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Fat Free Meal A new process for making biodiesel from tallow could allow meat companies to offset emissions taxes and avoid those costs being passed on to farmers. However, misinformation about tallow-based fuel may halt progress of the Biofuel Bill currently being considered by a Parliamentary select committee, and stymie investment in the process. The Auckland by-product R & D company Flo-Dry Engineering Ltd has developed a novel system that costs less and has a higher quality output than conventional plants. Flo-Dry’s managing director Tissa Fernando says that the company has spent the past five years working with specialists from the Universities of Auckland and Canterbury to develop the process and build a pilot plant. The quality of its output meets the specifications for biodiesel set by the Ministry for Economic Development. “Conventional processing methods require a much higher quality tallow in order to meet the MED’s minimum ester content and cold-flow standards,” says Fernando. “Our continuous technique can cope with a free fatty acid content of up to 4% in the raw material, and the final product is ideal for blending with mineral diesel.” News of the new technology comes at an opportune time for meat companies as they get to grips with looming carbon taxes. In the next few years it is almost certain that they will be charged for the emissions from any fossil fuels used for processing, packaging, storage and transport of meat and by-products, and these costs will undoubtedly be passed on to farmers by way of lower schedule prices. However, Fernando points out that having tallow from their rendering departments available for conversion into biodiesel is of great benefit to meat companies. “Tallow is a renewable resource that is naturally very low in sulphur, and greenhouse gas emissions from tallow-based biodiesel are only 25% of extra-low sulphur mineral diesel,” he says. “By converting tallow to biodiesel, companies can earn a premium over normal tallow prices as well as carbon credits of at least double the value of any emissions taxes they might face.” However, the potential of the new technology to offset meat industry carbon taxes could go up in smoke if the Biofuel Bill, currently being considered by a Parliamentary Select Committee, does not go ahead. A key measure in the draft Bill would require a very small but increasing percentage of biofuels to be incorporated into transport fuels. The immediate benefit would be to stimulate development of alternative renewable energy feedstocks and processing systems, and begin to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels for transport.