Waste not, want not
As gas prices skyrocketed and demand for clean energy grew in lockstep, the University of New Brunswick finance professor realized the market for renewable energy and alternative fuel would see a boom in coming years.
"I decided to start my own green energy company," Otuteye says. "I wanted to stand on the other side of the investment transaction and sell shares - not buy them."
In an unmarked building tucked away in Fredericton's industrial park is Optrim Energy Corp. The cutting edge start-up is based in a modest 1,000 square-foot facility lined with vats of used oil.
For the last 18 months, the company's three-person team has perfected a process that converts waste vegetable oil into high grade biodiesel - touted as the fuel of the future.
From chip stands to Chinese restaurants, the oil is collected at eateries across the province by a waste management company and delivered to Optrim Energy's facility.
The waste oil - such as fryer oil, grill grease and bacon fat - then goes through a pre-treatment process. This filters out any food solids and, more importantly, reduces the amount of free fatty acids.
"Biodiesel has been around for a while," Otuteye says. "But this step - the pre-treatment - we discovered is key to the process," he says, adding that the company is applying for a patent.
Once the waste oil has been filtered, it is then pumped into a large production tank where it is mixed with methanol and a catalyst like sodium hydroxide.
The biodiesel then rises to the top while a darker substance - glycerol - settles to the bottom and can be recycled into soap or fertilizer. The methanol can then be recovered to be used again.
"We try not to waste anything," Otuteye says. "From start to end we're reusing and recycling."
The finished product is a high grade certified biodiesel the company hopes to sell to trucking companies and the military. But the company's vision is to have a biodiesel pump at every gas station.
Now that Optrim Energy has finished the research and develop phase, however, the company needs funding to scale up its operations and reach its lofty goals.
"We're on the cusp of a very lucrative industry and we just need the financial backing to expand," Otuteye says.
Although the company has applied for funding through Business New Brunswick, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and Enterprise Fredericton, it has yet to hear back.
Otuteye says the province is lagging behind compared to the incentives for alternative fuels offered in other provinces and the United States.
However, the federal government announced in June a new fuel standard that would require two per cent renewable content in all diesel and home heating oil by 2012.
"This will definitely spell an increase in demand for biodiesel," he says. "But we need to make investments now to increase our production capacity so we're ready to meet demand."
Despite the economic uncertainty for Optrim Energy, the green energy company is full-steam ahead on a product known as a fuel booster. The additive - which the company plans to sell in 350 milliliter bottles across Fredericton within a few months - can be directly added to a gas tank before filling up.
The product promises to increase gas mileage by up to 25 per cent and lower emissions.
"I drive a 1992 Toyota Camry and I went from 17 miles per gallon to 27 using the fuel booster," said Earl Cunanan, the company's director of marketing and operations. The company's third collaborator, Nick Beaudry, is the chief technical officer.
Optrim Energy is not the first biodiesel start-up in the province.
BIO-D Énergie Inc. in Claire and Eastern Greenway Oils Inc. in Waterville are both producing alternative fuels.
Eastern Greenway is providing Fredericton transit buses a biodiesel additive derived from canola, mustard seed and ethanol. It is added to the 69-litre tanks of some buses to reduce emissions and fuel costs.
BIO-D Énergie, in the Madawaska panhandle, crushes canola and soybean meal into livestock feed and uses the waste oil as raw material for biodiesel, which the company burns in its fleet of 50 trucks in New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.
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