Biodiesel plant progresses

NextDiesel in Adrian plans to crank 20 million gallons of biodiesel fuel a year out of the processing plant.

By Dennis Pelham

Daily Telegram Staff Writer

ADRIAN — Renewable fuel may soon be coming out of the NextDiesel processing plant on West Beecher Road.

“We definitely are getting there,” said Jason Eisenberg, marketing director of Biofuel Industries Group. The company plans to crank 20 million gallons of biodiesel fuel a year out of the plant, starting as soon as this month.

“I would say in the next four to five weeks we’ll button it all up,” Eisenberg said last week. Production should be under way by the end of July or early August, he said.

Construction began in January, and modular equipment for the processing plant was trucked in as soon as the pre-engineered, structural steel building was assembled to house it. Wiring and plumbing for the modular units are being completed. Large tanks have all been installed, he said. And paving and landscaping should be wrapped up this month.

The company was able to do test runs with modular equipment while it was still in warehouses to be certain it was operating correctly before it was shipped to the new plant in Adrian, he said. That should shorten the time needed to start up production, Eisenberg said.

Adrian Mayor Gary McDowell said city officials are also eager to see the biodiesel plant start production. Property tax abatements for the newly created renaissance zone represent a huge investment for the city in the project, he said.

The plant will employ a total of 25 people, including office staff as well as production workers, Eisenberg said.

Expectations are running high for the second renewable fuels plants built in Lenawee County. The Great Lakes Grain Processors ethanol plant outside Blissfield started turning corn into a gasoline additive earlier this year.

The NextDiesel product to come out of the plant in Adrian will replace fuel made from petroleum with fuel made from soybean oil, beef tallow and chicken fat, Eisenberg said. “We also have the equipment to process greases,” he said.

“We’re excited. We can’t wait,” Eisenberg said. “We want to get this up and running.”

Product buyers are still being lined up, he said.

“We have begun talking to a lot of people,” he said. Depending on demand, the plant is designed to crank production up to as much as 80 million gallons a year.

Soybean oil will be shipped to the Adrian plant from processing facilities in the region, he said. A soybean processing plant in a is currently the only one in Michigan.

“It would be great if there were more facilities,” he said. Space is available at the 25-acre NextDiesel plant site in Adrian that could host a soybean-processing facility if any companies were interested in such a development, he said.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the biodiesel plant is being planned for August, Eisenberg said, depending on the construction start-up schedule.