TECHNICAL SERVICES BULLETIN, July 2001
(2 of 3)

Soldiers Contract Q Fever During FMD Carcass Disposal

It has been revealed that 3 soldiers are recovering after being infected with the rare disease, Q fever, which they contracted while burying animals with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in the U.K., making them the first human victims of the epidemic. The servicemen began displaying symptoms of flu or pneumonia, with which Q fever is often confused, after they helped dispose of animal carcasses on a farm in Northumberland. After complaining of the symptoms, including breathing problems, 2 of the soldiers were treated in the hospital but later released. It is not clear whether the third man needed hospital treatment. Though 6 other men, also believed to be soldiers, were screened for Q fever infection, the results proved negatives. Doctors and public health officials across Britain have been alerted to watch out for patients who may have worked on farms during the slaughter program complaining of similar illness. News of the first people to suffer health problems as a result of the FMD epidemic was revealed not by the Department of Health but on the website of the Public Health Laboratory Service, the Government’s monitor of infectious diseases.

A Health Department spokesman said the general public was unlikely to be at increased risk from Q fever although a risk assessment released earlier during the epidemic suggested bacteria [and rickettsia] might be released for months from animal burial sites. “It is known that the people that have had it so far have not had it through food,” said the spokesman. “They were involved directly in disposal. It is a known risk. The disease itself is not a high-risk disease. The exposure among people who work on farms is very high because [rickettsiae] are so common and widespread.” People handling animals, whether infected by FMD or not, are at particular risk of catching the disease, especially from pregnant sheep and cattle, many of which have been killed during the recent cull.

Q fever is rare, with only a few hundred cases reported each year, mainly in Ulster, although it is believed that numbers are under-reported because of its similarity to flu. One survey suggested that one in 4 farmers had the disease.

Thousands of soldiers, slaughtermen, and troops were involved in the cull. There have been 1788 confirmed outbreaks of FMD and animals on more than 7000 farms have been killed as a precaution. So far 2.76 million sheep, 537,000 cattle and 128,000 pigs have been killed.

Q fever, or rickettsial pneumonia, occurs worldwide. Pneumonia is a frequent consequence of infections with an acute onset and in extreme cases possible involvement of heart valves and other organs. Influenza is a viral disease not amenable to antibiotic treatment, whereas Q fever is a rickettsial disease responding to tetracycline treatment. The Q fever rickettsia, Coxiella burnetii, is usually transmitted by inhalation of small particle aerosols that originate from infected animals. Q fever is enzootic among domestic animals, particularly cattle, sheep and goats. Q fever rickettsiae proliferate profusely in the placenta of infected females and are released abundantly at parturition. They are resistant in the environment and can be disseminated by dust, dried feces, and other animal detritus. Disease occurs sporadically in farm workers, but outbreaks are more frequent among abattoir workers. Q fever can also be contracted by consumption of contaminated raw milk. Ticks are a potential but rare source of human infection. Disposal of animals via burning, burial. landfilling and composting can, as is illustrated by this case, have biosecurity and even zoonotic implications that create both human and animal concerns.

BIODIESEL – BIOFUEL UPDATES

ASTM Provisional Standards

The biodiesel industry has been guided by provisional standards which expire on July 27, 2001 (ASTM PS 121) while developing final specifications. The ASTM committees were in session during the week of June 18th but were unable to gain consensus for a final ASTM biodiesel standard. There were two basic negative challenges presented on behalf of the committee members that referenced sulfur content and distillation temperature as being feedstock specific.

Sulfur content was lowered to 15 ppm from the original 500 ppm to conform to the scheduled EPA sulfur reduction requirements which are to be implemented over a period extending through 2006. The ultimate EPA level of 15 ppm will not become mandatory until 2006. The proposed ASTM sulfur specification of 15 ppm as well as a change in test method from D2622 to D5453 left some fuel suppliers with limited data to evaluate and agree to the 15 ppm specification in the initial ASTM standards.

Another property of distillation temperature that is a property designed to determine contamination in diesel fuel but serves little purpose for biodiesel became under challenge. The test method of D1160 has been challenged as per its precision and repeatability. The specifications of a 95% recovery at a maximum distillation temperature (atmospheric equivalent temperature) of 360°C were proposed. A valid explanation of test method and the specification was not readily available as being representative for all biodiesel and perhaps exclusionary for certain feedstocks or processes. Thus the subcommittee unanimously defeated the ballot for approval.

The committee is actively pursuing alternatives and time tables but suffice it to say final ASTM standards are yet to be established. Though officially the provisional standards expire on July 27, 2001, which cannot be extended, they are still available as industry standards and the referenced test methods are still valid.

FPRF Comments: Your help is needed! Sulfur has not been an element routinely assayed in fats and oils. It has surfaced to be important when used as biofuel feedstocks. Textbooks indicate that with the exception of high-erucic rapeseed oil, certain mustard seeds and the infrequent use of carbon bisulfide in olive oil extraction, sulfur-containing compounds are rare in fat and oil products. This is verified in the minimum number of analyses on fats/oils used for burner fuels. The range has been from < 1 ppm to a maximum of 16 ppm. In nearly all cases sulfur dioxide levels were negative. IF YOU HAVE ANY ANALYSIS OF SULFUR FOR ANY OF THE ANIMAL FATS/USED COOKING OILS/RESTAURANT GREASE PLEASE PROVIDE THEM TO FPRF. An information base is needed to evaluate Sulfur content of the respective fats and oils.

FEDERAL LEGISLATION INTRODUCED:
IMPACTING BIODIESEL WERE INTRODUCED IN JUNE

• CMAQ: Representative Shimkus (R-IL) and McCarthy (D-MO) reintroduced legislation to amend the Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) program to allow the purchase of biodiesel and ethanol eligible expenditures. The bill also would allow funds to be used for storage and fueling expenses (this is a change from last year’s version). The bill, H.R. 2088, has about 20 co-sponsors. Sen. Bond is expected to introduce the Senate version.
   
• Renewable Standard: Senators Hagel (R-NE) and Johnson (D-SD) introduced legislation establishing a renewable standard in all motor fuels. The bill provides for flexible compliance of meeting goals of 3% renewable fuel in 10 years and 5% renewable fuel in 15 years. There is no earmark for biodiesel.
   
• Representative Thune, Osborne, Ganske and Gutneckt introduced a companion bill in the House.
   
• Tax Incentives: Senators Hutchinson (R-AR) and Dayton (D-MN) introduced legislation to provide a partial tax exemption from the diesel excise tax for diesel blended with biodiesel. The bill calls for a 3-cent reduction for 2% blend (prorates down to ½%) and 20-cent reduction for 20% blends and higher. The Joint Committee on Taxation is currently scoring the bill. The bill currently only addresses virgin oil feedstocks although discussions are underway with the rendering industry regarding expansion of the definition to include recycled oil and animal fats as well.

SYNTHETIC DIESEL FUEL

A competitive product derived from a blend of ordinary diesel and a synthesized diesel made by converting natural gas into a liquid form has been under development for a number of years. There have been a number of announcements of facility construction but very little completions. A detail of the activities follow:

• Natural gas, cleaner and more plentiful than oil, is converted to liquid form through Fischer-Tropsch technology. Fischer-Tropsch is a gas-to-liquid (GTL) process that can produce high-quality diesel fuel from coal, natural gas and biomass resources. The middle distillate produced from this process is blended with ordinary pollutants.
   
• Diesel fuel produced in this unconventional way is free of sulfur, aromatics, nitrogen and heavy metals, the cause of noxious pollutants.
   
• In 1997, this synthetic diesel fuel was dispensed in state, since it meets tough emission standards imposed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
   
• Synthetic Diesel Fuel offers a new opportunity to use alternative fuels in diesel engines without compromising fuel-efficiency, increasing capital outlay, impacting infrastructure, or refueling cost. Its superior fuel quality, cost and ease of distribution could contribute two to three million barrels per day, or two to three percent of world-wide refinery output by 2005.
   
• Further commercialization of this fuel improves the prospects of new engines meting the national 2004 heavy-duty diesel engine standard. In the near-term, this fuel may also play a role improving existing diesel vehicles exhaust emissions, and reducing toxic emissions.
   
• Since November 1997, ARCO, Exxon, Chevron and Texaco announced plans to build pilot plants to produce synthetically derived diesel fuel through am improved Fisher-Tropsch GTL (gas-to-liquid) process. This fuel is sometimes referred to as a middle distillate synthesis (MDS). Tosco and Paramount Petroleum have sold blends of Shell’s MDS in California. In 1993 Shell Malaysia claimed to have the world’s first fully operational commercial middle distillate synthesis plant at Bintulu. Using natural gas feedstock, it produces 470,000 tons a year of middle distillates and paraffins for the international market.
   
• California’s stringent diesel fuel specifications are compelling the petroleum industry to revisit the new, improved Fischer-Tropsch process to competitively produce aromatic and sulfur complying diesel fuel.
   
• Key to the commercial success of the TL process lies in increased reactor reactivity. Separately, Syntroleum Corporation of Tulsa, OK and Exxon have license rights to an improved GTL process. This new process uses a slurry-bed reactor that increases reactivity 100 to 200 times over present fixed-bed reactors. With the successful slurry-bed development, synthetic diesel’s cost may be reduced to today’s diesel cost. Synthetic diesel has cost about 10 percent more than conventional diesel. However with the natural gas pricing increases this has become more difficult to accomplish.
   
• In November 1997, ARCO announced plans to build a $12 million pilot scale GTL conversion facility on the West Coast with Syntroleum Corp.
   
• In December 1997, Texaco announced plans to build a $75 million mobile plant using Syntroleum Corp. GTL technology producing diesel fuel on a commercial basis. Commercial fuel production of 2,500 barrel-per-day (bbd) is expected by the third quarter of 1999.
   
• Synthetic diesel fuel appears to be the most economical product from this GTL process, compared to producing other fuels such as gasoline, or methanol. The synthetic diesel fuel has no sulfur, or aromatics with a 70+ cetane value. Preliminary exhaust emission testing from a synthetically fueled diesel engines, fueled in neat composition, show emissions reduction compared to typical California diesel to be 23% in hydrocarbons, 39% in carbon monoxide, 5% in NOx and 30% in particulate matter.
   
• The GTL process needs low-cost natural gar, less than $1 per million therms, to be competitive with traditional diesel fuel. Some remote natural gas sources called “Stranded gas,” that is not economically usable may be ideally suited by this process.

With the recent fuel price increases and fluctuations of supply synthetic diesel fuel is again receiving more attention. It is ever present that the major oil companies always have immediate solutions to crises but never a long term fix except when they are challenged.

Biodiesel Cold Flow Characteristics

Biodiesel has been criticized for having cold flow properties that are a deterrent to its use in cold climates. Feedstock sources containing a higher content of saturated fatty acids i.e. tallow has particularly been incriminated. Though cold flow properties are a concern, in reality it has been a concern for the years that diesel has been used as a fuel. Conventional diesel is typically produced through a refining and distillation process from crude petroleum oils. Crude oil contains the entire range of fuel components from methane and propane, to gasoline, to diesel fuel, to asphalt and other heavier components. The refining process separates the crude oil into components and mixtures of these components primarily on the basis of volatility. Diesel fuels are on the heavy end of a barrel of crude oil. This gives diesel its high BTU content and power but also gives it the property of gelling or becoming more viscous in cold weather. Even though biodiesel critics are always ready to point out this property it has always been a property and a problem with conventional diesel and diesel vehicle operation. In general No. 2 diesel fuel will develop low temperature problems sooner than No. 1 fuel. This is not an issue with gasoline.

As a result of this property and concern the oil industry has invested a tremendous amount of effort to understand and solve cold flow properties and low temperature operability. Testing procedures to characterize fuels have been developed. Most commonly cloud point, cold filter plugging point or the low temperature filterability test are used. Cloud point is the temperature at which small solid crystals are first visually observed as the fuel is cooled. Cold filter plugging point (CFPP) or low temperature filterability test (LTFT) are the temperatures at which a fuel will cause a fuel filter to plug due to fuel components which have begun to crystallize or gel. The CFPP is less conservative than cloud point and is most often considered to be a better, truer indicator of low temperature operability.

The petroleum industry and engine manufacturers have several recommendations for cold weather operability when using conventional diesel. The most common being the use of additives and the utilization of fuel tank, fuel filter and fuel line heaters. Suffice it to say that these recommendations are also applicable to biodiesel. There have been similar research and demonstration attention given to cold flow properties of biodiesel. A rather extensive study conducted by the Institute of Gas Technology was previously reported in FPRF Directors Digest #295. The study involved a number of feedstock fuels and blends. A brief summary is as follows using only the certified petroleum diesel fuel (CPDF), soy oil (SME), inedible tallow (ITME), and high free fatty acid yellow grease (HYGME) as reference fuels made from the respective feedstocks.

< previous   next >

BACK TO TECHNICAL SERVICES BULLETINS INDEX