[Biodiesel News] Firm's biodiesel units in demand

Firm’s biodiesel units in demand

Arkansas Democrat Gazette - AR,USA

BY NANCY COLE. STUTTGART — As biodiesel plants spring up across the nation, an Arkansas-based company is ramping up the manufacture of its processing units. ...

 

STUTTGART — As biodiesel plants spring up across the nation, an Arkansas-based company is ramping up the manufacture of its processing units.

 

Greenline Fabrications LLC, which began operation in May in Stuttgart, was completing last week its fourth modular biodiesel processing unit.

 

A joint venture of San Rafael, Calif.-based Greenline Industries LLC and Stuttgart-based Agri Process Innovations Inc., Greenline Fabrications has 22 contracts for equipment worth $ 36 million, said Ted Lavoie, chief executive officer of Greenline Industries. Future customers are likely to include petroleum refiners and dealers, agricultural concerns, trucking companies, electric utilities and truck stops, he said.

 

Greenline’s units enable people to create their own energy without being shackled to the fossil-fuel industry, said Michael Brown, a co-founder and managing partner of Greenline Industries.

 

U. S. biodiesel production is booming thanks to high oil prices, a federal tax credit of $ 1 per gallon for biodiesel blenders and alternative-fuel-vehicle credits that diesel-powered fleets can earn by using biodiesel blends of at least B 20, 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent traditional diesel.

 

As of April 28, the United States had 65 commercial biodiesel production plants in 30 states, according to the National Biodiesel Board.

 

Those plants were capable of producing 395 million gallons of biodiesel per year. Eight of the 65 plants are being expanded and an additional 50 are under construction, which should increase U. S. biodiesel production capacity by another 714 million gallons.

 

Yet with an estimated U. S. production of 75 million gallons of biodiesel in 2005, the alternative fuel represents only a tiny fraction of the approximately 38 billion gallons of on-road diesel fuel consumed annually in the United States. Arkansas has two biodiesel production facilities: Eastman Chemical Co. near Batesville, which began producing biodiesel in October at the rate of about 6 million gallons per year and plans to increase that by 12 million gallons; and Patriot Bio-Fuels Inc. in Stuttgart, which began producing biodiesel in April at the rate of 3 million gallons per year and plans to increase that by 10 million gallons.

 

Patriot purchased one of Greenline’s first biodiesel processors and rents Greenline Fabrications about half of the 45, 000 square feet of manufacturing space that the company has in Stuttgart. Greenline Fabrications employs 32 full-time workers, a number that could double, Lavoie said.

 

The company’s three basic biodiesel processing units, which can produce between 3 million and 10 million gallons of biodiesel per year, cost between $ 1. 2 million and $ 4. 1 million each. The company’s “waterless” design eliminates many of the problems and environmental permits associated with wastewater as well as the difficult step of removing the fuel from the wash, said Jacques Sinoncelli, a co-founder and managing partner of Greenline Industries.

 

Traditional biodiesel production facilities use about 6 million gallons of water to produce 10 million gallons of biodiesel, Sinoncelli said. Instead, Greenline’s processors use a special ion-exchange resin to purify the biodiesel, he said.

 

Greenline’s processors can produce biodiesel from a variety of products, including soybean oil and rendered animal fat.

 

Greenline Industries, which designs and markets the equipment, plans to open a Little Rock sales office, Lavoie said.

 

Agri Process Innovations, which oversees the fabrication of Greenline’s processors, also installs them for some customers, said Michael Shook, who co-founded the Stuttgart firm six years ago with fellow engineer Steve Danforth.

 

Some of those installations could take place in Arkansas. During the last two months, four companies have announced plans to build biodiesel plants in the state:

 

Atlanta-based MLH Investments has said it wants to build a biodiesel plant and an ethanol refinery on a severely contaminated chemical-plant site in Helena-West Helena. The biodiesel plant would be able to produce 30 million to 40 million gallons of fuel annually. Arkansas SoyEnergy Group LLC plans to start building a biodiesel facility in September south of DeWitt that can produce 3 million gallons of fuel annually, with the ability to increase production to 6. 5 million gallons.

 

Pinnacle BioFuels Inc. has said it will begin construction in September or October in the Crossett Industrial Park of a plant that will produce up to 10 million gallons of biodiesel annually.

 

Delta American Fuels LLC plans to build a modular 40-million-gallon-per-year biodiesel plant south of Helena-West Helena near Planters Service and Sales Inc. Construction will begin later this month in Thailand and the plant should reach Arkansas within 40-44 weeks.

 

Plans for several other Arkansas biodiesel plants are in various stages of development.

 

--

Posted by Vince to Biodiesel News at 9/12/2006 08:03:00 AM