The flow rate during the material balance tests was probably too low for meaningful results, but for the sake of discussion we could make assumptions that the fraction of waste oil made into diesel is 70% and the fraction made into #5 fuel oil is 20%. Also for the sake of discussion, I'll assume the machine runs on average about 90% of the year which is 328 days.
So the waste oil processed by a Model 600 would be
24 X 328 X 600 = 4,723,200 gallons a year.
Diesel produced would be .7 X 4,723,200 = 3,306,240 gallons.
#5 heating oil produced would be .2 X 4,723,200 = 944,640 gallons
The web page says a waste oil collector has a cost per gallon of between 5 cents and 15 cents. This is in a state that is concerned about the effects of air pollution. Where I live in Florida, the main source of air pollution away from main highways is from trees. The state is surrounded by open ocean, has no mountains to trap smog, and has plenty of carbon dioxide-consuming trees, and no law against burning waste oil that I know of. A waste oil recycler told me waste oil can be burned to heat asphalt to add an extra lane to Interstate 75, and that has driven the cost of the oil to about 25 cents. But that condition won't last forever. Sooner or late, all states will have to stop burning waste oil, and the cost of collecting waste oil will be 15 cents, tops. Let's give the waste oil collector a profit of 7 cents a gallon for this calculation and split the difference of his cost range and say waste oil costs us 17 cents a gallon.
The web page says in 1996, diesel was between 50 cents to 75 cents a gallon. Let's split the difference and say we get 62 cents a gallon for diesel and we get 37 cents a gallon for heating oil.
17 cents times 4,723,200 gallons = $802,944 is our cost of waste oil.
62 cents times 3,306,240 gallons = $2,049,868.80 is what we get for our diesel.
37 cents times 944,640 gallons = $349,516.80 is what we get for our heating oil.
$349,516.80 + $2,049,868.80 - $802,944 = $1,596,441.6 is what we get before paying for the hired help to run the operation 24 hours a day, the rent, the taxes, the insurance, the stationery store, the office costs, the lawyers, you get the idea.
What the hey, let's make our fantasy machine clear $1,200,000 a year. Then let's divide by 7 million shares and get 17 cents a share per machine. This is before corporate income tax. Now how many machines do we want to set up and run?
Charles |
