Larry Ramsey, one of our awesome customers from Texas, works as the Equipment Manager at the beautiful Tierra Verde Golf Club and produces Biodiesel on site using a BioPro 150 Automated Biodiesel Processor. The golf course, owned and operated by the City of Arlington, Texas, wanted to do something to contribute to a better environment in the city and out of it was born their incredible Biodiesel program!
Larry’s become a big fan of Biodiesel and loves the results they’ve seen on the course and throughout the city.
We’ll let Larry share in his own words all the cool things they’re doing.
“The processor [BioPro 150] is part of the operation here at Tierra Verde Golf Club. We are a municipal golf course within the City Of Arlington, TX. We are the first Audubon Signature golf course in Texas and the first municipal in the world. As part of that, we are always looking for more environmentally aware ways to do our work here on the course. Biodiesel was another way to accomplish that goal. It is also a good way to cut some of our operational costs.”
Here’s a shot of their Biodiesel processor
The majority of the oil they obtain comes from restaurants that are part of the golf course. Also, during the holidays they work with the city water department to put on oil collection drives with the community. Citizens are able to dispose of their household waste cooking oil right at their facility and it gets turned into Biodiesel.
As oil comes in, it’s filtered and placed in the green drum below and then pumped into the BioPro to be made into Biodiesel. The blue drum is used to store the glycerin that’s produced from the process.
The Biodiesel is used in all of their on course diesel equipment. All of the new equipment they purchase is Biodiesel certified so they’re able to use high blends. The older equipment is fed a diet of biodiesel blended with petrol diesel with no ill effects at all. The Biodiesel itself, once produced is stored in above ground tanks for blending.
Once the Biodiesel is produced and ready to use, Larry needed an easy way to transport it into vehicles so he purchased one of our heavy duty electric Biodiesel pumps and build a really sweet pumping cart!
It features an easy to move around dolly, hooks for the pump nozzle and hoses, and hose hookups top & bottom.
Public Outreach & Educations
The City of Arlington’s Biodiesel program at the Tierra Verde Golf Course has been a huge success! They regularly have students and teachers that tour the course and as part of the tour they’re always shown the golf clubs amazing Biodiesel production process.
Larry loves to show it off and said, “I like showing them that biodiesel doesn’t stink like raw petrodiesel and that the tail pipe emissions are cut down.”.
As for the by products, Larry said they’re doing some awesome things with it as well! “We can use byproducts of the processing as soaps and as ant and nuisance animal replant. By mixing glycerin with hot pepper flakes, it becomes a biodegradable repellent.” How’s that for cool!
Production So Far & Future Plans
As of August 2014, they’ve produced 200 gallons of Biodiesel. The majority of the processing is done during the warm months and then halted during the winter. Larry’s currently working on piping in hot water to their processing facility to allow them to process during the colder months as well.
Of the whole process, Larry said, “I like that I am using a product that we have ready access to (used oil) and get to save some money out of my fuel budget. I was never a chemistry guy in high school or college. It is cool that I am doing chemistry and learning about how the chemical process occurs. Any day that you can learn something new, it is a good day.”
We love seeing the great success that Larry and the City of Arlington Texas have been able to see by incorporating this great Biodiesel program into their city. And the fact that it’s being done on their golf course is all the more cool!
We think it’s awesome & congratulate them on their huge success!
Happy Brewing!