Voyager Petroleum, Inc. (PinkSheets: VYGO)

Voyager Petroleum, Inc. through its subsidiary Monarch Petroleum occupies a facility for use in storing and processing recycled oil in Detroit, MI. The 20,000 square foot facility was primarily used to process reclaimed oil for use in lubricant oil products that will then be sold to the automotive and industrial after-markets. The plant sits on 3.5 acres of land and consists of a warehouse, a processing facility and offices with on-site railroad and truck access. It houses 22 outside storage tanks and 32 inside storage tanks for a total storage capacity of 718,000 gallons.

There is increasing interest in using vegetable oils and animal fats to make biodiesel fuels for several reasons, including rising petroleum prices, economic and national security aspects of dependence on imported petroleum, and environmental impacts (including climate change) from fossil fuel extraction and use. Vegetable or animal oils and fats consist of triglycerides. Biodiesel is produced from these sources by a process known as transesterification, in which the triglyceride molecules are broken into alkyl ester molecules (the biodiesel product) and glycerol (the by-product) by reaction with an alcohol in the presence of a catalyst. Methanol is the most commonly used alcohol, producing a biodiesel product which consists of methyl esters. The reaction can be catalyzed by bases, acids, or enzymes. Soybean oils, sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are the most commonly used base catalysts.

The glycerol by-product is typically about 50% pure and contains excess methanol and the catalyst. Due to the impurities, the glycerol by-product must generally be refined before use as a commercial glycerol product in other industrial sectors. Reclaiming the methanol leaves the glycerol at 80 to 90% pure and makes both products more suitable as marketable commodities to our new strategic partners. Also, pure grades of glycerol (99.7%) can be used as a raw material in other industrial sectors such as food products, cosmetics, toiletries, toothpaste, drugs, animal feed, plasticizers, tobacco, and emulsifiers. The Fats are also reclaimed and processed which in turn can be used as fuel or sold back to biodiesel plants as a feedstock to make additional product.