EYA-UBC BioDiesel Project A partnership of the Environmental Youth Alliance & UBC Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering

What is Biodiesel? Biodiesel is a cost effective environmentally friendly alternative to fossil diesel fuel. It can be used at any blend with regular diesel, and in most engines without major modifications It can be made from recycled vegetable and oil and animal fats. Currently, most commercial production is using fresh rape seed or soybean oil

Environmental Benefits

How do we make Biodiesel? Step 1: Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) is collected from on the UBC campus and in the surrounding community.

The Chemical Reaction Step 2: The waste vegetable oil is then filtered and mixed with methanol and KOH. This creates a chemical reaction which produces fatty acid methyl esters and glycerol.

The Final Product These methyl esters are also known as Bio- Diesel and are sold to UBC Plant operations for use in their diesel vehicle maintenance fleet

Lessons learned Feedstock collection Small-scale Biodiesel production Community-scale Biodiesel production Policy Issues

Feedstock Collection If only vegetable oils can be processed economically, then care must be taken to separate animal fats Restaurants are pleased to dispose of waste for free, however, existing collectors and new competition may make feedstock supply uncertain.

Small-Scale Facility Home scale or small scale facilities should not be encouraged without proper health and safety precautions. Institutional/commercial setting is ideal for this scale Small scale too cost intensive make money

Community-Scale Facility Larger capacity has potential under certain circumstances to be an attractive GHG reduction strategy Modest profitability at about liters per month output and $0.70 / liter

Policy Issues Treatment as an alt. fuel reduces tax costs (~10-20 cents/liter) to where Biodiesel can be competitive Canadian Lifecycle GHG analysis to be done to verify GHG savings of various feed-stocks and processes compared to regular diesel

Near term plans Designing, testing and building of a community-scale facility capable of processing liters per day. Working with UBC Chem Eng to support research into uses for Biodiesel co-products, better in- situ testing, and improving Biodiesel cold flow and storage properties Operating plant and selling fuel to UBC plant operations

Medium Term Plans Proposal to the City of Quesnel to investigate the feasibility of a community scale Biodiesel facility there Similar pre-feasibility studies for two other municipalities over the next 18 months Creation of a technology transfer package for municipalities

Longer term plans Exploration of partnerships for commercial scale Biodiesel ventures Creation of a youth community innovation fund with the potential profits of such a venture to: – support graduate student research on Biodiesel – to fund innovative GHG reduction strategies/technologies developed by post- secondary students

Contact information Karun Koernig