By Tina Caparella
After Iowa Governor Thomas J. Vilsack ordered state agencies in April to use diesel fuel containing at least five percent biodiesel by 2007, and up to 20 percent by 2010, announcements followed that three biodiesel plants were on their way to fulfilling that order.
The first was expected to be producing as much as 60 gallons of biodiesel per hour by the end of July. A seven-year-old biodiesel pilot plant at the Iowa Energy Center’s Biomass Energy Conversion Facility in Nevada, IA, was getting a remake by crews from the Iowa State University-based Iowa Energy Center, Mid-States Biodiesel in Hampton, IA, and Superior Process Technologies in Minneapolis, MN. The fuel that’s produced will be sold on the open market.
The new plant will be a continuous process, rather than a batch process previously used, and will use a variety of feedstocks, including soy oil, corn oil, animal fats, and recycled cooking oil. Facility Manager Norm Olson said the goals of the new plant include a better understanding of how various animal fats can produce biodiesel, more opportunities for economic development in Iowa, practical training for Iowa State and community college students, and a fuel that’s easier on the environment.
With most of the rebuilding costs being absorbed by Mid-States Biodiesel and Superior Process Technologies, both companies will be using the new pilot plant for a variety of reasons. Mid-States Biodiesel plans to use the plant as a research and development facility for new biodiesel technologies and to train students to operate biodiesel facilities. Superior Process Technologies is using the pilot plant to demonstrate its technology for converting a variety of oils and fats into biodiesel for use in commercial plants. Within a few months of the plant’s start-up, those involved hope to begin development of a commercial biodiesel plant.
The walls are going up on another Iowa biodiesel plant, with a capacity of 30 million gallons per year, near Wall Lake, IA. Western Iowa Energy conducted an extremely successful equity drive in March 2005, raising over $22 million for the plant in 11 days. Western Iowa Energy’s design/build partner, Renewal Energy Group, anticipates an early 2006 start-up date.
The plant will use vegetable oil, primarily soy oil, and locally available animals fats as feedstock in the production process.
Cargill plans to start construction this summer on yet another biodiesel plant in Iowa that will produce up to 37.5 million gallons per year, along with a 30 million-pounds-per-year glycerin refinery, both in Iowa Falls, IA, adjacent to Cargill’s soybean crush facility. Production is anticipated to commence in April 2006.
Initially, the plant will produce biodiesel and glycerin exclusively from soybean oil, but Cargill officials expect to have the capability of using animal fat or recycled cooking oil for biodiesel production in the future. Eleven full-time employees will be hired to operate the new facility.
Canadian Renderer to Build Plant
After successfully becoming a biodiesel distributor at its 85,000 metric ton tank terminal in Vancouver, BC, Canada, West Coast Reduction, Ltd., has decided to build a production plant with a capacity of 2.8 million gallons per year.
Although the legal agreements were still being worked out at press time, West Coast Reduction’s Chief Information Officer Ridley Bestwick said the rendering company will use technology developed by Lurgi PSI, Memphis, TN. The continuous process plant will be skid-mounted and located in Vancouver. Primary feedstock will be animal fats, which West Coast Reduction processes at its rendering facilities in western Canada. The goal is to begin biodiesel production in January 2006.
Under the name West Coast Biodiesel, Ltd., the company began distributing biodiesel from other biodiesel producers in March of 2004 and will continue to do so until their plant is online.
California Producer Expands Feedstock
After several years of producing biodiesel from soybean oil, American Biofuels, LLC, has increased its Bakersfield, CA, plant capacity and begun making biodiesel from used cooking oil collected from area restaurants.
American Biofuels sponsored and contracted with a newly established company called Safe Environmental Alternatives (SEA), which collects waste cooking oil from restaurants. According to Joseph LaStella, president of Green Star Products, Inc., which owns 35 percent of American Biofuels, SEA contracted with over 80 restaurants and other baking facilities in Bakersfield and surrounding communities to collect their used oil, and is expanding its collection program 110 miles to the north into Fresno, CA.
EPA Awards Grant
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a $75,000 grant to a group of business and government organizations in Santa Cruz, CA, to fund an innovative pilot project to convert used restaurant grease into biodiesel for area transit systems.
The grant – in the form of an EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response Innovation Pilot – went to Ecology Action of Santa Cruz, which has teamed up with the city of Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transportation District, and the Santa Cruz chapter of the California Restaurant Association. The project team also includes waste grease hauler Pioneer Liquid Transport, Bio-Energy Systems, and Pacific Biodiesel, Inc., a biodiesel producer and supplier.
The biodiesel fuel produced by the project will be distributed and sold to local public sector fleets such as Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transportation District. The group also plans to use the EPA grant to demonstrate the economic viability of a community-based biodiesel collection, production, and distribution chain using locally generated waste vegetable oil.
The EPA’s innovative pilot grants provide money to test new ideas and strategies for environmental protection to make the agency’s programs more efficient, effective, and user-friendly. The pilot grants for 2005 total $445,449, distributed to eight grant recipients in seven states across the nation.
Oklahoma Tax Credits Spur Development
Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry signed a bill into law in early July that will provide tax credits for companies that produce biodiesel fuel in the state.
House Bill 1398 provides a tax credit of 20 cents per gallon of biodiesel fuel produced for all biodiesel facilities running at 25 percent of “name-plate” capacity on or before December 31, 2007, up to $5 million per year per facility. The bill defines “name-plate” capacity as the original designed capacity of the facility that is engaged in the production of biodiesel “derived from animal fats, grain components, co-products, or by-products.” A total cap of $125 million will be available to finance the tax credits, which will be available for five years beginning December 31, 2007.
Racing to claim the tax credits is Apollo Resources International, Inc., whose 50 percent owned subsidiary, Earth Biofuels, has purchased approximately four acres of land in Durant, OK, that will serve as the site of a 10 million-gallon-per-year biodiesel plant. A retired feed mill currently occupies the site. Earth Biofuels plans to begin construction on the facility immediately with an anticipated initial production start-up in October 2005.
Oregon’s First Plant Opens
A partnership between Pacific Biodiesel, Inc., Maui, HI, and SeQuential Biofuels, LLC, Portland, OR, has helped launch Oregon’s first biodiesel plant, while construction gets underway on a second. With a capacity of one million gallons per year, the new facility in Salem, OR, began producing the alternative fuel in July from used cooking oil supplied, in part, by Kettle Foods, an Oregon-based potato chip and nut manufacturer. Pacific Biodiesel is providing the technical expertise and equipment while SeQuential Biofuels will operate the facility and sell the fuel through its retail outlets, which is currently comprised of 12 biodiesel fuel pumps in Oregon.
Although intended as an interim location, the company hopes to continue making biodiesel in Salem even after completion of the Portland facility, which will have the capacity to produce up to four million gallons per year. Developers expect the Portland plant to begin production in November.
Sustained by biodiesel’s competitive price and allure as environmentally friendly, SeQuential Biofuels has seen steady sales growth since it entered the biodiesel business in 2002. Last year, the company sold 250,000 gallons of biodiesel, which it currently transports into Oregon by rail, and expects sales to double this year, according to Managing Partner Tomas Endicott.
Minority investors of the project include Willie Nelson, a musician and biodiesel advocate; Cameron Healy, founder of Kettle Foods; John Miller, an Oregon businessman; and Ron Tyree, owner of Tyree Oil, a petroleum distributor based in Eugene, OR.
Biodiesel Bulletin - August 2005 Render