MONTANA, Nov 20 (Neo Natura) - Two companies from Houston and Seattle are joining forces to build a 100 million-gallon biodiesel manufacturing facility in Montana.
It will be the largest biodiesel plant in the nation to be fueled from Camelina feedstock, a distant relative to Canola that can grow on marginal land with minimal water or fertilizer.
Houston-based Green Earth Fuels LLC and Seattle-based Targeted Growth Inc. announced the formation of its joint venture, Sustainable Oils Inc., at a press conference in Helena on Tuesday.
Targeted Growth, an agricultural bioscience firm that focuses on renewable energy, has been working on developing a Camelina seed that will thrive in Montana's climate and make a good feedstock. Almost all of the initial feedstock will be grown in Montana.
"We have created a better feedstock for biodiesel," said Tom Todaro, chief executive officer of Targeted Growth. "Camelina can be rotated with current Montana crops, it grows in land with lower agricultural value, and it doesn't significantly increase the use of fertilizer or irrigation water. We think this will be a model for the development and use of other biofuel-specific crops."
After it opened one of America's largest biodiesel plants earlier this month in Houston, privately owned Green Earth Fuels was a logical choice to usher in the Montana facility.
"This deal allows us access to a high-quality feedstock at an extraordinarily competitive price," said Green Earth CEO Greg Bafalis. "There's an advantage to being vertically integrated -- it closely aligns our interests with those of our feedstock suppliers. And because Camelina exists outside of the traditional commodity market, it should not be as volatile as other feedstocks."
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