Bio-diesel plan in the works at old shovel factory

Any town that wants to survive needs some kind of industry and jobs to do it. The lack of this has really hurt the Hi-Line communities in recent years as farming, and especially ag-related businesses, have slowed or gone out of business completely. While a variety of ideas have cropped up from time-to-time, they have not produced much so far. What has been needed is an idea by local residents that could be implemented by local residents.

Brett Earl and Logan Fisher are combining forces to build a bio-diesel facility in the old shovel factory plant north of Chester. This is no pipe-dream, but a definite business venture that the pair is hoping to have up and running in April.

“We were initially looking into an ethanol plant, but it was too energy intensive and expensive,” Earl said. “The energy payback for bio-diesel is something like 3 to 1 where petroleum is less than 1 to 1.”

In fact, according to an USDA study, gasoline is .805 to 1, diesel is .843 to 1, ethanol is 1.34 to 1 and bio-diesel is 3.2 to one. Other studies differ, but most agree bio-diesel has the best energy payback.

Earl noted that this is because bio-diesel is much easier to make and requires a lot less heat and energy. “It is easier to make than meth,” Earl said. “And the people making meth aren't exactly geniuses.”

Earl and Fisher, on the other hand, are well educated, and Earl has experience with building a chemical extraction plant.

Earl is a 1984 graduate of Chester High School with a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Washington and MBA credits through the University of Houston. He worked for Conoco/VISTA Chemical for six years and built a plant to extract EDC from wastewater. “I took it from design conception to full operation,” Earl said. He also worked six years for Exxon doing sales and service on oil refineries in the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain regions.

Fisher is a 1998 graduate of Chester High School and a 2001 graduate of Chadron State in Chadron, Nebraska with a BA in Business Administration with an agri-business option.

With a fourteen-year age difference and completely different educational backgrounds and work experiences, the two would seem unlikely partners. They are even opposites politically. “I'm kind of a liberal Democrat,” Fisher said. “I'm more of a conservative.” Earl answered.

But the two share several passions, one is the project and another is farming.

“Logan and I hooked up because we are very passionate about this; passionate about farming, passionate about our community, passionate about the project,” Earl said. “That is what keeps us going, whenever one of us is getting tired, we can call the other and be inspired by their excitement for this. We've already been through some late nights and doubts, but we tend to feed of each other's passion.”

To have a product is one thing, but to have one that can make money, you have to have a market. So getting together the money to build and finding a market is job one right now. And that is, largely, Fisher's area.

“We are working on getting everything put together and looking at different options and distribution strategies,” Fisher said. “We don't really want to be a retail distributor, we already have those in the area. We are looking to work with the local distributors to have them sell our product.”

But there is more to biodiesel than just the fuel. Their waste products are a high protein meal and glycerin; Fisher needs to find a market for those as well, if the plant is going to make a profit.

“Initially we can use the glycerin for fuel for the plant,” Earl said.

“But we hope to eventually find a market for some of that as well as marketing the meal to local feed plants,” Fisher added.

Initially the plant will produce 100,000 gallons of biodiesel a year. They are hoping to expand to 1,000,000 gallons within 10 years. Initially the plant should create 2 to 3 new jobs. At maximum planned capacity it should create 6 full-time jobs with benefits.

They already have a $50,000 ROI loan, but that will not be enough to get things up and running. The two realize they will have to take out a loan and fund some of the start-up cost on their own, both said they have always been prepared to do this.

“The biggest thing this did was give us some validity and the phones started ringing,” Earl said. “People wanted us to present our plan and idea and we have.”

While 100,000 gallons doesn't really sound like much, it will be blended with #2 diesel in varying amounts depending on the season and the need.

“We are committed to producing a quality product that adds value for what local farmers produce and helps cut their expenses as well.” Earl said. “We will meet ASTM 675-3 specifications for #2 diesel in a blend stock. People making biodiesel aren't required to do this testing, but we want to meet this standard.”

So, what will it take to produce enough oil seed to keep the plant going? It will take approximately 1,700 acres (depending on the yield) initially and 17,000 when they reach full capacity.

“The formula is something like this; it takes 100 acres at 1250 pounds per acres of 35% oil seed (camolina, flax, safflower just to name a few) at 85% crush (leaves 15% of oil in the seed meal) to yield 5,000 gallons of biodiesel and 45 tons of hi-protein meal,” Fisher said.

There is another side to pricing and value-added; transportation. That is one of the big reasons for building a local plant and using local producers and distribution.

“We want to change the game,” Earl said. “We want a product that can cut out the railroad and avoid the middlemen. That is why we got started.”

“Right now BN is taking around 40% of our grain production, by growing and distributing locally, we get rid of them,” Fisher said. “We want to keep prices down yet have a value added product by doing it this way.”

The two noted that Bear Paw Development and Brandi Beecher have been a big help in getting them this far.

“They have helped a ton in getting the grant,” Earl said! “They have also been instrumental in putting together the business plan. We wouldn't be where we are without them.” 

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Courtesy of the Liberty County Times.