Area lands biodiesel production plant

[DaveinOlyWA]

an article from the Daily Olympian.

Area lands biodiesel production plant
By RACHEL LA CORTE

The Associated Press

Grays Harbor County will be home to an enormous biodiesel production plant under an agreement announced Tuesday.

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The plant, to be built on land owned by the Port of Grays Harbor between Aberdeen and Hoquiam, will produce 100 million gallons of biodiesel a year. Construction began recently on an 85-million-gallon per year plant in Velva, N.D.

Last year, national biodiesel production was 75 million gallons, according to the Missouri-based National Biodiesel Board. By the end of the year, that number is expected to double.

Tuesday’s announcement was made in Aberdeen by officials with the Port of Grays Harbor and Seattle-based Imperium Renewables.

“These are exciting times,” said John Plaza, president and founder of Imperium Renewables. “As petroleum prices increase and global warming becomes more a threat, people are paying attention.”

Biodiesel is a generic term for any clean-burning alternative fuel made from domestic, renewable resources. Soybean oil is the primary component for biodiesels now made in the United States.

The biodiesel blend that will be used by Imperium Renewables will be refined from a mix of canola grown in Washington state, soy and other crops.

Imperium Renewables is the parent company of Seattle Biodiesel, which produces 5 million gallons of biodiesel a year out of a plant in Seattle.

The $40 million plant would create 250 to 350 jobs during its construction, and is expected to create 50 permanent jobs once it is up and running.

It was welcome news to a hard-pressed region that has had heavy unemployment after fishing and timber have declined, especially after last year’s closure of a Weyerhaeuser large-log sawmill that cost 97 people their jobs. The company’s Cosmopolis pulp mill is scheduled to close some time this year, displacing 245 workers.

Construction is expected to begin in July and could be completed by next summer.

The state Department of Agriculture said that the Seattle Biodiesel plant is the only known commercial plant up and running in the state; a facility in Sunnyside is expected to open in July, with a crushing facility and biodiesel refinery.

This year, lawmakers made Washington the second state in the country with biofuel and biodiesel mandates, to be implemented by December 2008. Budget writers also designated millions of dollars for biofuel low-interest loan programs to plant the seeds for the production, refining and infrastructure for alternative fuels.

[tripp]

kewl. Keep 'em coming. I read somewhere about a 1.5 billion gallon/year plant opening somewhere here in the States. Seemed like a typo considering that it would be 15 times larger than even the biggest plants that I've read about.

[DaveinOlyWA]

well that stat that says ALL of 2005 produced 75 million gallons was an eye opener... this plant alone will more than double that. bio will definitely be increasing by huge numbers now that gas is gonna be $ 3 a gallon

[Begreen]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ May 10 2006, 08:56 AM) [snapback]252801[/snapback]</div>

well that stat that says ALL of 2005 produced 75 million gallons was an eye opener... this plant alone will more than double that. bio will definitely be increasing by huge numbers now that gas is gonna be $ 3 a gallon [/b]

These are interesting folks. Wish they'd go public.There was a great interview with the principals last year. They said their goal is about 19 refineries in this region. WA state has a pilot program with farmers to start growing oil crops in rotation with wheat, etc. Once the biofuel source is grown closer to home, they expect the prices to start coming down, (already less than diesel). Most of the cost is in transportation of soy from central states.

[benighted]

I saw this on the news yesterday. Not only is it going to be good to have cheap green fuel here in the harbor but it will bring back the jobs lost when the Cosmopolis pulp mill closes down. 245 jobs doesn't sound like a lot but in a smallish town like Aberdeen things can really start to go downhill.

[unruhly]

My question comes from lack of knowledge, not from trying to stir up trouble.
Has anyone given thought to the environmental aspect of this type of production? I'm thinking along the lines of strip mining here. Sounds good at the time, but later we realize that we really f&c#ed alot of stuff up in the process.
As this type of future evolves, won't we have trouble maintaining the soil in a state that supports growing? Sure, rotate crops, use of fertilizers (nitrates, pestisides), yada yada. But those issues, along with the energy consumed to create the biodiesel plus the effects of the emissions, will be the next big thing the media junkies start playing as their "Doom and Gloom/Storm of the Century" headline scenario to scare us.

I see a positive note that we are trying to get off of foreign oil, but I bet that some of these points are being white washed by the organizations promoting them. Ie. the National Biodiesel Board.

[DaveinOlyWA]

there has been a huge discussion about it, but at this point it becomes a balancing act on whether its cheaper to continue to import oil at ever escalating costs or start developing alternatives.

the cost of gas WILL continue to rise. there is no question about that. as high as it is now, we still pay less than half of what the rest of the world is WILLING to pay. if they are willing to pay it, we will be too. (granted europe pays more because of taxes levied to support mass transit. but doesnt matter how the price is determined, the only thing that ultimately matters is that they will pay it and so will we)

now as gas gets higher, alternatives become much more attractive. being able to have more control over one's destiny is also VERY attractive. its all these reasons that makes biodiesel a desireable solution. we all know it wont be nothing but a niche product under the best of circumstances. but its still something. lets face it, a 100 million gallon plant will not provide the needs of this country for a single day. but its a start, and it all has to start somewhere.

[tripp]

Yeah, the enviro impact of biofuels is a point of concern. I have no clue what they really are. I agree with Dave that for the short/mid term they're definitely worth pursueing. It cool thing about many of them (the biofuels) is that they can be derived from waste materials (agricultural residue if you will). That's where the real bang for the buck is. Cellulose ethanol (and perhaps diesel) is the future of biofuels. We can supplement the cellulosic ethanol with traditional biofuels to a certain degree. But biofuels aren't gonna scale well unless we're super efficient at converting them into work. If we used all of the corn grown in this country each year for ethanol production we'd displace 20% of our current oil consumption. That's a lot of oil, but then we'd have no corn. Corn is also a poor choice from a sustainability point of view because it requires large amounts of water and fertilizer. In the mid term we need a better solution than corn ethanol. Biodiesel production is already more diversified than ethanol, but is produced in much smaller quantities at present. The rate of change is going to be a pretty steep curve I gather.