and there was no finished product consumed. No acid burned.

Aside from about 40 gallons of soap emulsion, the only things that burned were plastic, wood and insulation. Copper, aluminum, brass and steel melted." Soap emulsion is a byproduct in the process of making biodiesel.

"The state fire marshal's office came to investigate but had to leave to investigate another fire in which a fatality occurred. The fire marshal did not leave because of acid vapors in the area," Dirkzwager said.

"The smell came from 1200 pounds of plastic plates which melted in a filter press," he said. The filter press was used to remove ions from the finished biodiesel product.

Because of the design of the plant, only one building was burned in the fire, but that was an expensive building. Most of the expense is contained in the electrical wiring and controls in the building, which were completely destroyed. Dirkzwager said he has $2 million in insurance on the plant and he will be submitting a claim for about $300,000 worth of building and equipment. "I won't be able to replace all the items lost with that amount of money," he said, "So I'll be bearing a significant loss."

The fire was apparently reported by a passer-by on nearby US 2 at about 12:10 a.m. August 25. Dirkzwager was at home about three miles south of York when he received a call telling him of the fire. He arrived at the fire at about 1 a.m.

Firemen from the Leeds Fire Department were understandably reluctant to get too close to the burning building. There was a light breeze coming out of the south that blew the smoke almost due north toward the railroad track and the trees beyond.
Dirkzwager determined there was no acid burning in the building and he led the firemen into that area. The blaze was substantially out by 3 a.m.

A representative of the fire marshal's office arrived about noon that day and spent a couple hours looking at the site before leaving. Dirkzwager said there were only two pieces of equipment working that night, a refrigerated air dryer and a $10,000 low pressure compressor with all kinds of safety features on it. Neither of these pieces of equipment are suspected as causes of the fire, but the final report of the fire marshal is yet to be delivered.

An inspector hired by Dirkzwager's insurance company also was not able to find a cause. The Benson County Sheriff's Office is not trained to conduct an investigation of a fire, but at Dirkzwager's insistence, Sheriff Steve Rohrer agreed to call in the ND Bureau of Criminal Investigation to investigate.

"I want to find out what caused that fire," Dirkzwager said. "We've ruled out a lot of possibilities, but nobody so far has been able to pinpoint the cause of the fire. I want a complete investigation."

Arson has not been ruled out. Dirkzwager has been struggling to get the plant going for more than two years. It's been a frustrating experience. He was sent only part of a system originally purchased from a supplier in Europe and because the supplier was unable to send equipment capable of purifying biodiesel to US standards he had to find another supplier.

A California supplier sent equipment with vital parts missing, broken or defective. Dirkzwager is an engineer, so he was able to figure out what was needed and found the parts himself.

Then the original catalyst used in the formula to produce biodiesel wouldn't produce biodiesel up to specifications. They lost a lot of time fiddling with that catalyst until a new catalyst was employed.

In October of last year the plant experienced a spill of hydrochloric acid because a supplier provided two nylon fittings for a pipe when the fittings were supposed to be plastic. The acid ate the nylon fittings and dripped onto the floor. The plant is designed to contain all spills so the acid didn't get out of the spill containment well.

Dirkzwager and his wife, Larisa, a chemist, poured a base (potassium hydroxide) over the acid to neutralize it. The result was water and salt. In retrospect, this spill was a fortunate happening because the Dirkzwagers learned how to deal with acid spills. The Dirkzwagers reported the spill to the state and how they dealt with it. The state was satisfied with the results.

With the new catalyst the Dirkzwagers were notified by Magellan (a testing company) on August 12 that their biodiesel met specifications. Dirkzwager immediately notified his accountant to file form 637 with the Internal Revenue Service.
The federal government is encouraging biodiesel plants to begin production by paying a $1.10 subsidy per gallon of biodiesel produced. This is for the first 15,000,000 gallons. After that the subsidy drops to $1 per gallon. The IRS determines who is eligible for the subsidy. And on August 14 the forms were sent.

The Dirkzwagers were pretty happy about things finally coming together. He's been using pure biodiesel in his pickup and biodiesel mixes in his tractors to hay and combine wheat.

Then the fire occurred. Late in the afternoon of August 25, they discovered that a plastic container of acid melted from the fire, but the acid remained in place because of the design of the building. The Dirkzwagers again neutralized the acid as they had done before. And they did it again on September 4 when another contained acid leak was discovered.

Two of the big steel tanks in the building contained about 5,000 gallons of biodiesel and most of the insulation burned off them, but the biodiesel did not ignite. Biodiesel does burn, but it's not flammable like gasoline. Dirkzwager thinks the tanks can be used for biodiesel again.

A representative of the State Health Department gave All American Biodiesel the operating permit to produce biodiesel on the very day of the fire. So what about the future of the plant? Dirkzwager says he has every intention of rebuilding but this time there won't be any wood or other materials which will burn in the new steel building.






Lee Dirkzwager stands in front of the burned out shell of the building, right, which burned at All American Biodiesel plant in York. The building on the left and the tower in the background were not damaged by the fire, which occurred August 25. Cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

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