Seg Niebuhr
- Jun 15, 2022
- 3 min read

Plasma Blue: Making Cents

Updated: Jun 21, 2022

The new biodiesel technology pays for itself in 12 months, allowing adopters to reap the savings and expand production capacity with seamless integration into existing facilities.

When a consumer saves 1 cent per gallon when filling their fuel tank, it is hard for them to become excited. But when a biodiesel production plant saves 1 cent per gallon on 35 million gallons, it can quickly change the plant’s long-term viability. Now imagine: What if they could save up to 15 cents per gallon?

Enter Plasma Blue, a revolutionary new technology that creates biodiesel at a dramatically lower production cost while integrating easily into existing biodiesel plants, new greenfield projects, as well as ethanol refineries.

Plasma Blue technology uses electricity to excite the molecules as they pass through the reactor, which in turn causes an improved intimate contact between the molecules. This technology drives the reaction faster than any other form of transesterification and, in doing so, delivers a more complete conversion and decreases bottleneck issues during this stage. Using Plasma Blue technology as a means for performing transesterification will offer dramatic advantages, including a potential 15 cents per gallon savings due to the lower catalyst cost.

What would you invest for this type of year-after-year savings? With a return on investment of just 12 months, the benefit of this cutting-edge technology is immense.

Setting aside the operational cost savings, Plasma Blue technology is also environmentally friendly. Think of the possibilities—biofuel plants lower their energy costs while enhancing carbon-intensity (CI) scores, which in turn allow those facilities to take advantage of government incentives for clean, renewable energy. When plants have the ability to use electricity over natural gas for energy-input purposes and can force conversion at any temperature, the cost savings are astronomical.

In addition, Plasma Blue technology can be powered through wind or solar energy. This technology can take a renewable, farm-grown oil, add a renewable catalyst (ethanol), and be powered by renewable energy to create the ultimate renewable liquid fuel. This is the true trifecta.

Concerned about expensive downtimes or expansion needs with this technology? Fear not. Plasma Blue has you covered. When compared to installing other biodiesel-technology processes, Plasma Blue is significantly lower due to being inexpensive to purchase and far less expensive to install. The unit has a very small physical footprint and modular design. This allows existing plants to increase production capacity without expensive downtime or expansions of plant footprints. This technology easily fits into almost all existing plants without exterior expansion. But actions speak louder than words.

Through years of university testing, a 1.5-million-gallonper-year (mgy) fully contained transesterification unit was designed and employed to be tested at a processing facility. First stop—the former Integrity Biofuels in Indiana.

Plasma Blue was able to perform testing on thousands of gallons of refined soybean oil, ultimately receiving a certificate of analysis. The results speak for themselves.

To continue our development, the same 1.5 mgy unit has made its way north to another existing plant, where it is currently undergoing long-term, large-scale testing on crude protein oil. When successfully dialed in, this plant will benefit from the ability to purchase less-refined soybean oil and take advantage of the other benefits of this technology.

After putting this technology to the test, our confidence in this process is high and we are ready to introduce Plasma Blue to leaders throughout the biofuels industry. To do this effectively, we have developed a self-contained mobile testing unit. This unit will allow plants to see the technology firsthand, in the comfort of their own facility. The mobile testing unit exists in an enclosed trailer, allowing multiple feedstock product samples to be run on site and tested in the plant’s laboratory for comparison.

Plasma Blue technology is truly revolutionary and will be a game changer for the biofuels industry. In an ever-changing industry where each penny matters, this technology will help your facility increase profitability by expansion and cost reduction.

The future of biodiesel is upon us. Are you ready to invest? It just makes cents. Contact us today.