Bahamas Waste banks on bio-diesel

Thu, Nov 3rd 2011, 10:07 AM

Bahamas Waste has made considerable strides in their bio-diesel department, Guardian Business can reveal, as the managing director predicts his entire fleet will be powered through this method by sometime next year.
If accomplished, the move could mean higher profits for shareholders and indeed spark a revolution for other industries depended on oil and gas.
"We're hoping that next year, every truck will be on bio-diesel and we will have balanced the economy of scale," Francisco de Cardenas told Guardian Business.
"This means higher profits for shareholders. We will know our costs and not have to buy oil and gas according to fluctuating prices worldwide."
The bio-diesel program, first conceived five years ago, has made an increasingly large impact on company operations, according to Cardenas.
With at least $1 million already invested in the project, approximately 20 Bahamas Waste trucks are currently running on varying degrees of bio-diesel. However, as the company continues to hone the production process, it has yet to make a substantial financial impact on revenue.
Frederick Donathan, a manager at the facility, agreed that the goal in the near future is to "flat-line" the company's fuel costs.
"Beyond Bahamas Waste, there are huge implications for the technology," he explained during a tour of the facility.
"For example, it could have an impact on the fishing industry and bring down the cost of food. At the moment, our problem is finding enough oil and telling companies about the importance of conservation."
The quality of the used cooking oil, which provides the basis of bio-diesel fuel, is also essential.
Research and development are progressing rapidly, the company reports, and more companies are coming on board as suppliers.
Lamar Cancino, a Bahamian chemist employed at Bahamas Waste, is one of the leading minds behind the development of effective bio-fuel.
He told Guardian Business the company has 25 major suppliers of cooking oil.
Atlantis and the Disney Cruise Line, he said, provide the most resources, along with a list of restaurants and fast-food stores. The establishments provide the cooking oil free of charge, as Bahamas Waste gets rid of the precious liquid for free.
Pointing to a delivery truck and a series of processing tanks, he explained the filtering system, purchased from a firm in the U.S., has adequate capacity -- capable of producing up to 1 million gallons every year.
The challenge is honing the process and expanding their infrastructure to include more storage facilities to house the bio-diesel.
"We tend to collect the oil on a weekly basis, sometimes [every] two weeks depending on the company's production," he said.
"The idea is we have to bring down the free fatty acids in the oil to between 0 and 2 percent. It's blended, heated and undergoes a chemical reaction."
With the technology there, Donathan felt the key was to source quality oil from as many suppliers as possible to meet the future demand. He pointed out that Bahamas Waste has some competition for the used cooking oil. Haitian ship owners, he said, are now in the habit of paying 1 cent per gallon for the oil.
"But I think a lot of companies are increasingly getting on board with what we are trying to do," he said. "They might end off being the end users of this product."
In the meantime, Cardenas said Bahamas Waste will continue pushing forward with the program with high hopes for the near future.
"We are taking a used product historically placed in the landfill," he added.
"As time goes on it will become a serious hedge to our fuel costs and the spill-off effects of that will be tremendous."

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