New Biodiesel Plants - Biodiesel plants are getting upgrades

Because of the increasing popularity of biodiesel as an alternative or even as a commercial fuel for diesel engines, more biodiesel producing plants are being established and old ones are being refurbished to incorporate newer technologies and innovations as well. The biodiesel plants themselves are competing against each other in designs, technologies used and production level and quality of biodiesel.

Only recently, there's a biodiesel plant being constructed in Denton, Texas which will have a unique feature among the rest. The Denton Biodiesel Plant will be a biodiesel plant that is going to be run by renewable energy. The plant in Denton is planned to be run by using biogas that is going to be collected from a nearby landfill. Such project could be pulled off because of the support of the city of Denton has poured into the endeavor.

Aside from the financial support the city has given the Denton plant, the city has committed to buy 300,000 gallons of biodiesel each year for a period of five years. The fuel will be used to power the city's 386 garbage trucks as well as other public service trucks and buses.

The Denton biodiesel production plant will be focusing its biodiesel production on used soybean and vegetable oils from restaurants in the whole Dallas-Fort Worth area. The restaurants alone can provide the plant with more than 12 million gallons of used cooking oil and grease each year.

Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, Argent Energy which is a known producer of biodiesel is planning to make a new biodiesel plant at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, its second one in the UK and according to the plans will be the biggest of such plant in the world.

The ambitious project from Argent will have a capacity to process 150,000 tons of used cooking oil and tallow. This means a production level of more than 170 million litres of biodiesel per year. The biodiesel that will be produced in the production plant will have the capacity to reduce by as much as 680,000 tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

On the other hand, moving across the globe to the island of Maui, we find a new biodiesel plant already on the works. This biodiesel plant is scheduled to become operational in 2009. With nothing definite yet, but according to some news the said biodiesel plant will be using Hawaii-grown agriculture produce like palm oil, jatropha, kukui nut, coconut or other oil rich crops. Average production per year is set at 40 million gallons of biodiesel.

Going back to Europe, the Scottish Executive a year ago confirmed that they will provide funding for a biodiesel plant that is going to be built by Ineos Enterprises. The biodiesel production facility will be built on Grangemouth, will be operational in 2008, and will be large enough that I will supply around 35% of UK's biodiesel needs. When it becomes operational, it will be the largest facility of its kind in Europe, up until Argent inaugurates its own green production plant.

Back in the US, Green Star Products has claimed to have made the world's first carbon neutral biodiesel plant in Glenns Ferry Idaho. The production plant is boasting a system that uses a "continuous flow waterless process" which only requires only a third of the electrical energy needed by other plants. The plant is also said to be using ethanol rather than methanol in biodiesel production.

As the popularity of the biodiesel grows, the demands will continue to increase and more biodiesel production plants will rise all over the world.