Bio-diesel maker ready to pump up the volume: SITTM Technologies goes from backyard to mainstream.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: GREEN REPORT

As Luc Duchesne edges closer to bringing his mini bio-diesel refinery machine to the fuel-consuming masses, the normally talkative entrepreneur is becoming less expansive than usual.

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It's an exciting, but also hush-hush, time for the former federal forestry researcher who became a green fuel businessman.

His Sault Ste. Marie start-up company, SITTM (Stick It To the Man) Technologies, is formulating an order book of potential Canadian customers who have signed seven Memorandums of Understanding to buy the machine once it's internationally certified.

New private and public investment has come in and the 10-employee firm is scoping out some manufacturing space in the city to expand and double their staff once the orders start rolling in.

Duchesne guesses this latest version of his fully working bio-refinery is about the "seventh or eighth" prototype. It's come a long way from the mad scientist appearance of his 'Frankentank' that was once hidden under a tarp inside his garage two years ago.

The old manually-operated contraption of hoses and tanks cobbled together by Duchesne, and business partners Norm Jaehrling and John Barbeau, has given way to a machine three times bigger and fully automated with push-button controls designed to run on its own.

It has advanced to the point where Duchesne doesn't want any photographs taken of its inner workings.

Before going mainstream, the last two technological hurdles to overcome is landing the coveted ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) and-CSA (Canadian Standards Association) certification to prove it's safe for use and that the fuel can be run through a standard engine.

Though the machine is designed to be consumer-friendly and fool-proof, foolish things do happen.

To avoid any mishaps, it is housed inside an enclosed steel box atop a trailer, built to withstand an explosion. The operator controls are mounted on the exterior.

A flash evaporator removes the danger of methanol vapours and vents it outside. In case of a fuel spill, a sump contains everything inside the box.

All the raw feedstock, be it vegetable, plant, seed oil, fish or animal waste, is poured from outside through quick-connect nipples. Sensors monitor the liquid levels inside the machine.

Since Day One, Duchesne's and the company's altruistic mantra has been about delivering energy independence to consumers by placing a small bio-diesel refinery in everyone's garage.

But to take advantage of a...