Arkansas looks to add another biodiesel plant

Arkansas looks to add another biodiesel plant
Biodiesel Magazine - Grand Forks,ND,USA
What would be the state’s third commercial-scale biodiesel plant has begun construction in Arkansas. ... The biodiesel plant will use soy oil as feedstock. ...

What would be the state’s third commercial-scale biodiesel plant has begun construction in Arkansas. Arkansas Soy Energy Group LLC commenced initial work on a 7 MMgy plant near DeWitt, according to Jon Hornbeck, chief financial officer of Hornbeck Seed Company.

The project will include a grain-handling facility, soy crush plant and soy meal mill, Hornbeck said. He said he expects construction on the facility’s main buildings to be complete by spring 2007. Start-up is expected by fall.

The biodiesel plant will use soy oil as feedstock. Hornbeck said most of the biodiesel plant’s feedstock will be sourced locally. “The main purpose is for area farmers to have a better market,” Hornbeck said. “They have been very supportive of the project.”

Hornbeck said the plant site is near his family’s seed company outside of DeWitt’s city limits. Hornbeck Seed is a family-owned dealer of “proprietary soybean products,” according to the company’s Web site.

DeWitt is located in southeast Arkansas, approximately 100 miles southeast of Little Rock. DeWitt is also less than 30 miles south of Stuttgart, Ark., which is home to Patriot Biofuels. The 3 MMgy biodiesel plant began production in March and is already undergoing expansion plans.

The state’s largest biodiesel producer is Eastman Chemical Company, which initially produced biodiesel in October 2005 in Batesville. The plant now produces 18 MMgy of biodiesel and was purchased in July by Viceroy Acquisition Corp.

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