Interview with a Biodiesel Producer

CAP talks with Yokayo Biofuels owner Kumar Plocher

May 1, 2007

When Kumar Plocher and his wife Sunny Beaver first decided to open a biodiesel production plant, they knew they were taking a huge risk. At the time, the idea of a biodiesel industry was only that—a really good idea. Nevertheless, Kumar and Sunny combined their interests in renewable energy with their idealism and launched Yokayo Biofuels.

Sustainably produced renewable fuels may hold the key to ending our country’s dependence on foreign oil, reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, and helping American farmers by stimulating our rural economy. The Center for American Progress lays out a strategy for addressing these issues in its recent report “Fueling a New Farm Economy,” which recommends several important changes to energy legislation and our nation’s Farm Bill, which is up for reauthorization this year.

CAP’s multifaceted approach to America’s rural economy unites energy and agricultural objectives. Promoting renewable energy is essential to boosting economic development in our rural communities. If we want to turn these objectives into realities, one goal in particular has to be achieved: we must maximize local ownership of renewable energy production. This is the premise of the Center’s report “Energizing Rural America.” It is also the principle upon which Yokayo Biofuels was established.

Kumar Plocher’s career exemplifies the idea that empowering local producers and farmers could change the face of energy in the United States. He sat down with CAP to discuss what he does for a living, the importance of regionally appropriate energy crops, and how to get Americans excited about sustainably produced biofuels.

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CAP: Could you tell us about the fuels that your plant, Yokayo Biofuels, produces?

Kumar Plocher: Right now, we are really a one-trick pony. We make one fuel, and it is biodiesel, and we make it from used restaurant fryer oil. We’re really small—the biodiesel industry is getting really big, and we’re a very small player in it. Currently we’re making and selling about 20,000 gallons a month, which is tiny by industry standards, but as far as a vertically-integrated operation, we’re setting a pretty decent standard—there aren’t many companies doing what we’re doing. We’re collecting oil from about 500 restaurants and at our production plant we clean that up, put it through the chemical process that transforms it into biodiesel and takes out the glycerin, and once we’ve got that product purified, then we deliver it.

CAP: Why did you start Yokayo Biofuels?

KP: It was a total environmental political decision for me—really ideals-based. I started in 2001 and I had no idea what the biodiesel industry was going to look like. I mean the idea of a biodiesel industry wasn’t even really there yet. So I was just into the idea of “oh, I found out about this fuel, I’m running it in my car, it works really great, why isn’t everybody able to get it?” So, I brought some into the county. Luckily where we are in Mendocino County in Northern California, there’s a lot of diesel usage, a lot of farms, a lot of farmers, and a lot of diesel trucks and tractors. And there’s also a lot of environmentalism and awareness of sustainability issues. And so I was able to kind of capitalize on that.

CAP: How popular would you say your pumping station is?

KP: We’ve got three pumping stations in this county, although most of our business is deliveries to farms and residential users and businesses. As far as pumping locations, again, we’re very, very small-volume, so if you were measuring popularity by volume, I’d say we’re not even on the radar. But to give an idea of how valued we are in the community, I mean, we did recently win an award from the Chamber of Commerce in this area for being a community leader. So, you know, people know about us, we got a lot of press, and people like having us around.

CAP: What should be done to increase the availability of biodiesel and other renewable fuels and increase the demand for fuel-flex vehicles?

KP: I think the most important thing right now, and it’s kind of the root of everything—so people are focusing a lot on marketing and they’re focusing a lot on kind of these further downstream things, but at the root of it all is feedstock viability—you know, the source for the biofuels. And as far as my industry, biodiesel, I think that that’s the most important thing—to develop appropriate regional feedstocks. For us right now that means recycled restaurant fryer oil—that’s the most ecologically-correct, benign feedstock available to us right now. But obviously that’s not going to last very long and we’re not very big yet; as we grow, we’re going to need something more than that, and it makes no sense for me to sing the praises of our fuel ecologically and be importing soybean oil from the Midwest to make it. So, you know, we’re working on developing local feed stocks. I’m researching something called the Chinese Tallo tree, which in much of the U.S. is classified as a pest-invasive species, but here in California, it’s not and it yields quite a bit of oil—10 times more oil per acre than soybeans. We’re researching that right now—I’ve got some test trees that we’re working with. And I think that’s the biggest challenge that’s in the way. And unfortunately, it’s only kind of getting barely minimally addressed by the biofuels lobbying forces.  

CAP: CAP’s policy recommendations focus on rewarding farmers for promoting environmental standards and producing sustainable biofuels that can make a real impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What do you think is the most important change that must be made to the Farm Bill and other energy legislation at the federal level?

KP: I think the most important change is an appreciation for appropriate regional crops, as opposed to the one-size-fits-all approach with soybeans for biodiesel and corn for ethanol. Those just don’t make sense in a lot of areas, and, specifically, they’re both very low-yield crops. So I think the biggest thing for farmers to think about is what works best in your area and what will give the biggest possible yield. And for me, that might mean Chinese Tallo Trees. As we head into the future, it might even mean something kind of crazy like microalgae. But I can’t recommend Chinese Tallo Trees to someone in South Carolina because there it’s a pest and if they grow one, they’re going to be growing a hundred nearby. So I think people need to focus on those kinds of roots of it all, rather than promoting the word “biodiesel” and promoting the word “ethanol” and everybody getting excited about corn and soy.  

CAP: How does using biodiesel and other biofuels affect greenhouse gas emissions?

KP: Well it definitely reduces them dramatically. The biggest greenhouse gas emission being carbon dioxide, whenever you’ve got a fuel that’s based on plants that you’re growing today—and even if it’s restaurant fryer oil, it’s still basically plants that were grown today—you’ve got a closed looped carbon dioxide cycle, the green plants suck it out of the air, and then you process them one way or another, you get your fuel out of that and the oil that you put back into the air cannot be more than what was taken out of the air in the first place. So, being part of a closed loop like that, we’re not really mining carbon dioxide and dumping it into the atmosphere. I look at biodiesel and ethanol, when they’re done as sustainably as possible, as a solution to carbon dioxide dumping. Because when you’re mining your fuel, that’s what you’re doing, is you’re taking sources of carbon dioxide from way down in the ground—we don’t really know what purpose they’re serving there—and we’re dumping it wholesale into the atmosphere and that doesn’t have the same kind of balance approach as biofuels. 

CAP: What is the cost to consumers to switch to biofuels?

KP: Well right now, the cost is generally about $0.50 to $1.00 higher for biodiesel per gallon. And there are various blends that people can get. We are interested in the high blends—we used to call it B100, but due to subsidies now everyone says B99.9, because to get a certain tax credit you need that nominal amount of petroleum in there. That’s where you’re going to see the biggest difference in price. Right now, for instance, our pump price is $3.69 a gallon. And that’s partially reflective of higher costs to do all this business in California. If I was doing the same thing in Texas, I might be charging $3.20 a gallon, maybe less. At the gas stations, diesel sells around here for $3 a gallon, so we’re about $0.70 cents higher. 

CAP: The Center is encouraging the use of of sustainably produced E85 and an increase in E85 pumps at retail fueling stations—some of our policy recommendations in our report on renewable energy and the Farm Bill. How frequently is E85 used in Northern California, and what are the benefits of its usage?

KP: I would say that unfortunately it’s hardly used in California at all. I see lots of people with flex-fuel vehicles, but most of them don’t even know that they have flex-fuel vehicles. And even if they do know, there are very few places where they can get ethanol. In Sonoma county, which is the county south of us, I think there’s some kind of buyer’s club, and I don’t even know if they have a public pump. But it’s very hard to get in this area.

CAP: So how do we spread the word about flex-fuel vehicles?

KP: One of the problems in California is that any drop of ethanol that’s made is going to go into our gasoline in this state, because there’s a mandate for E10 basically, and there hasn’t been enough ethanol to meet that mandate. So all the gasoline in California from what I understand is around E 5.7. From what I understand, there’s tons of ethanol being imported to meet the California demand and it’s affecting the livestock feed industry and it’s affecting the chip and tortilla industry. I think to really make some inroads there, again, I’m a foodstock guy—you gotta get away from corn.

CAP: What is the most important factor that would motivate Americans to switch to renewable fuels?

KP: I think the most important factor in as far as catching the interest of your average American is still getting off of a dependence on foreign oil. If I’m trying to get someone to think about using our fuel, and I don’t know if they’re Republican or Democrat, and I don’t really know anything about them, that’s going to be my number one argument, because everybody understands how much world chaos is going on right now with regards to oil. But on a local level—in my local community for instance–we’ve just sent out a survey recently and found out that the most important things to all of the people around here who are interested in biodiesel are that it’s locally generated and that it’s ecologically sustainable. So once you’ve got people interested in the idea, then that’s the level that I think needs to be achieved.

CAP: Is there anything else you’d like to add about Yokayo or what you think Congress needs to promote the use of such sustainably produced biofuels?

KP: I just think that promotion is kind of a dangerous thing if there’s not really a lot of research done on what the best thing is to be promoting. And I think that right now, there’s a risk of promoting kind of a half-formed concept. And that’s when you get problems with the livestock industry and the tortilla shortage, because you’re using all your corn to produce ethanol. Especially when it’s not the ideal feedstock in the first place. And we see this with any biofuels—that the most popular one is going to be the one that’s got the biggest lobbying force. So I would just really urge that in the promotion of biofuels, that a pretty intense magnifying glass is applied to what the end result’s going to look like, and what kind of issues of regional appropriateness and what kind of possible detrimental effects to other industries could arise as a result of focusing on whatever specific product we’re focusing on.

For more information:

• Fueling a New Farm Economy

• Energizing Rural America

• Getting the Farm Bill Right: Congress Can Ensure Renewable Energy Boosts Rural Income

• The Farm Bill, By the Numbers
  

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