Honolulu, Hawaii.
A subsidiary of Renewable Energy Group (REG), an Iowa-based biodiesel refiner, won a contract to supply Hawaiian Electric Company with up to 7 million gallons of fuel a year for two years.
The biodiesel, derived from used cooking oil and waste animal fat, will fuel the utility’s 110 megawatt combustion turbine generator.
REG had provided biodiesel during emissions testing of the generator and beat out seven other bidders for the two-year supply contract, which calls for 3 million to 7 million gallons annually, according to the utility.
The contract needs approval by Hawaiian regulators. Deliveries could begin four months later.
Notice that this biodiesel will be produced from waste fats and oils, not from crops, which I am sure is an important factor in the deal. Biodiesel from waste is a hard product to reject, it just makes too much sense.
Logo from: here
At least two veggie oil-to-biodiesel fuel converters are setting up shop in Lee County, with help from federal stimulus funds.
They are: FL BioFuels LLC, which last fall won a contract with Lee County government to produce biodiesel for county vehicles, and $500,000 in stimulus funds from the U.S. Department of Energy; and more recently, GreenGallon Solutions of North America LLC.
FL BioFuels is developing a plant in leased space at the state farmers market in Fort Myers, aiming to start production in April.
"We're establishing it here because ... this is our hometown," said Roy Benton III, one of four company owners. "Our main focus is to create a fuel that doesn't damage the environment."
Besides being Mr. Benton’s home town, this area is ideal for biodiesel production because of many factors. Have you noticed there seems to be centers of biodiesel production? Perhaps the warmer climates promote more biodiesel users to give it a try.
In a continued effort to reduce the university’s carbon footprint, Georgetown has begun to use a biodiesel blend for its fleet of Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle (GUTS) buses and other university staff vehicles. “The university has set a goal to reduce our carbon footprint by 50 percent by 2020. Over the past three years we have reduced by nearly 17 percent, so we believe this is an achievable goal,” says Karen Frank, vice president of university facilities and student housing, which oversees GUTS. “Georgetown continues to look for ways to become more sustainable and using the biodiesel blend is something we can do at low cost to the university.”
As Switzerland’s Biopetrol AG closes in on completion of its 400,000 ton per year biodiesel facility at the Port of Rotterdam, one of the world’s largest commodities traders, Glencore AG, has purchased a controlling interest in Biopetrol through a 50 percent plus one share stock transaction. Headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, Glencore sources raw materials for the oil and gas, mineral and metal, and agricultural processing industries. “Glencore, as the new majority shareholder, is the ideal partner with its leading world-wide commodity business,” Biopetrol stated in an official release. “The combination of a financially strong trading platform and modern and logistically advantaged production plants creates the basis for the mid-term utilization of the full production capacities of Biopetrol.”