Biodiesel company to begin production in Bruce

Columbia Bio-Fuel aims for June start date

BRUCE ‹ The upright tanks are still on their side, and the facility is still pretty empty of machinery, but hopes are high at Columbia Bio-Fuel.

Air Energy, LLC is a subsidiary of Technical Holdings and manufactures biodiesel under the trade name of Columbia Bio-Fuel.

The company aims to begin a biodiesel production plant in Bruce. CEO Gary Trautman said original plans called for a May opening, but now it looks more like the plant will be operating in June. Eventually, the company also aims to have an oilseed crusher.

Trautman said the company owns 81Ž2 acres in Bruce, upon which the production portion of the operation will sit, and has an option to purchase 28 more acres, which is where the oilseed crushing plant would locate.

"With oilseed crushing, you also have some related feed processing and distribution that goes along with that," Trautman said.

An operating plant which produces about 50,000 gallons of biodiesel from soybean oil per week is already in operation in Creston.

The two-year-old pilot plant, which Trautman said has really only been producing at a sustainable rate since December, is where the company experimented with and developed its process. The Bruce plant would produce 1 million gallons per month upon startup, and increase from there as the market dictates.

"We are turning down business every day," company president and board chairman Bob Boersma said. "We just don't have enough production."

The soybean oil is imported in to Creston from the Midwest in rail cars, but when the company comes to the phase where it is crushing oilseed in Bruce, Trautman said canola seed will work better.

"Canola has been and is being grown in this area, and can be grown in this area," he said.

Bruce's central location, close proximity to potential feed markets and rail facilities drew the company.

"Basically the location is, we feel, excellent," Trautman said. "It's near a lot of dryland ground to the east and it's also right in the middle of a lot of irrigated ground, both to the west and the south. It's really an ideal location for distribution and supply."

The Creston plant employs four people, while Trautman estimated the plant in Bruce would employ six at the beginning, increasing to about 25 people once the crushing and feed businesses join in the operation.

"I think we're well on our way ‹ we've got a good plan," Boersma said, adding that electrical capabilies are already in at the site, with water and others soon to follow. "Everybody wants biodiesel, it seems like. Distribution is still somewhat of a problem because the local petroleum distributors are adjusting, but they're doing it rather slowly, cautiously, understandable."

The company will provide a 20 percent biodiesel blend, or B-20, for a retail biodiesel pump at the Kittelson Road Exxon station owned by Pat Molitor before May 1, off of Interstate 90. The company is also providing to several truck fleets and farmers in the area, Trautman said.

More direct shipments are being delivered to customers because they cannot get biodiesel from their distributors, Boersma said.

"The business is there," he said.

Most of the people involved in Technical Holdings have a link to agriculture, Trautman said.

"When you look at the overall picture of farm production of canola seed, local processing of canola oil and the local manufacture of biodiesel, the environmentally-friendly product makes sense in our area," he said. "Why not keep as much of the money that we spend on fuel right here, right at home? It's a viable concept."

Asked about the downsides involved in producing biodiesel, Trautman said the process to make biofuel is not a simple one.

"If the price of diesel were to go very low, back to $1.50 a gallon, it would put us out of business," he said. "We don't anticipate that happening and, in fact, what really has made biodiesel viable is that we can now produce biodiesel at a price that's competitive with petroleum diesel."

The only negative side Boersma can see to producing canola is not doing it.

"I don't see any reason why we shouldn't do it," he said. "It seems to have a plus-plus."

Boersma tried to build a similar ethanol plant about 25 years ago. He was unsuccessful, but has always had an interest in energy, "mainly because I'm a big consumer of petroleum," he said.

"This is local guys, privately funded," Trautman said. "I don't want to say this sarcastically, but we haven't sat around waiting for a grant. This is our money and our effort, and we surely would be open to a grant or low-interest loan, but this is local guys, a local project."