Fillmore Fuels has launched what it says is the first online auction for biodiesel and related products—like feedstock, catalysts, and processors—in the hope of creating a sort of eBay for the growing market around the renewable fuel.
“It provides a means for local farmers, restaurants, and producers to sell their virgin vegetable oils or WVO [waste vegetable oils] to the highest bidder, thus increasing their profit margins and limiting the middleman and cost," said Wesley Fillmore, president of the new auction, in a statement.
Sellers post descriptions of their products and buyers have a set number of days to outbid the highest bidder. Similar to eBay and other online auctions, buyers can then rate and review sellers and their products.
A B-60 universal biodiesel processor and a handbook of microalgal cultures are two products currently listed on the auction.
But the pot of gold is the biodiesel itself, a renewable fuel derived from natural oils like soybean oil, that is expected to become a 400 million gallon market by 2030, according to the U.S. Energy Information Association.
Fillmore Fuels hopes to “revolutionize” this burgeoning market by harnessing the power of the Internet to bring together buyers and sellers.
The auction may prove successful, especially with related products like processors. But DTN biofuels analyst Rick Kment expressed doubts about the auction’s ability to have a significant role in the biodiesel market.
Mr. Kment said the logistics of transporting biodiesel to the end user or retailer and the efficient distribution system already in place in the country would be hurdles to the auction’s growth.
“It will be hard to make it economical when you include transportation costs compared with the system that is already there,” he said.
But Mr. Kment said there might be opportunity for niche markets to develop around the auction.
Most biodiesel consumed in the United States is blended with conventional petroleum diesel. Typical products are 2 percent, 5 percent, or 15 percent biodiesel, with the remainder petroleum based.
The Fillmore Fuels auction went live in January but was officially announced on Thursday. The company is based in Largo, Florida.