So many projects. So little time.


I have been occupied witrh a variety of projects recently.

The first has been the design of our mixed-feedstock plant for the newly named ORIL facility in Temecula.

ORIL is short for Operations Research and Innovation Laboratory, and as the center of Promethean’s collection, production, and research activities I believe the name captures the essence of what we will be doing.

In preparation for final technology selection, I have had the opportunity to examine a number of ways to make biodiesel, and each method does have its advantages and disadvantages. All things considered, price has been a deciding factor for much of the design and I have focused on an initial design that will produce up to 3 MMGY of biodiesel if run in a constant fashion. Some hard decisions were made; to centrifuge or not; to use cavitation or not; to use large ion-exchange columns or a series of small columns.

Special consideration had to be given to our process because we expect a large portion of our feedstock to require acid esterification prior to the core FAME reaction. Developing an efficient way to handle this secondary process has been something of a challenge. (I may say more about this in future posts after my headache subsides.)

Other projects have been developing the regional marketing plan, the human capital recruitment plan, securing permits and variances, as well as coordinating the collection program. 

It is an exciting time here. I am happy to see things progress. I also know that things will get progressively busier over the next few months.

Great!

Make it a better place,

Todd

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