Industry Update

Fuel:Bio Grows Biodiesel Power Plant Niche With Help From Blackmer Centrifugal and Sliding Vane Pumps

Based on a business plan that was designed to market large quantities of clean-burning biodiesel at an economical price to fuel power plants, Elizabeth, NJ-based Fuel:Bio Holdings, LLC, has a current annual capacity of 50 million gallons. The one-year-old plant is successfully producing ASTM D6751-certified biodiesel using various feedstocks as the market changes. The company recently conducted a test for Princeton University that used 100% biodiesel fuel in its campus energy plant boilers and gas-turbine cogeneration system. The results showed a reduction in emissions without reducing performance, according to Fuel:Bio and Princeton.

In order to successfully grow its business and continue to provide great test results for potential new power-plant customers, Fuel:Bio must be able to produce quality B100. The first step in doing this is to design an efficient and proper system. The second step is to choose the best equipment available that will provide reliable results. A very important element, and one that is critical to the success of a biodiesel-production facility, are the pumps. In total, Fuel:Bio currently has seven Blackmer System One® centrifugal pumps and two NP Series sliding vane pumps installed within the facility.

NP Series Sliding Vane Pump

“The Blackmer pumps are ideal for biodiesel in several ways,” noted T.P. “Sunny” Harnanan, Plant Manager for Fuel:Bio. “They are more durable than other pumps and they provide reliable flow rates that are needed for our process. Flow really matters in this business. If you end up with an incorrect ingredient ratio, then your formula will be messed up. Blackmer pumps give me the assurance that my flow rates will be accurate. They are truly the best pump available for the production of biodiesel.”

System One® Centrifugal Pump

The centrifugal pumps used at the Fuel:Bio facility are the System One® “Frame LD17” and
“Frame S” models, specifically. Designed around the seal where 90% of pump failures occur, Blackmer System One® pumps offer a stiffer heavy-duty shaft and larger bearings, resulting in the widest operational window off the Best Efficiency Point (BEP) than any standard process pump. In addition to centrifugal pumps, Fuel:Bio also incorporated Blackmer’s NP Series of sliding vane pumps that offer biodiesel producers high volumetric efficiency and low slippage, thus requiring less horsepower and energy usage. To date, the operational team at Fuel:Bio has been very happy with the selection and performance of the Blackmer pumps.

For more information on Blackmer System One® centrifugal or NP Series sliding vane pumps, please visit us at www.blackmer.com.

We welcome your feedback and hope you find this information useful.

Contact:

Thomas L. Stone
Director of Marketing
stone@blackmer.com
Blackmer
1809 Century Avenue SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503-1530

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