GreenHunter BioFuels resumes biodiesel production

US-based GreenHunter BioFuels, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GreenHunter Energy, has initiated start-up of biodiesel production at the company's biodiesel refinery in Houston following repairs and recovery from Hurricane Ike.

GreenHunter's biodiesel refinery, one of the country's largest, located along the Shipping Channel in Houston, Texas, sustained a direct hit from Hurricane Ike in mid-September 2008.

'The approximate 12 feet of floodwater from Hurricane Ike took out a significant amount of electrical equipment, electronic instruments and control devices that have now been replaced and repaired over the last eight weeks,' Bruce Baughman, senior VP of engineering and technology, says.

'In the same period we have repaired process piping, pumps, intermediate tanks and bulk storage tanks that were damaged by flood waters. We anticipate that we will achieve an approximate 50% of capacity sometime over the next four operating weeks,' Baughman adds.

Prior to the damages caused by the hurricane plant debugging had been completed and the facility was beginning to ramp up production after its original start-up in mid-June. In the time before the natural disaster the company achieved processing rate mileposts of 50% and subsequently 65% of nameplate capacity.

'Producing biodiesel from animal fats continues to make economic sense and is a financially viable business,’ Gary C. Evans, chairman, president, and CEO of GreenHunter Energy, comments. 'Feedstock prices, which represent approximately 85% of the cost of goods sold in our biodiesel business, have decreased by almost 70% in the same period that crude oil has fallen around 60%.'

The GreenHunter BioFuels refinery is feedstock neutral, and has used five different varieties of feedstock (vegetable oils and animal fats) to date. The company is now focusing on 100% animal fats (poultry fat and beef tallow) as its primary feedstock.

In April 2009 a federal mandate will enter into effect which requires 500 million gallons of biodiesel to be consumed in the US during 2009, increasing annually through to 2012.