FRI., APR 20, 2007 - 10:58 AM

Sanimax biodiesel is as clear as water
NATHAN LEAF

"Water clear" is a phrase you'll hear Russ Read use frequently.

As the manager of Sanimax's new biodiesel plant in DeForest, it's an important phrase in Read's job because when the fuel is as clear as water, he knows it has been refined correctly.

"There's a lot of impurities in (traditional biodiesel)," he said. "By doing our double refining process, we improve the quality by taking more impurities out. We take out things like sulfur and guarantee that you have no methanol in it. These are all things that from a diesel perspective, make a lot of sense."

Unlike traditional biodiesel, which has a yellow hue, the fuel produced at the DeForest plant, which began production this month, is cleaner, Read said. And that cleaner fuel is expected to attract more customers.

"We believe it adds value to the marketplace," he said. "I have a broader customer base in terms of people who are willing to accept a higher quality product because they know they won't have to do any reprocessing."

Production at the plant, which has a capacity of 20 million gallons per year and sits on a 3-acre lot on the north side of DeForest, has been low as it tests its equipment. But Read expects the plant to produce 60,000 gallons per day by the end of June.

Another significant benefit in Sanimax's proprietary process, Read said, is that it allows the plant to be flexible in its choice of feedstock, or raw material.

During the test phase, Read is using soybean oil to ensure that the plant functions properly. But in about two weeks he expects to switch over to tallow, or animal fat, which makes more financial sense for Sanimax, formed from the merger of Green Bay's Anamax and Sanimal, a Montreal rendering company.

Josh Morby, executive director of the Wisconsin Bio Industry Alliance, said being feedstock neutral is beneficial since Wisconsin lacks a large soybean crushing facility and must import soybean oil.

The plant could even switch to restaurant grease, which is processed at Sanimax's collection facility next door to the biodiesel plant.

Randy Fortenbery, a UW- Madison economist who has studied the feasibility of biodiesel plants in Wisconsin, sees that option as a big plus for the plant.

"They do have a distinct competitive advantage in that they are aligned with (Sanimax) who controls a lot of the recycled grease collection in Wisconsin," he said. "That's a nice situation."

The plant, which has a staff of 14, also plans to keep production costs down by reusing just about all the waste from the refining process. That includes burning glycerin bottoms, a gooey waste product pulled from the feedstock during production, in a boiler to power the plant.

"We have a very small environmental footprint," Read said. "We're not going to have to use a whole lot of natural gas because we're making our fuel. We've got natural gas as a backup or a startup fuel."

Sanimax also sells "water clear" glycerin from the process for use in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, paint and anti-freeze.

The plant has to pay for a small portion of the glycerin bottoms to be hauled away from the plant, but Read said they're working on a solution to generate revenue from that too.

"That one fraction of the glycerin bottoms we're sending off for digestion is about the only waste stream," he said. "And we hate giving that stuff up."

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