Waterfalls at STARworks

Wow! We had a really hard rain Tuesday afternoon as you can see in the picture above. My car was at the foot of the waterfall before I took this picture. While my biodiesel jetta needed a car wash, this was a bit much! The section of the building from which this water is coming is slated for removal thanks to a grant from the Golden Leaf Foundation. The roof in that area leaks severely. Yesterday I really wanted one of the old 6400 gallon tanks to catch some of this water. Rainwater catchment is on my to do list now. The guys next door to me in ceramics filled one of those old tanks yesterday with rainwater from the roof of the clay factory, which they will use to make and sell local clay. Check out the STARworks Ceramics website for more information.

The picture below is a shot of the two inline Bell & Gossett water pumps which circulate water and glycol through the heat exchanger on the furnace in our glass studio. I mentioned in my last post that Jim Gosnell and I installed these little guys. Did I mention they are really quiet? I have to hug the tank(carefully) to try and hear the water returning from the furnace. There are now 3 of these pumps for the process heat system, each of which consumes less energy than a 100 watt incandescent bulb. Many thanks to Jim for all his hard work on this project!

Hopefully you can read the numbers in the readout below. The top number, 181, refers to the temperature in fahrenheit of the process heat tank. The smaller number below,130, is the set point for the auxiliary 6 kilowatt electric heater.

I was really excited to see this Monday morning because this is the highest temperature the process heat system has achieved solely on waste heat from the glass furnace. The tank gained almost 40F over the weekend. This temperature is not far from the most I will need in any of the procedures for making biodiesel and will help us save money. My next money-saving project involves installing radiant heat barriers on the reactor, which will also cool down the ambient temperature in the plant considerably.

Below is a picture of the golden fuel I make in the plant using waste veggie oil I collect from area restaurants and the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. Many thanks to everyone who contributes oil to our project! If you know anyone that wants their waste veggie oil collected by me to make biodiesel, just send me an email at tony@starworksnc.org or via phone, 910.428.9001.

Tax credits expire and cold weather persists. The construction continues.

What a year it has been so far! The biodiesel production tax credit expired at the end of 2009. While we aren't making biodiesel yet, we know that many biodiesel plants around the US are hurting and have stopped running without this credit. Contact your senators in Washington to let them know we need to have this credit renewed to get biodiesel plants back online. You can look up your senators at http://www.senate.gov .

In keeping with the 3 R spirit, I've been reusing steam pipe insulation from our sock mill, wrapping it around our process heat system piping in the plant. I've seen a nice increase in overnight glycol tank temperatures with the insulation in place, holding the glass furnace waste heat nicely. Aluminum shielding is wrapped around the insulation as a protective covering. Here's a picture of some insulated pipe.

Jim Gosnell of Industrial Integration insulated the glycol tank recently to conserve the heat we're harvesting from the glass furnace exhaust. It is really holding the heat in well. He used a spray foam insulation kit that went on in less than an hour. Jim applied it on one of the warmer days we've had so far this year. It was balmy, in the low 60s that day, and he applied it in the afternoon with the sun shining in through our open garage door.

Several of our friends from Wet Dog Glass fabricated and installed working platforms and catwalk. We reused safety rails and angle iron from throughout the plant to bring it all together. Many thanks to Mac, Phil and Evan for all their work, and Eddie for providing Wet Dog equipment and workspace! Here is a picture from the first couple days working on the platform.

... and below is how it looks now with railing and nearly complete. I just have to touch up the safety yellow paint on the welds and some worn areas.

Our grease collection truck hasn't been on the road collecting yet, and the battery doesn't like sitting unused in this cold weather. I brought in my solar panel trickle charger to help it out.

After a few days with the solar panel plugged into the truck, it still didn't want to start, so I guess the battery may need to be replaced. I'm charging the battery with a plugin charger just to be certain. We'll have this truck on the road soon to be collecting UFOs in our area... that's used fryer oil, not extraterrestrial flying ships ;)

Send an email or call at 910.428.9001 if you want us to recycle your UFO to make biodiesel.