Direct Fuels opens 10 Mgy biodiesel plant in Texas

In Texas, Direct Fuels has opened a 10 Mgy biodiesel plant in Euless, alongside its oil refinery operations. The plant opening follows on from the opening of the company’s ethanol distribution complex in January. The company projects that up to 40 percent of its 2008 revenue will come from renewable fuels. The company, which will produce blends of B5 to B100 for its customers, said it would pursue BQ-9000 ratings for its fuel.

Texas has been the scene of several major biofuels developments in recent months:

• Beacon Energy will purchase the operating assets of Smithfield BioEnergy, including a 12 Mgy biodiesel plant in Cleburne. Beacon will finance the transaction via a private equity placement.

• Notable start-up US BioDiesel, which raised $100 million last summer in a first round of financing, chose Seabrook, Texas for its first 35 Mgy biodiesel plant.

• US Sustainable Energy has conducted successful demonstrations of its soybean-to-crude oil production capabilities at its Baytown, TX facility, and signed development agreements for Indonesia and the Dominican Republic.
• As biodiesel attention shifts to algae as a price-controllable feedstock he state’s Emerging Technology Fund will provide $4 million to Texas AgriLife Research and General Atomics to conduct microalgae research and development. The two groups have previously identified high-oil content algae strains, and the project will fund research into commercial-scale cultivation of the varietals as well as design and testing of advanced oil separation procedures. The first phase will be a quarter-acre demonstration system, followed by a second-phase commercial-scale production system covering up to 100 acres.

• Rising soybean prices shuttered two Texas biodiesel plants late last year, continuing a trend which has affected numerous biodiesel plants worldwide.

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