Blackhawk Biofuels Expects to Start Up New Illinois Biodiesel Plant by Early December

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Investor-owned Blackhawk Biofuels LLC (Freeport, Illinois) expects to have a new biodiesel plant in Danville, Illinois, up and running at full capacity by early December.

Originally, Blackhawk had planned to build a 30 million-gallon-per-year plant in Freeport, but plans to build the plant fell through in May. With investors with money still looking to pursue a biodiesel plant, the company bought out the joint-venture project between Biofuels Company of America (Memphis, Tennessee) and partner Bunge North America (St. Louis, Missouri) for an undisclosed amount. Construction of the plant, which was already under way in Danville, was continued and the company is now ready to put the facility into operation.

With the ribbon-cutting ceremony held last week, Blackhawk expects to wrap up construction and testing activity over the next two weeks and expects biodiesel to begin flowing from the plant during the first couple of weeks of December.

The plant will be operated and managed by Renewable Energy Group (Ames, Iowa) and produce 45 million gallons per year of biodiesel. It will have the flexibility of using multiple feedstock of soybean and vegetable oil provided by Bunge's nearby soybean crushing facility. It will also be able to use additional feedstock of animal fats.

Cost estimates to build the plant were in the $75 million range. The plant is located at 300 N. Anderson St. in Danville about 120 miles south of Chicago in Vermilion County.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging alternative fuels market. This database covers 156 ethanol plants in operation and 530 plants under development. It also covers 98 operational biodiesel plants and 245 biodiesel plants under development.

View Plant Profile - 1071323 1069911
View Project Report - 09003967 09003939

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.