The SpendSmart Payments Co (SSPC)

[JNelson]

NEWS FROM LA TIMES

toms_to_bits LA Times News SSPC 5/30/01

Wednesday, May 30, 2001 / Print this story

News from Ontario in the Times Community Newspapers

Company feeds on interest in alternative fuels
Ontario-based Southern States Power Co. processes food-frying oils for lower-emission biodiesel, which is
gaining interest during energy crisis.


By MATTHEW CHIN, [e-mail],





ONTARIO -- The oil used to cook your French fries and potato chips could one day be the same fuel that
keeps your lights on.
Against the backdrop of California's energy crisis, Southern States Power Co. of Ontario aims to provide
cities with spare power by burning fuel processed from food frying oils, making one of several types of
vegetable and animal oil-based fuels known as biodiesel.
"We're getting calls as we speak from all over the state to sell them backup power," said Harrison A.
McCoy III, Southern States Power executive vice president.
The company, in conjunction with Native American-owned Green Aero Energy Ltd., is poised to provide the
city of Loma Linda with 50 megawatts of power through generators mounted on trailers.
The Ontario company next month will complete a biodiesel production plant in the Coachella Valley that
will make 10 million gallons of the alternative fuel each year.
Southern States Power signed a contract last month to provide six megawatts of standby power a day for
UC Riverside , using the cleaner - burning fuel.
UC Riverside then gives that power to the city of Riverside, and in exchange the university and its precious
research projects will be spared from rolling blackouts, university spokeswoman Kris Lovekin said.
With President Bush announcing that his new national energy policy includes more use of alternative fuels,
company officials say their firm has a bright future and is looking to expand in the Midwest and East
Coast, McCoy said.
McCoy said the company is in talks with a Riverside developer, Yeager Brothers, about supplying 40
megawatts of power to a Rialto recycling center development.
The publicly traded company's stock (OTC BB: SSPC) was selling at 49 cents per share at the close of
markets on Tuesday on a volume of nearly 9 million shares.
Its 52-week high was $2.75 in March last year and its low was 2 cents earlier this month. The share price
rose to 20 cents on May 23 and has more than doubled since then.
The company has $5 million in assets, McCoy said.
Southern States Power pays 8 cents to 10 cents per pound for the unprocessed oils from suppliers,
including McDonald's Restaurants, potato chip maker Frito Lay and Mission Tortillas, McCoy said.
The used oil is poured into a reactor tank along with methanol and sodium hydroxide and kept at 140
degrees Fahrenheit.
After several hours of mixing, a separation occurs in which the glycerin byproduct sinks to the bottom and
the biodiesel fuel floats to the top.
Southern States sells the glycerin to Proctor & Gamble and other companies that use it in cleaning
agents, McCoy said.
It uses the biodiesel in its own power plants and also sells the fuel to companies that use alternative fuel
vehicles.
The company sells part of the biodiesel to petroleum distributors such as Arco, Texaco and Shell, McCoy
said.
"It's a cleaner burning fuel," said Joseph Norbeck, director of UC Riverside's College of Engineering Center
for Environmental Research and Technology.
Unlike diesel, biodiesel fuels don't contain sulfur. Sulfur is a particulate pollutant.
The zero-level of sulfur allows biodiesel producers to add exhaust treatments to reduce pollution level even
more. Biodiesels also have a lower emission rate of nitrogen oxides.
"There's got to be some more testing done, but it looks pretty promising," Norbeck said.
The big oil companies make a mixture of 20% biodiesel with 80% diesel, which they sell to alternative fuel
users.
The company makes impressive claims about the use of biodiesel, contending it could result in a 100%
reduction in carcinogens, a 95% reduction in ozone harmful hydrocarbons and up to a 94% reduction in
particulate matter.
Two Arizona groups, the Deer Valley Unified School District and Rockland Materials cement hauling
company, use Southern States Power's cleaner burning fuels.
The federal Department of Energy is pushing to see that 30% of petroleum-based motor fuel be replaced by
alternative fuels by the year 2010.
The company has seven employees in Ontario and seven at its Coachella Valley plant. McCoy said the
company will increase by another 25 to 35 employees if a Rialto plant opens.
Southern States formed in 1998 in Shreveport, La., and moved to Ontario in October.

JNelson