Red Birch Energy has begun an incredible and shining adventure! Dean Price, Gary Sink and Rocky Carter have teamed up with a plan to produce and market biodiesel (made from canola oil) in their own manufacturing facility located in Bassett, VA. We had a chance to visit the facility, take a tour with Gary Sink, and get a better understanding of how canola becomes biodiesel.
We were first introduced to Derrick Gortman, the engineer who designed the facility at Red Birch. Gortman is also the owner and operator of Gortman Biofuel located in Winston-Salem.
The first step in the process of creating the canola oil biodiesel, is gathering the canola seeds. Red Birch currently has 13 local farms growing canola specifically for this project, the largest of which is Open Grounds Farm in Beaufort, NC, producing more than 700 acres of the crop. Canola is a small seeded winter crop that’s harvested once a year, around May and June. “A good stand of it is about chest high,” says Sink, “and it’s really beautiful when it blooms.” Once gathered, the bushels of canola seeds are brought to Red Birch Energy and stored in a huge 75 foot tall bin. This bin can hold up to 25,000 bushels of seed.
From there, an auger will deposit the seeds into custom-built trays whose jobs are simply to carry the seeds to the crusher. Once crushed, the oil will be cranked out into the tank farm (large 4,000 gallon tanks), and the empty seeds, or meal, will be deposited into trucks and delivered to dairy farms. The meal has amino acids in it that will increase cow milk volume by about 10%.
The tank farm houses containers which hold both chicken stock and animal fat, while others specifically hold canola oil. “We could actually use our facility as a multi-feed stock plant because we have the capabilities of making biodiesel from anything that’s out there right now: animal fat, canola, restaurant grease and algae.” Sink goes on to explain that their ability to be so versatile (if needed) makes Red Birch less cost prohibitive.
“Raw, first-run crushed canola is worth more in the food market right now, so we sell the oil to restaurants, and get it back once it’s been used” says Sink. It is important to Red Birch that they do not negatively impact the food market. Because of this, they contract farmers who specifically do not use their winter land, or are willing to switch from growing wheat to growing canola. Sink mentioned that the biodiesel they create “has some chicken fat in it.” We were shocked! The reason for this is simply because it’s made from chicken fat. Sink explained that “the chicken factories have a lot of leftover product which goes to the rendering companies. The product is cooked in animal fat until it gets really crispy. Then the companies make meal out of the crispy pieces, and we (Red Birch) take the oil that comes off during cooking. Now, this oil isn’t entirely clean; it has a lot of acids in it that we have to chemically remove.”
This raw oil is brought back to Red Birch and mixed with chemicals and acids in a large tank. When it reaches a certain point in temperature, it’s time to add even more chemicals. Finally, the end process is a separation of the oil and glycerin (a by-product that makes the fuel heavy). The glycerin will sink to the bottom and be removed. Red Birch can then sell it by the tank full. Gravel pits are great customers because they can use the glycerin on the roads to keep the dust to a minimum. It’s completely biodegradable.
Once the glycerin is removed, the oil goes through a water wash and then is basically laid out to dry. The large drying tank will heat the oil and make sure all of the water has evaporated. The end-product is biodiesel. Currently, Red Birch sells the biodiesel off-road, which is non-taxed and used mostly by farmers. “Eventually we will sell it next door at the truck stop” an excited Sink states, “and hopefully people will feel good knowing that they’ve bought locally grown, produced and marketed biodiesel.”
Red Birch is making a difference in their community and the environment! They are a shining customer in every way!
