Dwayne Vanlacker - 2008 photo: James Crichlow, JBJ

Several years ago (2008 to be exact), the city of Jacksonville’s Fleet management division converted its fueling stations to carry ethanol-blended gasoline in compliance with state (and federal) environmental regulations. The division had already been supplying biodiesel to JEA as part of its renewable energy portfolio. The city  blended 100 percent  biodiesel (B100) with diesel to make to make a B20, which is compatible for standard diesel vehicles.

In the same time period, the fuel depot was readying itself to become fully operational as a distiller of (used cooking oil) biodiesel. Why? Because it bought B100 on  the open market for $4 per gallon and could produce it at $1.50 per gallon (including overhead). The city is today fully operational. It picks up used cooking oil from places like Naval Station Mayport and EverBank  Stadium. The person doing all of this distilling and blending is Fleet Fuel and Environmental Technician Dwayne Vanlacker.

Vanlacker startled ticking off the steps of the  distillation process for me. I’ll simplify it for myself here by saying a byproduct of the  process is glycerin, which becomes a commodity for all biofuel manufacturers. Glycerin is also how we arrive at  JEA’s Buckman  Water Reclamation Facility, the largest of its kind in Northeast Florida.

St. Johns Riverkeeper - algal bloom

The Nitrogen factor

It’s fairly common (regional) knowledge that excess nitrogen (and phosphorous) in water runoff into the St. Johns River causes its algal blooms during the summer. (Read St. Johns Riverkeeper entry on excess nutrients for further information. Much of the problem is attributed to lawn fertilizer.)

JEA took over the city of Jacksonville’s water and sewer department in 1997 and is under strict mandate to control the level of nitrogen it discharges into the river.

Now, here is how the biodiesel glycerin-byproduct relates:  Fleet management sends it glycerin to JEA because of a process it developed to remove nitrogen from waste water using glycerin.  Actually, Casey Nettles, a JEA operations manager,  developed it and for that he won 2011 IQPC Process Excellence Award for Best Green Project (Runner up/Honorable Mention.)

The awards celebrate process excellence initiatives that have delivered outstanding results in a variety of categories.  This is an annual international event and for JEA to be able to compete with the sheer size of some of these companies is a true honor for me to have been able to represent JEA. — Nettles

The Nitrogen Project

Nettles is team leader for JEA’s process engineering group. He sent along a Powerpoint presentation to explain what they did and why.  When I see a slide entitled Understanding the Existing Process: Root Cause Investigation Matrix, I trust they understand the existing process and I advance to Slide 10:

PROJECT SOLUTION!!

PROJECT DETERMINES THAT FEEDING BIO-DIESEL WASTE BY-PRODUCT [glycerin] TO THE MICROBES REDUCES NITROGEN DISCHARGE INTO THE RIVER

JEA’s Buckman Water Reclamation Facility (image courtesy JEA)

Slide 13:  The technology and methods utilized to protect the environment and save millions for JEA at the Buckman St. wastewater treatment plant in Jacksonville Florida, are now being considered by numerous utilities within Florida and throughout the United States!!

UPDATE: Casey Nettles is also a Six Sigma Black Belt [Six Sigma is a process management strategy originally developed by Motorola USA in 1986.]

Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes.  It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization (“Black Belts”, “Green Belts”, etc.) who are experts in these methods.   Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction or profit increase).

………………..

To advance The Nitrogen Project, I will let it will take on a life of its own and tie into Florida’s race for green oil.