Blackhawk Biofuels Completes Upgrade of Illinois Biodiesel Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Privately held Blackhawk Biofuels LLC (Danville, Illinois) has completed an upgrade of its 45 million-gallon-per-year biodiesel plant in Danville.

The $12 million upgrade allows the plant to process multiple feedstock, including animal fats, virgin soybean oil and waste grease, from its original design that exclusively processed vegetable oils. Equipment installations and upgrades were performed by the plant's operator, the Renewable Energy Group (Ames, Iowa).

The upgrade includes a new laboratory and testing facilities, expansion of storage facilities and a state-of-the-art pre-treatment system. The $40 million plant has only been in operation since December 2008, and the upgrade project began in September 2008 with Biofuels Company of America LLC. For more information, see December 6, 2006, news article - Biofuels Company of America Constructing New Biodiesel Plant in Illinois.

The plant is located next to Bunge North America's soybean oil processing plant in Danville and is a joint venture project between the two companies.

Illinois has five operating biodiesel plants that combined produce 162 million gallons of the renewable fuel annually. Six additional plants are in the planning stages in Illinois; however, none have started construction. Americas Renewable Energy's planned plant in Quincy has been put on hold as well as Illinois Biofuel Group's in Princeton.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging alternative fuels market. This database covers 177 ethanol plants in operation and 530 plants under development. It also covers 145 operational biodiesel plants and 245 biodiesel plants under development.

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