Washingtion D.C. needs to take time to review TBK Biodiesel and Algae-Oil Potential

[Andrew J. Blair, EIT, MS ETM]

In Washington D.C. today protagonists of the emerging algae-biodiesel industry stepped up to the plate and delivered the fact that algae-biodiesel has not received the attention it deserves in the U.S. despite the ethanol craze drummed up by farming interests. More on this story.

At any rate, a revamping of our national and international priorities is in order.

As a starting point anyone well versed on the subject of biofuels and interested in finding a sustainable liquid fuel solution that makes economic and ecologic sense recognizes the superior qualities of biodiesel when compared to ethanol. Now the gap between ethanol and biodiesel is increasing even further with improved biodiesel technology. Meet TBK Biodiesel.

Contrary to the popular opinion of corn farming communities in the Midwestern United States and their Washington D.C. lobbyists ethanol is an antiquated liquid fuel. Admittedly ethanol may be a necessary step in the right direction; toward the wider acceptance of biofuels in the U.S.; toward improved biodiesel; again meet TBK Biodiesel.

"Green-washing" of ethanol production has been a very successful ploy from the U.S. farming contingency; not all bad, not all good. But, its time we faced the facts, and the facts are clearly indicating that improved biodiesel, TBK Biodiesel, is the only way to go. Here is why: we are moving from transesterification to interestification; a huge step toward creating a truly sustainable biodiesel fuel that has the potential to completely replace petroleum liquid fuels because it is more efficient to produce.

Important Technological Drivers for Improving Sustainable Biodiesel Production Potential


Genetic modification of oil bearing plants [and algae] is aiming at some very important goals that once achieved will enable truly “green” and “sustainable” liquid fuels to emerge in a major way within the global biofuels marketplace. Geneticists are already aiming to do away with transesterification entirely. They will do this by modifying photosynthetic organisms so the oils they produce will have lower viscosities, lower melting points, and higher oxygen contents. Achieving these goals at a molecular level means reducing the fraction of relatively longer hydrocarbons attached to the triglyceride molecules making up the extractable portion of the harvestable bio-oil mixture produced (fatty acid methyl esters; FAME), and increasing the fraction of double bonds found on the “outer” hydrocarbons of the triglycerides that make up the harvestable FAME. Ultimately, accomplishing this “naturally” and incrementally will make these harvestable bio-oils much more suitable as feedstock for liquid fuels because much less energy will be required in the production process from “plant to pump”. Also, a superior fuel will result (when this happens). But, what are we supposed to do until then?

A Gapping Market Gap for Sustainable Biodiesel Production

Obviously, to some, there is a notable gap in the biodiesel market place. Until photosynthetic organisms are made into suitable “biodiesel production factories” without any need for mass energy consumption for production purposes (except for the sunlight, extraction of the biodiesel directly from the organism itself, and then getting it into the fuel tank) there will be a market gap. That market gap will be filled by proprietary chemical processes that take less than suitable FAME and turn it into pump ready biodiesel that has improved properties with respect to what is available to the biodiesel consumer today, not to mention improving on the widely touted “sustainability” criteria.

Today it is most common to use processes that involve transesterification to convert oil feedstocks into biodiesel. The need for process efficiency is most important for incumbent biodiesel producers looking to gain competitive advantages by adopting new production technologies that enable significant cost reduction. So, reducing costs of transesterification, or making it more efficient in the production of biodiesel has been and will be The Gap by which biodiesel producers will gain competitive advantage.


Plugging the Gapping Technology Gap – TBK Biodiesel

Fortunately for incumbent biodiesel producers a technological solution is now on the horizon which deserves your attention. TBK Biodiesel is the product of three Hungarian scientists who have single handedly plugged The Gap. They have eliminated the glycerol glut problem while reducing the energy required for biodiesel production using “interestification”, a proprietary chemical pathway which makes their process a top candidate for scale-up production trials here in the US. These renegade innovators from Hungary have filled international patents protecting their technology and are seeking investors to scale up their process in the US. Their process has already won numerous international awards, and their process is scientifically, and legally bonafide.

A major interest of the proprietors is to conduct technology roadmapping (TRM) to develop a drop-in industrial scale technology to fit into existing biodiesel production. TRM coupled with a technology transfer process will enable this technology and the fuel it produces to become the top replacement fuel while placating and converting the most dogmatic oil barron-capatalists into greenwashing T. Boone Pickens-entrepreneurial types. But, this time, no greenwashing is required. This is the real deal; truly green and sustainable biodiesel production.

Major benefits of the Hungarian processing technology (TBK Biodiesel) and the fuel that is produced from it includes:

* the simplicity of its chemistry,
* the eco-friendly nature of its efficient manufacturing process which:
o eliminates glycerol bi-product stream (reducing the “glycerol glut” problem), and
o reduces exhaust gas/particulate matter owing to the fuels higher internal oxygen content
* economic efficiency it brings with respect to conventional biodiesel production having lower investment costs as there is no need for gas-phase equipment, and
* superior fuel properties of lower viscosity making it widely usable during winter months.

Please contact Janos Thesz, Bela Boros, Zoltan Kiraly, or Andrew Blair with any further inquiry.