David, Luc & Hakan, Predicating the exercise on short tons, 500-1,000 tpy are completely viable commercial volumes. Working 5 days/week, 52 weeks/year, equates to 536-1,072 finished gallons per day of production volume (~0.86 specific gravity @ 7.2#s per US gallon). Presuming that the process includes esterification (acid/base) of the FFAs to maximize yield, the input volume would be approximately the same as the yield. If the feedstock is sourced from typical fast food joints in suburban environments that produce high volumes of fried foods, you can "expect" approximately 200 gallons of feedstock per month from each outlet. This equates to one 3' x 3' x 3' dumpster of grease monthly. Production volume would require 2.68 - 5.36 dumpsters per day, or a customer base of approximately 58-116 restaurants. One employee can capably handle collection and production responsibilities for this volume. Chemical cost is ~$0.35 per US gallon, inclusive of acids for esterification and FFA recovery. Labor is $0.19 - $0.38 per gallon, based upon total cost of $25.00 US per hour. Gross fuel eceipts of $167,200 - $334,400 US per year, based upon a pre-taxed price of $1.20 per US gallon, less chemical and labor costs, yields a balance of $65,500 - $184,000 per year to put against rents, utilities, insurance and debt service. Debt service at 9% for 5 years on a $75,000 startup cost is only $19,000 annually. Calculate the balance of variables however applicable to each situation. Land may already be owned, eliminating the need for rents. A suitable building may already exist, eliminating the need for ground-up construction. Some tanks may already be available if working with farmers. The WVO can be used for process heat to reduce utilities, etc., etc., etc. All said and done, plants of approximately 500 - 1,000 gpd are not only feasible, but quite profitable. Todd Swearingen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Hakan Falk" To: Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 7:05 AM Subject: Re: [biofuel] Re: From Spain - Hola David David and Luc, Only to understand and discuss the project, I like to try to see the size of it in other terms than only the metric volume. I am not sure, if I make correct assumptions and would like to be corrected to achieve more exact numbers. 2,000 to 4,000 liter per working day is maybe not a very large production volume, but it means. Collecting around 3 - 5,000 liter WVO per day, which is a small tanker truck per day. It could be supplied from one larger or a few food processing plants. If you collect from restaurants, it is maybe 2-300 Restaurants. If you aim at supplying B20, which is the most common in Europe, it is 15 - 30,000 liter fuel per day. It is filling up around 500 to 1,000 cars per day, with 80% of tank capacity. 3 to 5 larger filling stations. It could supply the corporate fleet on one medium large company with B100. End user revenue is around half to one million Euro per year. Take away taxes etc. and it is considerable less. It is employment for 3 to 5 persons and a project well suited for a food processing company, or based on one. Please correct and complement my numbers. I would say that it is in the low limit of what is viable. Hakan At 06:28 27/05/2004, you wrote: >Desculpe me de mis erores en Espanol PF, no soy fluente. Uds puede >encontrar muchas ideas como hacer un "processor" para la fabricacion >de biodiesel en este enlace; >http://journeytoforev er.org/biodiesel_processor.html >Hay modelos muy >simlpe y otros mas complicado. Uds puedes sin duda encontrar uno que >sera util para que Uds deseas.Todos cantidades son en litros y >mesuras metricos. > >Luc > >PS: the above is merely pointing him to the journeytoforever >processors page as the original question was on how to build a >processor on limited economic means.The volume is overall per anum >if I understand correctly.(My Spanish is somewhat limited even if >functional. My French and English are much better.Ha!) :) > >--- In biofuel@yahoogroups.com, "dbaraper" wrote: > > > > > > Hello to Everyone > > Itīs my first day in the group, and i am very pleased to find lot >of > > people with the same interest. > > > > Iīm a spanish interested in the biodiesel and to build a plant to > > process vegetable used oils, and I want, if it is possible, the > > indications of builders or designers of processing plant. > > Because i have a limited funds to build the plant and i want to >know > > if itīs possible to be economic viable with a plant with a >capacity > > of 500/1000 ton.year. > > > > Thanks in advance and keep this movement. > > > > > > David, Madrid (Spain)