Biodiesel Fuel Complex Proposed

For Swamp Road In Botsford

By Andrew Gorosko

A Long Island firm has approached the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) in seeking to learn the commission’s thoughts about its proposal to construct a biodiesel fuel plant off Swamp Road in Botsford.

Representatives of Interstate Biofuels, LLC, of Roslyn Heights, N.Y., on December 6, presented their concept to the P&Z on installing biodiesel conversion equipment on a site at 46 Swamp Road.

The wholesale firm would operate an industrial plant that would convert vegetable and/or animal oils into a liquid substance that would later be mixed with diesel fuel and burned as an energy source.

Biodiesel is a diesel-equivalent processed fuel that may be blended with conventional diesel fuel and be used in unmodified diesel-burning devices.

Interstate is in negotiations with Wickes Lumber Company of 46 Swamp Road about acquiring several acres there, which are not used by the lumber company, for a biodiesel plant.

Interstate has not yet submitted an application for the project to the P&Z.

In information supplied to the P&Z, Interstate explains that the projected value of the complex would be $27 million to $30 million. The company would use a continuous-flow, computer-controlled manufacturing process designed and built by Lurgi AG, which would produce an estimated 12 million gallons of biodiesel annually, as well as a glycerin by-product.

Such a complex would contain processing units, storage tanks, and various piping, according to Interstate.

Civil engineer Bill Carboni of Spath-Bjorklund Associates, Inc, of Monroe, is representing the firm. Mr Carboni said such a biodiesel plant would operate at low fluid pressures, with low heating levels and produce little waste product. Waste products would be trucked away for disposal, he said.

The substances that would be processed at such a plant are not explosive, Mr Carboni said.

The presence of the adjacent Housatonic Railroad rail line would make such a biodiesel plant a practical venture, he said. Materials to be processed at the plant, as well as the products to be manufactured there, would be transported by rail, he said. Some trucking also would occur.

The project would require approvals from the P&Z, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr Carboni said.

Optimistically, if the firm receives the required approvals, it could have a biodiesel plant in operation by mid-2009, he said. The plant would be powered by natural gas.

P&Z members appeared to be receptive to Interstate’s proposal for such a facility, Mr Carboni said.

P&Z Chairman Lilla Dean said this week, “I think they’re really going to apply for it” of Interstate’s intent to build a biodiesel complex. “Personally, I’m in favor of it….It looks very interesting.”

“Who’s going to care that [the complex is] there?” she asked, noting that the site lies between a lumberyard and the abandoned Batchelder industrial site.

Apparently, such a facility was not an economical prospect until the price of diesel fuel had risen to its current level, she said.

The proposed facility would be able to handle either animal oils or vegetable oils for conversion to biodiesel, she said.

In order to make such a facility possible, the town zoning regulations would need to be modified to allow such a complex as a permitted land use.

Land Use Agency Director George Benson said Interstate is seeking advice from the town on what regulatory approach it should take in seeking to construct a biodiesel complex.

“I think they have to answer a lot of questions for us,” he said. “A lot of things have to be worked out, a lot of details,” he said.

Mr Carboni said it remains unclear whether Interstate would seek all the required approvals for a biodiesel complex from the P&Z simultaneously or seek them sequentially.