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Hi All
I thought the last thread was getting along very well, however it got to long, the input was good however newcomers to the thread did not look at earlier post's
Even though a number of us have approached the subject in other post's it may be worthwhile to revisit the issue here as at least it will be in one thread
See if I can pick the thread up into the economics of Canola for producing oil to turn into biodiesel
Here we go:
Firstly the production of Soy beans on a global basis is over 430 Million tonne
The production of Canola seed is about 43 Million tonne
Straight away one can see why biodiesel in the USA is favouring the use of soy oil as well as Rapeseed oil as it is known there
Australia been what it is a dry continent has an average canola seed production of 2.2 Million tonne averaged over good and not so good years
So let's do a bit of an analysis
We use for our food as well as other purposes, prior to biodiesel becoming what it is today about .5 a Million Tonne
The balance is exported either with yearly contracts or on the spot market
So at best we can have about 1.5 Million tonne available here for biodiesel production if we keep the lot
Assuming that it is extracted with the solvent process we will have about 697 K tonne of oil available to produce about the same amount of biodiesel or about 700 Million litres
Let's have a look at another scenario:
I have said in a prior post, the future for biodiesel use as well as it's best start for the long term is For farmers that can grow about 120 Ha of Canola on their land
This how I see it happening
Cost of land preparation planting harvesting etc is about $370 per Ha
Yield of Canola seed average eastern states is 1.8 Tonne per Ha
Assuming a price of $400 per tonne the farmer gets about $360 nett after storage and handling charges yielding about $648 per ha
Less the $360 cost that leaves a gross income of $278 per ha
If he processes the seed on the farm to get the oil out of it, an achievable extraction of 35% of oil is assured with reasonable equipment
This then yields 630 KG of oil that can with good conversion into biodiesel will give him about 550 litres of fuel
The equation then becomes quite simple, 550 Litres of fuel is worth about $835 to the farmer today as against $ 278 gross by selling the seed
He is also left with about 1150 KG of canola meal that he can sell if he has no stock on his farm
Regardless of various post's previously on prices for canola meal, the going rate is an average between 23 to 29 cents a Kg,
So if we are to average out at say 26 cents per KG He has a further $300 for the meal
He will certainly get a better return by feeding it out to his stock
People that buy canola meal to feed animals do turn a profit
One can play around with numbers till the cows come home, the fact remains;
The farmer needs fuel to run his operation
He has to buy at $1.52 per litre (Yesterday at Mildura) delivered
A simple calculation cannot fail to point out the simple fact that Dino diesel has to be about $.55 for the above scenario to become inoperative
something that I do not see happening
This will have to be a very good return per Ha, on a dollar for dollar basis
He can become independent of fuel purchases if his land is capable of giving him a crop of canola
His cost's are further lowered, he does not have to borrow the money to pay for the fuel, which is cut off if it goes past 14 Days from delivery
Further he will lower his cost of production as he is getting fuel at a lower cost than using dino fuel
If he keeps the meal to feed animals with, he will then improve his land by using the manure on it which gives him a lower cost of fertiliser input
He will be running a closed farming system, nothing leaves the farm
If he recovers his Methanol as he should, his cost of catalyst will be minimal getting the lowest cost for the production of biodiesel on his farm
The glycerin can be added back to the meal and fed to ruminants as it is very good feed for them
Yes I know I have not taken into account Capital cost's, Depreciation, Manufacturing costs, his time as well as the land, cost of chemical etc
I am more than happy to do a full business case on the above
He becomes independent of dino fuel as well as the clutches of fuel distributors, gets the best value out of his land, while preserving hard earned cash
The point surely must be obvious:
Cheers
Chris
I thought the last thread was getting along very well, however it got to long, the input was good however newcomers to the thread did not look at earlier post's
Even though a number of us have approached the subject in other post's it may be worthwhile to revisit the issue here as at least it will be in one thread
See if I can pick the thread up into the economics of Canola for producing oil to turn into biodiesel
Here we go:
Firstly the production of Soy beans on a global basis is over 430 Million tonne
The production of Canola seed is about 43 Million tonne
Straight away one can see why biodiesel in the USA is favouring the use of soy oil as well as Rapeseed oil as it is known there
Australia been what it is a dry continent has an average canola seed production of 2.2 Million tonne averaged over good and not so good years
So let's do a bit of an analysis
We use for our food as well as other purposes, prior to biodiesel becoming what it is today about .5 a Million Tonne
The balance is exported either with yearly contracts or on the spot market
So at best we can have about 1.5 Million tonne available here for biodiesel production if we keep the lot
Assuming that it is extracted with the solvent process we will have about 697 K tonne of oil available to produce about the same amount of biodiesel or about 700 Million litres
Let's have a look at another scenario:
I have said in a prior post, the future for biodiesel use as well as it's best start for the long term is For farmers that can grow about 120 Ha of Canola on their land
This how I see it happening
Cost of land preparation planting harvesting etc is about $370 per Ha
Yield of Canola seed average eastern states is 1.8 Tonne per Ha
Assuming a price of $400 per tonne the farmer gets about $360 nett after storage and handling charges yielding about $648 per ha
Less the $360 cost that leaves a gross income of $278 per ha
If he processes the seed on the farm to get the oil out of it, an achievable extraction of 35% of oil is assured with reasonable equipment
This then yields 630 KG of oil that can with good conversion into biodiesel will give him about 550 litres of fuel
The equation then becomes quite simple, 550 Litres of fuel is worth about $835 to the farmer today as against $ 278 gross by selling the seed
He is also left with about 1150 KG of canola meal that he can sell if he has no stock on his farm
Regardless of various post's previously on prices for canola meal, the going rate is an average between 23 to 29 cents a Kg,
So if we are to average out at say 26 cents per KG He has a further $300 for the meal
He will certainly get a better return by feeding it out to his stock
People that buy canola meal to feed animals do turn a profit
One can play around with numbers till the cows come home, the fact remains;
The farmer needs fuel to run his operation
He has to buy at $1.52 per litre (Yesterday at Mildura) delivered
A simple calculation cannot fail to point out the simple fact that Dino diesel has to be about $.55 for the above scenario to become inoperative
something that I do not see happening
This will have to be a very good return per Ha, on a dollar for dollar basis
He can become independent of fuel purchases if his land is capable of giving him a crop of canola
His cost's are further lowered, he does not have to borrow the money to pay for the fuel, which is cut off if it goes past 14 Days from delivery
Further he will lower his cost of production as he is getting fuel at a lower cost than using dino fuel
If he keeps the meal to feed animals with, he will then improve his land by using the manure on it which gives him a lower cost of fertiliser input
He will be running a closed farming system, nothing leaves the farm
If he recovers his Methanol as he should, his cost of catalyst will be minimal getting the lowest cost for the production of biodiesel on his farm
The glycerin can be added back to the meal and fed to ruminants as it is very good feed for them
Yes I know I have not taken into account Capital cost's, Depreciation, Manufacturing costs, his time as well as the land, cost of chemical etc
I am more than happy to do a full business case on the above
He becomes independent of dino fuel as well as the clutches of fuel distributors, gets the best value out of his land, while preserving hard earned cash
The point surely must be obvious:
Cheers
Chris
Seriously though, Tony is right. MOST diesels CAN be run on SVO with a few modifications.
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