HomeMy WebLinkAboutC.054.93011_1643 (2)Jay M. Railey: A human resource in handling. The reaction can only occur so fast. You can only put so much
material into this size reactor, which is about 5,000 Ab capacity and really 6 milliongallons a year is a real
stretch. Complete utilization of the equipment at hand
Commissioner Robertson: So, its the reactor vessel then?
Jay M. Bailey: It is.
Conmissioner Robertson: The only way they could push more volume through there is if there were 26 hours
in day.
Jay M. Polley: Or more reactors, or .....
Commissmw Robertson: Operate on Sunday.
Joy M. Balky: Yes.
Commissioner Robertson: So as long as they are operating on hours defined then that 6 million is a max.
Joy M. Bailey: That is an absolute max. Yes sir.
Commissioner Robertson: Mr. McLain, for you to make a million gallons of biodiese/ and lets assume you're not
using any anima! fats -- how many acres of soybeans would it take to get you to a million gallons a year.?
Phil McLain: More than we could buy Five hundred thousand bushels would give us about 700,OOOgallons So
we are going to start out very slow, and we would have to buy soybeans from adjoining counties Canola would
double the amount of oil that we would get so you would get twice the oil per canola acre as you would
soybeans So I could double that if we purchased only canola but we would be able to purchase everything.
Commissioner Robertson: Right now, canola and sunflowers -those aren't common crops
Phi! McLain: They're not common. We have grown them and we're growing them now.
Commissioner Robertson: So for you to go to maximum capacity right now that means that you would need
300,000 bushels a year of soybeans. Correct?
Phil McLain: Togo to maximum?
Commissioner Robertson: Right.
Phil McLain: Probably 300 million. Its more than we'll be able to do. You can figure just a little over a gallon
per bushel-- soybean. So if you want 6 million gallons, you�-e going to have to have about 5 million bushels.
We raise about 30 or 40 million bushels in North Carolina and that's not exact It's a ballpark.
Commissioner Robertson: So the chances of you going to six million gallons a year ....
Phil McLain: Very unlikely.
Commissioner Robertson: But if you used a mixture of soybeans and other seed oils.
Phil McLain: Still very unlikely.
Commissioner Robertson: What about adding the animal fat?
Phil McLain: lbw the animal fat would make it more likely. But the good thing about the animal fat is that it
cuts way down on the trucking, because you )-e bringing in the oil and you don't have oil that processing going on.
Another thing about the animal fat, were not rendering animal carcasses It's already been refined before we
get it There's hardly any smell associated with that.
Commissioner Robertson: What temperature is the reactor running at?
Jay M. Railey: 60 degrees C or 140 F
Comaussroer, Robertson: What sort of odors do you expect if you're using animal fats inside the plant and
what sort of methods would you use to keep it from going outside?
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