Smithfield to turn hog waste into diesel fuel
Date: 24-Feb-03
Country: USA
Author: Bob Burgdorfer
Biodiesel is an alternative fuel that can be made from any fat including vegetable oil and used cooking oil. About 15 million gallons were used in the United States last year.
Smithfield said it will be the major partner in BEST BioFuel LLC, a partnership that will build the plant at Smithfield-owned swine production facilities near Milford, Utah.
"Livestock waste can be a source of clean, renewable vehicle fuel," said Robert F. Urell, Smithfield senior vice president, engineering and environmental affairs, in a news release.
The Smithfield facility will be built at Circle Four Farms in southwest Utah. Construction is scheduled to start in April, pending final approval of a conditional use permit and a permit from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
Smithfield's Utah swine operation produces about 1 million market hogs a year, and the biodiesel project will use the waste from about half of those hogs, the company said.
"The Utah facility is a specially suited location for this because we are able to order the waste in pipes," said Dennis Treacy, Smithfield's vice president of environmental affairs and government relations.
About 90 percent of U.S. biodiesel is made from soybean oil. U.S. biodiesel use increased to about 15 million gallons in 2002 from 500,000 in 1999.
For the Smithfield project hog waste will be collected and processed into biogas which will then be converted into biomethanol. The biomethanol will be transported to a plant outside of Utah for processing into biodiesel fuel using soybean oil, animal fat or used cooking oil.
Use of animal waste for biodiesel is rare but the methanol from the waste could be used for the fuel, said Fred Mayes, a manager at the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy.
"By starting with methanol, which is a fairly clean substance compared with grease, you are improving the mix and my guess is you would be improving some of the specific characteristics of the biodiesel," Mayes said.
The Smithfield facility could start producing fuels as early as October, the company said.
Smithfield Foods is the leading processor and marketer of fresh pork and processed meats, and the largest hog producer, in the United States.
