[Vwdiesel] VVO conversion processes

[Scott Kair]

    Our local grain milling facility, owned by Bunge SA, has proposed
building a biodiesel manufacturing facility here in the town where I live.
Presumably they will be refining virgin soy & corn oil, as the proposed site
is adjacent to their oil tank farm.
    Unfortunately, the company has been a bit heavy-handed in dealing with
the public relations aspects of the project. They've done quite a bit of
spot acquisition of real estate parcels, which will sink the value of
remaining homes in the neighborhood, allowing the company to buy them cheap
should the facility expand. The neighbors caught on to this one and packed
the zoning commission meeting that considered the company's petition to
re-zone the proposed site for industrial use. The hearing turned into a
circus and the petition was denied. The city council can over-ride the
denial, but apparently the mayor didn't have the votes to pull that off, and
the petition was tabled for consideration.
    At any rate, some of the neighborhood activists are honked off and
getting misinformation about the chemicals and processes involved. Not being
among the smarter- and better looking- set, some of them are expressing
concerns about the safety of chemicals involved (the grain elevator used to
explode with alarming regularity), and don't seem well versed on the
differences between processing Waste Vegetable Oil and Virgin Vegetable Oil.
Some don't even seem to understand that it's not an ethanol still, and
running around bitching about how terribly mash stinks, remembering when
folks made whiskey in their hog lots to conceal the stench.
    While I understand that the technology hasn't quite matured, some decent
sources on the chemicals involved in the vvo conversion processes, as well
as localized environmental impacts would be of great help in allowing us to
land the project. Has anyone run across such information? (My next stop will
be the biodiesel board's site.)
    TIA,
    Scott Kair