Oct. 21, 2004 - 21:11 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Know

Thought I fell into something new today when I read about a company setting up a biodiesel refinery in the San Luis Vally in Colorado.

The article in the Rocky Mountain News today, by Gari Chakrabarty.

In part:

Alamosa plant to produce biodiesel

Refinery to blend yearly 3 million gallons of fuel

"Blue Sun Biodiesel broke ground in Alamosa on Wednesday on the nation's first commercial biodiesel refinery."

"The $4 million refinery, scheduled to be on line by May 2005, will be capable of producing 3 million gallons of pure biodiesel per year."

"Fort Collins-based (Colorado) Blue Sun also will blend 220 million gallons of biodiesel in an adjacent facility starting mid-November. The projects, to be announced in Alamosa today, will create 12 to 14 jobs."

"The technology we are using provides the highest quality, and building our own refinery lowers the cost," said Jeff Probst, Blue Sun's president and CEO. "Also, locating the refinery in Colorado reduces the cost of transportation."

"The company estimates the refinery will add $45 million in new income annually and create 240 indirect jobs, a majority of them in rural areas. The jobs include growing crops, crushing seeds and transporting vegetable oil to distribution centers."

"The refinery initially was planned adjacent to a proposed ethanol plant in Johnstown (Colorado). But town official's rejection of the ethanol plant prompted Blue Sun to relocate the biodiesel refinery to Alamosa, Probst said."

"The blending facility, which cost $3 million, will mix 20 percent processed soybean oil or pure biodiesel with 80 percent diesel and additives. The blended product, called B20 biodiesel cost 15 to 20 cents more per gallon than regular diesel."

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I wanted to know more about Blue Sun and began to Google. There is quite a bit of information on biodiesel on Google. One such can be found on Google which gives a run down on biodiesel development in the Triangle area (North Carolina ?). Written by a man who learned to make his own at home.

Right now it is presumed to be 15 to 20 cents more a gallon, which I am sure will keep consumption low for a while. Also I think state of the art as it develops will bring the cost down.

Locating it in the San Luis Valley of Colorado seems to me to be a great idea. Plenty of farmland to grow crops, plenty of labor available, access to a railroad too it seems. The San Luis Valley has been a depressed area as long as I can remember and truly needs an inflow of businesses that will employ out of work, poor people. Creation of 240 indirect jobs can bring wages into the area and stores and cafes, drugstores, and all businesses benefit.

My own personal opinion is that Johnstown really missed a beat when they turned down an ethanol plant and drove away the prospect of a biodiesel refinery too.

There is a lot of farmland up near Johnstown too that could be used to grow the material to make biodiesel, and ethanol is also made from plant products. Guess Johnstown just wants to stay in hibernation.

That area is pretty much where beets for sugar used to be grown, good land, and the land is still fertile and in use. I'm sure that a biodiesel refinery and the means to make ethanol would add needed income to that area. But c'est a vie.

There is a photo of the refinery on a huge semi-trailer and big tractor, compact it looks to be. Wouldn't doubt that another one or two of those could be qickly made and hauled in when the need arises and soon be on line making more biodiesel.

For a long time now in little blurbs in the papers and magazines I have seen guesses about the possibilities of such a thing. But from Googling around I see that there's a lot of activity in that field across the country.

It says in the news article, "The company sells 10 million gallons of biodiesel that is hauled from Iowa. Until the refinery comes online next year, the company will continue to transport pure biodiesel from other states and blend it with diesel at the Alamosa terminal."

So something grand is going on and has been doing so for some time, so what I thought is a brand spanking new thing is something that has been going for some time now. Whoopee, something new to me that I didn't Know . . . . . . . . .

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