posted Jun 21, 2011 11:14 AM by Administrator Account
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updated Jun 21, 2011 11:18 AM
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Company raises $50K for tank, prepping site, contracting for delivery
By RICHIE DAVIS
Recorder Staff
Northeast Biodiesel is picking up steam in its efforts to build a factory to convert used vegetable oil into diesel and home heating oil - preparing the site at the Greenfield Industrial Park, raising $50,000 over the weekend to buy a 100,000-gallon tank and contracting with a Holyoke business to deliver the recycled raw product.
The Greenfield-based business, which laid off its chief executive officer last month after five years of trying to attract enough venture capital to build a processing plant, is now taking a new direction in seeking investment from members of Co-op Power, the energy co-operative that is the prime mover and majority owner of the grass-roots biodiesel startup.
Co-op Power raised $50,000 from some of its roughly 370 members at its annual meeting last weekend, according to President Lynn Benander, and has also contracted with Holyoke-based ReEnergizer to de-water and filter used cooking oil from more than 125 restaurants and catering operations around the Pioneer Valley and deliver them to Northeast Biodiesel in Greenfield.
More than $1 million in capital has already been raised to build the plant, which is planned to begin producing biodiesel at the rate of 1.75 million gallons a year and expand from there. |
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Co-op Power investor Sam Bartlett at the site of Northeast Biodiesel |
At the 26.5-acre Silvio Conte Drive site, a construction crew has been pouring a foundation this week in preparation for a building that will be constructed as soon as $700,000 to $800,000 in investment can be raised in Co-op Power member loans.
Benander said with the money raised this weekend, Northeast will buy a 100,000-gallon finishing tank for the new plant.
The company, which has insisted on keeping the business and its planned production facilities locally owned and controlled, has also spent the past year working with community organizations in Boston, Springfield, Holyoke and other urban areas to set up small waste-oil collection businesses to feed Re-Energizer, and ultimately the Greenfield plant.
"One of the new directions we're going in is to fully claim our community-based approach," said Benander, "not only for financing the plant, but also for collecting the grease and delivering it. We want to use it locally and process it locally. We want to make biodiesel locally and get it out for re-use here locally."
The British-made Green Fuels processor, which Northeast bought last fall for $600,000, will be the first of its kind in this country, she said, although the manufacturer - whose CEO attended last weekend's Co-op Power meeting - has 7,000 processors in operation around the world. | |
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