Biodiesel plant plan sizzling
By RICHIE DAVIS Recorder Staff Plans are under way for a factory to convert recycled vegetable oil to biodiesel fuel in the Greenfield area next year, Co-opPlus of Western Massachusetts announced Friday. The 1,200-member energy cooperative announced formation of Northeast Biodiesel LLC to build the $1.5 million biodiesel plant. The effort received $300,000 in a National Renewable Energy grant secured with help from Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst. The new venture is the outgrowth of a two-year Pioneer Valley Biodiesel Cooperative. Plans for the new plant are scheduled to be announced at an Oct. 1 press conference, but principals are negotiating for an existing building "a stone's throw from Greenfield," said Technical Director Thomas Leue, who represents one-third of the corporation formed Friday. "It's a good thing all-around," said Leue, who for the past seven years has been collecting waste oil from restaurants and converting it to biodiesel, a vegetable-based alternative to petroleum that burns with the smell of french fries. The plant will employ 12 people initially, he said, and have an initial capacity of 500,000 gallons per year for fueling diesel trucks, cars and tractors, as well as for home heating. More than 400 truck fleets use biodiesel, including the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, the U.S. military, NASA, national parks, along with some state departments of transportation and school buses. Nationally, more than 250 filling stations offer biodiesel, and many fuel distributors make biodiesel available in bulk, according to a press release from the Greenfield-based Cooperative Development Institute. CDI helped funnel a $32,000 grant to the six-member biodiesel cooperative last year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study the feasibility of how the venture could be set up. Some residents in the region have been buying biodiesel in bulk over the past several years, while others have been using a blend of biodiesel heating oil. Because it reduces sulfur content and improves clean combustion, Holyoke-based Alliance Energy has announced that all of its home heating oil will be a 3 percent blend of biodiesel beginning Oct. 1, increasing to 5 percent after this heating season. Alliance, which also has a biodiesel pump for vehicles operating in Holyoke, now has to buy its product from Iowa. According to Leue, Northeast will be the only producer of biodiesel in a 600-mile radius, and 90 percent of its product will be sold wholesale to fuel dealers. It will also be sold retail at one or more filling stations in Franklin County and beyond. "With biodiesel, everybody wins, whether you use it or not. It's going to increase good-paying employment around the valley, it's going to pick up recycled waste and reuse it, it's going to be reducing our money leaving the county and going overseas, it's going to reduce the cost for restaurants for their disposal fees, and the environment's going to be cleaner." Forming the new corporation helps Leue, whose Ashfield backyard biodiesel production plant was curtailed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency because he was required to buy the rights to a federally approved National Biodiesel Board safety test at an annual cost of $5,000. The scale of his operation would have added $1 per gallon to his price, rather than a penny, he said. "This is a significant step toward finding local and renewable energy sources so we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil that is polluting our world," said Leue. He said the price structure of the new plant should make it the lowest-price biodiesel in the United States. With the closest production facilities now in Florida, Southern Ohio and Kentucky, he said, "I think we'll do it very well, thank you very much." There is already a growing number of customers for biodiesel in Vermont, New Hampshire and around western Massachusetts, so he said, "I don't think we'll have any problem selling it." Biodiesel, which has been shown to greatly reduce most of the pollutants that standard petroleum fuel produces, has no appreciable sulfur emissions, cuts soot and fumes by over half, reduces carcinogens by more than 90 percent and almost eliminates greenhouse gasses associated with global warming, according to proponents. Biodiesel also is said to reduce wear in standard engines and makes them operate more quietly. It is easily biodegradable and essentially non-toxic. "It's thrilling to see this project get off the ground," said Co-opPlus Interim Manager Lynn Benander. "Co-opPlus is a tool that people in western Massachusetts are using to take control of their energy future. This plant will help us do that." You can reach Richie Davis at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or (413) 772-0261 Ext.269 ----------------------------- Homestead Inc. www.yellowbiodiesel.com _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable): http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
