This report for the California Energy Commission is for the Escondido Biorefinery, Second Generation Project proposed by Buster Biofuels, LLC to provide a sustainable source of low carbon and renewable fuel as a substitute to conventional petroleum diesel. Outlined within this report are the specifics of how the project came to grow from small time feedstock collection to design, growth, construction, test, and calibration, through to production.
The Project broke ground in October of 2013, utilizing various local general contractors and subcontractors for the construction which was completed in August of 2016. Complementing the monetary support of the Clean Transportation Program grant Buster Biofuels, LLC’s funding was sourced through various private equity to reimburse the construction up to its completion.
In November of 2016 the Internal Revenue Service approved Buster Biofuels, LLC of producing American Society for Testing and Materials spec biodiesel allowing us to sell to fuel renderers, starting our goal of displacing 4.83 million gallons of petroleum diesel annually. Buster Biofuels, LLC is participating in the state of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits program as well as the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s credit program called the Renewable Fuel Standard. Through these programs, Buster Biofuels is able to help meet certain environmental goals.
A 3rd party review places Buster Biofuels, LLC name plate capacity at 4.5 million gallons a year, not quite reaching our originally proposed goal. Buster Biofuels, LLC current challenge is obtaining enough low-cost feedstock to run the biodiesel production at full capacity. In the current fuel market, buying clean feedstock brings production cost very high making profitability very difficult to obtain, especially for a plant in start-up mode – like Buster Biofuels, LLC. More cash reserves were necessary for the plant to find an economies of scale and/or production volumes near its nameplate capacity. The market took a significant turn in Q1, 2017 after the expiration of the federal biodiesel tax credit. It was then decided to pause the production of biodiesel until the market rebounds again, or new investment capital could be attained for more equipment and infrastructure. An expansion would improve efficiencies, reduce feedstock cost of goods sold and enable the plant to find that economies of scale needed.