Blue Ridge Biofuels

On Friday, February 12, the Power Trip field trip group went to Blue Ridge Biofuels in Asheville, NC. We met with a man named Woody, one of the original creators of the biofuels group and the head manager of the floor production. He gave us a tour.

He informed us that employees drive to many different restaurants collecting used fry oil. The trucks can hold several thousand gallons of grease.

Once back at the biofuels plant, they begin the process of refining the oil. The first step is to remove the food particles. They then add glycerin into the oil. The glycerin "scrubs" out the fatty acids. If fatty acids are not removed, they have the potential to become soaps and damage the fuel.

Next, chemicals such as methanol are added to the oil. Methanol is potentially dangerous and needs to be handled very carefully. However, methanol is the step that makes the oil reactive and work as effecient fuel. They then remove the methanol by heating the oil above the boiling point of the methanol. They capture the methanol gasses, cool them, and return them to the methanol storage tank to be reused in later batches of fuel. This process of adding and removing the methanol must sometimes be repeated 4-5 times to achieve high quality fuel. After this step in the process, water is added to the oil to pull out other toxins and impurities.

This water/oil mixture is allowed to sit for a period of time in a tall cylindrical tank. The water and impurities sink to the bottom and are removed from the oil.

Finally the remaining oil is strained through the same materials as is put in baby diapers, a great absorbant of water! This assures that all water is out. Now the oil is clean and ready to be used in a diesel vehicle.