Biox-World Energy JV acquires $20m Texas biodiesel plant

Biox Corp. and Boston-based biodiesel company World Energy have entered into a 50/50 joint venture to acquire and operate a 90 million gallon (341 million litre) biodiesel production facility.

The facility, formerly known as Green Earth Fuels, is located within the Kinder Morgan Liquids terminal on the Houston Ship Channel in Texas and is the third largest biodiesel production facility in North America.

Each company has committed $10 million (€9m) to the World Energy Biox Biofuels joint venture with the aim to commission and start up the plant over the third quarter of the year.

Alan Rickard, CEO at Biox, expects the acquisition gives Biox “an opportunity to significantly expand and diversify” its production capacity.

“It is a large scale asset that is well positioned to supply biodiesel for compliance with the Federal Renewable Fuel Standard in the US market.

“As we see the distribution of our products from our facilities in Ontario shifting from the US market to fulfill the mandates under Ontario’s Greener Diesel initiative, this acquisition provides us with a strategically positioned production facility from which we can address the US market,” Rickard said.