As Demand Grows, Now is the Time to Make Money With Biodiesel

Biodiesel fuel’s demand is growing at an incredible rate and with the demand is the opportunity for some to make incredible profits. However, not all investors are as sought after as others. According to Rob Wood, chief operating officer of Crane-based, renewable energy firm American Green Holdings Inc. “the demand for biodiesel far outstrips the supply”. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with biodiesel it is a renewable energy source that can be extracted from/made out of vegetable oil, primarily soy beans for now, or animal fat and other such resources. Further research is needed but it is currently thought that biodiesel can may also be made from a number of other oil-based feed stocks, including canola seeds and castor beans. 

According to the National Biodiesel Board in Jefferson City, MO., more than 100 U.S. companies were manufacturing and actively marketing biodiesel, as of Jan. 31, 2007, with an annual production capacity of 864 million gallons.  A few of the biodiesel plants reside in Missouri where Heartland Biodiesel LLC is planning to build a $23 million plant near Rock Port, north of St. Joseph. To build the new plant investors have been sought from the Springfield area. If Heartland acquires the required capital they are expecting to be able to produce approximately 30 million gallons of biodiesel annually. As of June 5, 2007, chairman of the company’s board of managers, Stan Griffin, announced that they are now only about $1.8 million shy of their fund-raising goal. 

Heartland’s biggest investor is Ralston, Iowa – based Renewable Energy Group Inc., which has pledged $3 million towards the plant’s development. However, 77-percent of Heartland’s owners are Farmer-investors who feel that the plant is pretty much of a grass-roots thing. Another proposed plant in Aurora, MO., by Billings dairy farmer, Mike Kendrick has been scrapped due to the large agricultural companies buying up all the soy bean oil causing the price to sky rocket. Kendrick states, ”I don’t know if there’s going to be any room for a guy that just wants to buy oil and make biodiesel fuel.”  

Currently, biodiesel is where ethanol was a few years ago, and according to Mr. Griffin, “the time to have gotten into ethanol to make the money was four or five years ago. Today is the time to get into biodiesel.”   As an American who hopes to see our country escape from its dependence on foreign oil and rising fuel costs, I was impressed to read that
Springfield, MO., has for the last three years been fueling their CU buses with a blend of less than 10 percent biodiesel. Additionally, they are looking into finding a way of supplying a local biodiesel terminal for its bus fleet to make it easier to guaranty supply. I commend them for their foresight in looking for alternative means of fuel given the instability of the world market. While I give kudos to Springfield I think that every effort should be made to support the spread of biodiesel and other alternative energy plants nationwide. [tags]Biodiesel, alternative fuels, investors, Springfield, MO, Renewable Energy Group, Heartland, American Green Holdings, Ethanol,[/tags]