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FULTON COUNTY BIODIESEL SITE
Plant deal near
BY CHRISTINA M. SEILER
News Editor, The Sentinel
Greenfuels LLC plans to close on property for its proposed biodiesel plant next week.
The location is southwest of Indiana 110 and County Road 200 East.
Greenfuels, a Delaware
limited liability corporation with an office in Indianapolis, received rezoning in March for 32 acres owned by Jimmy and
Suzanne Swan.
Since they came to county officials for the rezoning, company officials have
decided to build a plant capable of producing 20 million gallons of fuel per
year, said board member Len Robinson. They originally planned to start at 10
million gallons a year and work their way up to 20 million.
Robinson, who also is the company's general counsel, said Greenfuels'
board is "meandering our way through the process to get it all
done."
He said the main emphasis right now is raising capital. "We are
continuing our efforts to lock down the financing required," Robinson
said.
"This is not the best time to finance," he noted. "Our
underwriter brought us his awareness of the tremendous liquidity and credit
crunch back in July."
He said they expected it would take 30 days to gain financing. "He came
back after 45 days looking like a whipped puppy," Robinson said.
He believes a formal announcement about the status of the plant will be made
in about six weeks.
"We are confident enough we are closing on the land," Robinson
said.
The plant is expected to operate around the clock and employ eight people at
$15 or more per hour.
The Fulton County Plan Commission approved the Greenfuels
rezoning with nine special conditions, including the installation of a
passing lane on Indiana 110 and the main truck entrance being off Indiana
110.
Truck traffic is restricted to between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Overhead lights are to be reduced or dimmed at night. Excessive
odor, particulate matter or noise will not be allowed.
Robinson said the company's plan is still to use the most readily available,
cost-efficient feed stock. That could be pre-processed and rendered animal
fat, or soy oil, palm oil or canola oil.
Greenfuels board member Daniel Tracy told planning
officials the refinery is innocuous. A closed system which does not use
water, emissions from the stack would be mostly steam from heating, he said.
Vapors are collected and reused.
Any odor would be in the laboratory or maybe from filling a tank, Tracy
said. Ion resins, used to replace water in the manufacturing process, are
changed every 250,000 gallons of production, Tracy
said. They are considered hazardous waste. Methyl Alcohol is used. It will be
in a diked system, Tracy
said.
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