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Entrepreneur turns poultry grease into biodiesel fuel
By Molly Parker
Staff Writer
When a chicken dies in Georgia, biodiesel is born in South Carolina.
It’s the cycle of life in Dean Schmelter’s business, Southeast BioDiesel LLC, located on the old Charleston Naval Complex in North Charleston.
“Basically, after they slaughter the birds, they take the skins and macerate them and cook them and filter them, and out comes an oil that looks like, basically, a thick chicken soup. We take that oil and process it here to make biodiesel,” Schmelter said.
Gross, yes, but that dead chicken, he says, could be a powerful weapon in the war on terror.
“It started off being just another chemical business, but it’s turned into much more of a social issue,” Schmelter said. “We’re doing our part to try and get off the energy bandwagon and quit supporting the terrorists, which we do by buying fuel from the Middle East.”
Schmelter’s plant has been operational for about a year and a half now. At full capacity, it can produce 6 million gallons a year of nonflammable, nonhazardous biodiesel fuel so pure “you could drink it,” he said.
The raw oil comes largely from a chicken-rendering plant in Georgia, which Schmelter declined to name because a good source, he said, is protected like a trade secret in the biodiesel industry. He also works with a plant in North Carolina, and expects to soon contract with one in South Carolina.
When it reaches his processing plant, the grease is pumped from a truck into large metal tanks. The raw oil is heated and mixed with methanol and a chemical catalyst, creating a reaction that changes the oil to methyl esters and glycerin. The glycerin is separated from the methyl esters, the chemical name for biodiesel, and the end product is water-washed and dried.
“And then it’s finished biodiesel,” Schmelter said, making it sound simple, though judging by the looks of the complicated computer-monitoring system and the chemists’ lab, it’s a detailed procedure that a novice shouldn’t attempt.
In what represents a full-circle business arrangement, some of the biodiesel fuel is shipped back to the poultry-rendering plants in exchange for their grease and used to power transport trucks.
The whole business, in fact, revolves around recycling.
The byproduct glycerin is resold to industries for use in furnaces.
The plant was constructed from used materials. The cooling tower and boiler came from a microchip plant in Connecticut that went out of business, and the holding tanks and other equipment were purchased used from South Carolina chemical and textile oil distribution businesses that either had excess or closed.
“I’ve done this plant for about half of what it would be normally if I’d bought all new equipment,” Schmelter said.
Still in its infancy, the business isn’t running at full capacity yet, but Schmelter expects he will hit the plant’s full 6 million- gallon production capacity within another year; he is currently in negotiations to open additional plants along the coast.
Making biodiesel is a new business venture for Schmelter, though it falls under the category of chemistry, his college major and lifelong passion.
It was at a tailgate party two years ago at a Clemson University football game when Schmelter floated the idea to his longtime friend Jim Thompson, who had just sold his agriculture database marketing business and was looking for something to do.
“We’ve always wanted to do a business together and so that’s what we’ve done,” Schmelter said.
The majority of the biodiesel is sold to a fuel supplier upstate, he said, where it is resold in a mix that is 80% diesel and 20% biodiesel, commonly referred to as B-20 fuel. He is attempting to negotiate with several fuel dealers to get his product in the Lowcountry, and has already sold some of the fuel to individual shrimpers for their boats. He also is working with Santee Cooper to provide fuel for the state-run electricity company’s utility trucks.
The biodiesel industry is just starting to take hold in the United States, Schmelter said, as the public becomes more globally conscious and Congress steps up efforts to lessen the country’s dependence on foreign oil.
Schmelter isn’t standing among a crowded field in the East. Most biodiesel plants are located in the Midwestern regions of the country, where there are plenty of soybeans, the oil from which is the more common source of biodiesel.
So why Charleston?
“I came here because this is where I want to live,” he said simply.
Molly Parker is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her directly at mparker@charlestonbusiness.com.
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