One of Largest Biodiesel Plants To Be Built in Indiana

This report posted on Green Car Congress

8 March 2006

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels announced that Louis Dreyfus Agriculture Industries plans to build one of the world’s largest biodiesel plants yet near Claypool, Indiana. Daniels made the announcement during his remarks at the 2nd National Agriculture/Forestry Renewable Energy Summit in Washington, DC.

With this facility—which will ultimately produce up to 250,000 gallons of biodiesel per day, or more than 80 million gallons per year—two other biodiesel and six ethanol plants currently under construction, Indiana will become a leading producer in the biofuels industry.

Several firms in Malaysia are planning palm-biodiesel plants with annual outputs of 300,000 tonnes—about 90 million gallons per year. (Earlier post.)

It’s been a hectic year of dramatic progress in renewable fuels development in our state. If Indiana can do this, think what America can do to work toward energy self-sufficiency. In just one year, we’re growing from one alternative fuels plant to nine, with more to come. We said our ag sector would be a big part of our economic comeback, and here’s the proof.

—Governor Daniels

Indiana is the fifth-largest corn state and the fourth-largest soybean state. With the facilities under construction, the state will produce an additional 400 million gallons of ethanol annually and 95 million gallons of biodiesel (including Louis Dreyfus). Indiana’s goal is to produce a combined 1 billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel annually.

Louis Dreyfus will build the project in two phases. The first will be a 50-million bushel per year soybean processing plant, and the second phase will be the biodiesel production facility. The plant will utilize Indiana soybeans.

Upon completion, the Louis Dreyfus facility will be one of the first biodiesel production plants to be fully integrated with a soybean processing plant. About 260,000 metric tons of soybean oil from the plant will be used each year for biodiesel production. In addition, 1 million tons of protein-rich soybean meal produced each year will be used by the livestock and poultry industry.