New Biofuel Plant
Animal Fat Used to Make Clean Diesel Fuel Replacement
Tyson Foods and Syntroleum announce a new joint venture to produce a drop in diesel synthetic fuel replacement from food manufacturing byproducts; fat and grease.
It was recently announced that Tyson Foods and Syntroleum will form a 50:50 joint venture company, called Dynamic Fuels LLC, to produce a diesel fuel replacement from biomass consisting principally of animal fat and grease provided by Tyson Foods. The first plant is expected to be constructed in the south central United States and produce 75 million gallons of fuel per year by 2010.
The new fuel will use the same technology for synthetic fuels that Syntroleum is using to produce fuel from coal and natural gas. The main difference will be that the new product will not be based on fossil fuels, so it will be more nearly carbon neutral. Additionally, the animal fat and grease going into the process is becoming more of a nutritional liability for Tyson Foods, so this is a cost effective way of disposing of these food manufacturing byproduct streams.
The feedstock for this new fuel is much cleaner than crude oil, having no aromatic hydrocarbons, very few NOx producing compounds and almost no sulfur. This means that in addition to being a renewable fuel it reduces the pollution produced by current diesel engines without any engine modifications being required. Additionally, the fuel should produce less soot, or small particulate pollution, that is causing so many problems for major cities.
The fuel can be burned in any current diesel engine and can be stored and handled with the equipment currently used for diesel fuels. This will allow customers to make a direct switch out to this fuel without any additional costs. This would be especially important to mass transit companies and trucking companies that are facing potential restrictions due to deteriorating air quality in many urban areas.
Another advantage to this new fat-fuel is that it can be readily blended with current diesel fuel, making it easier for petroleum based refiners to meet increasingly stringent environmental standards with lower grade feed stocks. This will make lower cost crude a viable part of the domestic production strategy; which, in turn, should help to moderate diesel fuel price increases.
Tyson gets an opportunity to turn a byproduct management issue into a new revenue stream, the dream of corporate planners everywhere. The fact that all grades of animal fat and oils can be used in this process is especially useful as many of the lower grades of fat were good for little beyond disposal. Because of its numerous business partners and contacts in the meat processing and food industries, Tyson will be able to act as a low cost broker of animal fat to go into this process. Add to this Tyson's transportation infrastructure and they are a valuable partner in this enterprise.
This is the kind of biomass fuel program that this country needs. It does not use any food crops to make exotic fuels that cause handling and safety issues. It is a direct replacement fuel that uses food manufacturing byproducts that are increasingly undesirable from the consumer health point of view.
