Our local biodiesel plant is having trouble keeping up with demand. But, they aren't at capacity of their plant.

Are Vege oil stocks to make bio from not available right now?

 

There's plenty of oil out there, I know... I make it. The problem is, the price of beans/crop has gone up for us (and everyone else), Trucking costs are up, and therefore oil prices and feed prices (byproduct, or main product in our case) both have to go up to make our business profitable.

While all this is happening, glycerin (byproduct of bio-diesel) hasn't changed much in price, and Bio is expensive to make. Soy oil (what most bio is reacted from) has been as high as $7 a gallon... and while it didn't hold at that price its still around $4. Tack on the 45-80 cents it takes to convert a gallon to bio, plus road taxes, and trucking, and you're over $5 a gallon, closer to $6.

Understand why they aren't maxing out production yet, .

 

Well, I have to go to them to get it... and they'll have 500 gallons tomorrow first come first served for $3.50 a gallon.

 

Thats a heck of a deal... Is it B100 or a B5 or B20 blend?

 

It's B100... Alamo Biodiesel I splash fill my tank to b20 or so and fill up a few jerry-cans.

I got there and the gates were shut... I missed em, they sold out. Now I have to wait until they get more vege stock to make some more. I think they have a 2000 gallon per month contract with Ft Sam Houston. Ft. Sam uses it to make b20 for their public works vehicles.

 

On the futures market soy oil is going for about $0.56 per pound @ 60,000 lb lots. Our new Bio plant gets its soy oil by rail car and its not running at 100% yet do to the high cost of soy oil.

 

Yep, CBOT puts soy oil at around $4.50 per gallon, and meal at about $350 a ton, factor in methanol and lye costs and your still past your break even price compared to petrol-diesel. Now if only we could convince American Farmers to plant a lot of Canola (Rapeseed) we would be in much better shape, as it produces about 15 gallons more oil per acre than soy does, and its cheaper to grow...The only downside is its meal isn't worth much, since only poultry can eat it in quantity.

 

If they were to plant more Canola (Rapeseed) then maybe the price of chicken would come down in price But then they would find a new way to drive the price of Canola higher so it too would be to costly to use for Bio diesel.

 

Right now the agricultural industry is absolutely retarded... everything is being counted and priced according to speculation ONLY. It started out with the thought that because of ethanol, corn would be planted in record numbers, and there wouldn't be enough soy and wheat to go around, two weeks later theres more soy than we know what to do with, and the following week its back to corn... Its killing my business!

The cost of chicken probably wouldn't come down, but the price of egg's might. Most poultry farmers keep canola fairly low in the diet, while egg guys like it because it makes the eggs much lower in cholesterol.

 

I don't know what is available around here now... but last year they told me they were using cottonseed oil to make the biodiesel.