Site selected for oil seed-crushing/biodiesel plant

YAZOO COUNTY — Bio Energy, LLC has secured a site in Yazoo County to build an oil seed-crushing/biodiesel plant. The entity operating this facility will be known as Bio Energy Yazoo.

The crushing plant will sell soy meal to the Mississippi and possibly Louisiana poultry industry, and soy oil will be used for the production of biodiesel when market conditions are conducive for doing so; otherwise the oil will be sold to the food industry, according to Bio Energy.

Company president Darryl Breland said, “This arrangement provides our biodiesel operation with the perfect hedge against market fluctuations that result in soy oil being too valuable to use as a biodiesel feedstock.”

Bio Energy Yazoo will utilize soy oil (when economically beneficial), chicken fat and used grease to manufacture ASTM 6751 biodiesel.

“The patented process we will use can produce biodiesel from a wide variety of sources, including traditionally poor-quality feedstock with very high free fatty acids,” Breland reported, “However, we believe the need for these feedstock are only temporary, as we plan to have an abundant supply of lower cost, yet higher quality oil in the not so distant future.”

Breland explained that this potential future source of oil is expected to come about as the result of its affiliate, Bio Energy Spectrum Solutions producing biocrude oil from a nearby facility, which is currently being planned.

The biocrude is produced from certain industrial or municipal wastewater using patented technology owned by Mississippi State University and invented by Dr. Rafael Hernandez and Dr. Todd French.”

In addition to being the MSU professors, Hernandez and French, along with Dr. Andro Mondala are major shareholders in Bio Energy Spectrum Solutions, LLC, which will commercialize the biocrude technology.

Bio Energy Yazoo is expected to be operational in 2014 and is expected to employ 20-30 full-time employees. The cost of the facility is expected to be between $15-$20 million and will be capable of producing five million gallons of biodiesel and crushing three million bushels of soybeans annually.