Ukiah biofuel company to close

[Tom Reed]

What a bummer it looks like we've lost our only source to buy B100 
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http://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/2376586-181/ukiah-biofuel-company-to-close

The North Coast's only commercial biodiesel manufacturer has stopped producing vehicle fuel and is preparing to close its retail outlet, a reflection of the perils of running a small business in an industry subject to unsteady federal subsidies.

For more than 13 years, Yokayo Biofuels has collected used cooking oil from restaurants, transformed it into biodiesel, then sold it at its south Ukiah pumps and to other fuel outlets.

It's weathered tough times in the past but a series of financial hits this time have dealt the alternative fuel maker what appears to be a lethal blow.

"We're in the process of closing down. We're selling off our remaining fuel," said Kumar Plocher, Yokayo Biofuels' chief executive officer and co-owner.

[mike90045]

Oh No !!   I better zip down and get some for mixing lubricity in the winter.  If that pump starts squeaking again....   Guess I'll have to add a couple ounces oil to the fuel, the pump/injectors were not made for low sulfur fuels.
  Dang EPA rules making it tough to make BioDiesel

[LowGear]

I think this is more of tax credits and government grants problems than it is an EPA earth saving mission result.  We rarely ask how many military personnel it takes to produce and protect home grown fuels?  Thank God for the good samaritans at Shell, Exon, BP and all the other good people in the petrol-chemical business.

Casey

[Number21]

I have trouble believing they didn't do something wrong. If they've been collecting oil from restaurants for 13 years, then I will assume they get it for either free or very cheap. I will also assume they sell biodiesel for at least $3.75 per gallon. Plus whatever the government might give them. That's a better profit margin than the big oil companies get!

What am I missing? Some hick in his garage can make biodiesel for $1/gallon without subsidies and without expensive equipment.

Surely that same oil they were using will still be used by somebody else in your community for fuel. Somebody with a better business model.

[Tom Reed]

Well there are some other issues I'm aware of but won't disclose at this time.

They were selling at about .25 cents above pump diesel, but with an off road cert it could be had for about .10 cents less than pump diesel.

[LowGear]

Somethings wrong here.  I'm rereading Number21's contribution again.

Casey

[Number21]

The fact is if you've secured a high volume source of WVO for a low price, that's a money fountain! You could sell it as is the same way you pulled it out of the dumpster for probably $1/gallon. Or you could filter it and sell it for $2. Or make biodiesel and sell it for $4. I don't understand why there ever were subsidies in the first place? I'm glad tax dollars are no longer going for this purpose!

I remember years ago when I first heard about using WVO as fuel. Some dumb hippy was trying to tell me about all the used cooking oil that goes into the landfill. REALLY? I thought. This valuable fuel goes straight to the landfill? I must get my hands on some! The truth is it never went into the landfill. If you can't burn it/sell it as fuel it's cattle feed. Scrap oil is as good as scrap metal. Always has value. There are even published commodity prices on used oil! The big rendering plants that have agreements with local restaurants are making a killing, and they don't even sell biodiesel.

If I had the choice of striking crude oil in my back yard, and natural gas at the same time, I'd rather get the same quantity of free WVO and give up the oil well. $$$$$$$

[Tom Reed]

Don't know where you're located #21, but here in Kalifornia NOTHING is as simple as it should be. Yes it should be a profit gold mine, except when conforming to the EPA regs costs more than the expected profit.

[Number21]

What are these EPA regulations everybody is talking about? The article says they are closing down because they don't get subsidies anymore.

[Tom Reed]

Correct on what the article says, however reading between the lines there is a major cost to comply with the myriad of state and fed regulations. The subsidies probably just covered the compliance cost.

[glort]

The fact is if you've secured a high volume source of WVO for a low price, that's a money fountain! You could sell it as is the same way you pulled it out of the dumpster for probably $1/gallon. Or you could filter it and sell it for $2. Or make biodiesel and sell it for $4. I don't understand why there ever were subsidies in the first place? I'm glad tax dollars are no longer going for this purpose!

I agree totally!

I have been in the veg oil "Weirdness"  for 10 years now and I have ALWAYS been against commercial Bio manufacture and especially subsidised Bio manufacture.

The guy that ran that business was on one of the veg forums and has been pissing and whineing about subsities and being all hard done by for years.  The fact of the matter is he got on the bandwagon like a lot of other opportunists and when Veg oil and save the planet BS was all the rage for no other reason than to make money. Thats fine, but what ticks me off was the facade that all these people were in it for the noble  reasons of the environment and other such crap. There were a mountain of these plants that were subsidised that never got near going into production but millions ( and many millions) of dollars were wasted on them and the fact was that despite supposedly saving resources, there was more energy and materials squandered on them thaan the whole crock could ever hope to return.

I have had my own small business for over 20 years and it's up to me to make the thing successful and profitable. I don't get gubbermint handouts, why should these guys? Because they are saving the Planet/ environment/ co2 whatever?? Bullship!
The facts are ( when not spin doctored by the greenwashed) that bio production saves no oil at all. It's not renewable, it depends entirely on oil based broducts and energy in it's manufacture.

Things were going fine for Plotcher when the green bandwagon was in full swing and Veg/ bio was all the in topic of discussion at cocktail parties. As soon as the bubble burst and the business died down, these companies were reliant on the handouts to be viable. Now even the gubbermints can see that this Replace fossil fuels with renewable energy is and always was a pipe dream for the foreseeable future and Al Gorge has made his money and run for the hill in the face of his sham being exposed, there is no profit for the gubbermints to keep going with the charade.
Looking at veg forums it's clear to see the arse dropped out of this idea long ago in the trendy thing to do stakes.

When I got into the thing, I was chastised and called all the mothers under the Sun because I was the unconcionable bastard that dared to tell the truth that I was in it for the money savings instead of the noble save the planet garbage.  Hardly surprising, all these green bandwagon riders who had their noses in the air and put endless chit on me are no long gone and found some other flavour of the month thing to do.  I make no bones about it, If I caught up with some of them today, I'd take their heads clean off for the crap they gave me when they were the ones that bailed on their lofty notions years ago.  the ONLY People I know that are still doing veg fuels are the ones that said all along, they were in it for the cost savings.
The upstarts didn't have the brains to figure it didn't matter whay you did it, it met thier brainwashed goals anyway.  No doubt they have found some other thing to grandstand on now having fled all their high and mighty objectives years ago.

There were also a lot of Businesses in the day selling conversion kits and bio making equipment.  Inevitably standard items sourced from other industrys which were cobbled together and sold at exorbitant prices. 90% of them have long gone by the wayside as well so It's no surprise Plotcher and his circus have headed down the same road.

A very clever friend and I ( him far more than me) did some research into commercial Bio manufacture years ago.  His job is doing feasability studys so he knows his stuff.  We found there was no way you could do bio commercially with any feasability here or in the states.  Bio is great as a DIY, small scale, cobble your own system together type deal but other than that, forget about it. We also came to the conclusion that if you did want to save the planet and do all the green feelgood rubbish, then you were better off just going to that evil fuel station and filling up.  The reasons were many fold not the least being that making bio commercialy in most places used more fossil fuel energy all told than it saved and also the efficency of fossil fuels and the actual waste products were better managed.

21 is spot on. A person would be far better off just selling the oil they collected.  There is plenty of demand for it in industry for all sorts of purposes and as he says, it's never been dumped in the US or here.  It is used in animal food and feed and for industrial lubricants, mold release, Burner fuel for cement kilns and the like and asos as compnents for paint and all sorts of other things including leather dressings and waterproofing products.
I won't be sorry to see another one of these charade businesses go under either.

For those that use and want bio, Make it yourself. Its really not that damn hard. I used to sell oil to a guy that made it in a Jerry can that he used to agitate while he sat in a rocking chair and watched TV! He'd load a few of these old cans up with a certain constant dose of KOH and meth and close them up. He'd then get them in turn at room temp and afgitate them for a bit while he watched TV. every week he'd empty them into a drum and wait a month or so and take the fuel off the top. He ran a late model common rail Hyuandi off the stuff eventually up to 80% bio and I never heard of him having a problem.  I have made it in my veg oil drying/ filtering processor.  Same thing, Threw in more KOH and meth than I knew I needed, let the stuff pump over night without heating, settled it for a month and the stuff passed all the tests. Here it runs around .23C/L to make. That's a lot cheaper than anyone sells the stuff for.

I have done dozens of 1000L batches with my mate and never had one fail yet. we did get some really bad oil once so we took the excessive glyc, mixed it with another load of the same crappy oil and cleaned it up, drained the excess and titrated it and in the end came out on about par with the 2 batches. Certainly a bit more work but we made it work. It dosent' need to be near as hard or complicated as it's cracked up to be nor time consuming.

The good thing here is with the veg bubble bursting that oil is freely available.  I haven't had to dumpster dive this year so far. I now have a supplier that I take my trailer to and they load in a full 1000L IBC for me.  In summer, they have more than I would need to run a trucking fleet and plenty to put away over winter.  Straight Veg when cleaned and filtered and cut with an amount of kero will do just as well as bio despite the fears to the contrary.

The one upside about this business closing down is I won't have to read any more of Plotchers bleatings and upstart attitude on veg forums anymore. Not that anyone bothers with veg forums anymore anyway which is probably another key to this biz falling over.

[Number21]

Correct on what the article says, however reading between the lines there is a major cost to comply with the myriad of state and fed regulations. The subsidies probably just covered the compliance cost.

What are all these regulations? As far as I know, WVO doesn't have a lot of regulations. It's not very harmful to anything. Maybe there are special rules in California, like there are for everything else, but that wouldn't have anything to do with the EPA.

I can tell you, I'm a large industrial business in Oregon, and I know all the rules I've got to follow. I plan on using WVO as fuel and also making biodiesel, and I don't plan on following any regulations because I don't know of any...beyond what the restaurant who created the used oil needs to follow...

Now, if we were talking about waste motor oil, you would be right, there are a mountain of regulations there. It's considered a hazardous substance to humans and the environment. WVO is not.

Biodiesel will still be available at the pump without this company, and the company who made it, is making a profit. I will not believe anywhere in California you cannot buy B100. Too many hippies and self righteous rich people.