Biodiesel plant breaks ground in New Center

On Tuesday, May 15, Biodiesel Industries, in partnership with NextEnergy, celebrated the ground-breaking of a biodiesel production facility at John R and Baltimore. The 13,000-square foot facility will also be used for research, public outreach and education by the California-based company. This is its sixth U.S. plant, and it will be capable of producing 10 million gallons of biodiesel per year.

Significantly, the plant will be feedstock-neutral, meaning that it can make use of feedstock such as corn and soybean as well as switchgrass, rapeseed, sunflowers and crude, refined and recycled vegetable oils.

The building was designed by Albert Kahn Associates and will be built by DeMaria Building Company, both Detroit-based companies with experience in alternative energy design-builds.

Russell Teall, founder and president of Biodiesel Industries, credits the city of Detroit for its welcoming efforts to help make the project happen. He says that when reporters ask him, "'why Detroit?'" he answers, "where else?"

His efforts to promote biodiesel stem from what he calls "The Three E's" – environment, energy and economy – and he believes that true sustainability exists when "you take a good environmental idea into a commercial project and make it economically sustainable."

The plant will employ 20-25 people initially and construction is expected to be complete before the end of the year.

Source: Biodiesel Industries of Detroit, LLC ground-breaking
Rendering courtesy of Albert Kahn Associates, Inc.
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh