[Vwdiesel] VVO conversion processes

[George Allison]

sounds like quite the fiasco. I hope they sort things out an actually
make a go of it. where is all this taking place, anyway?

On 6/8/06, Scott Kair <scott3491 at insightbb.com> wrote:
>     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
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