Biodiesel Goes Big in Indiana
The world’s largest biodiesel plant is currently being planned by Louis Dreyfus Agriculture Industries LLC, a French company specializing in agricultural and energy commodities, for construction near Claypool, Indiana. Once completed, the plant will produce up to 250,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel per day, or more than 80 million gallons per year, from soybean feedstocks. The facility is one of the first in the world to fully integrate a biodiesel production plant 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, one million tons of protein-rich soybean meal produced each year will be used by the livestock and poultry industry.
With this facility, as well as two other biodiesel and six ethanol plants currently under construction, the state of Indiana is quickly ramping up its efforts in the biofuel industry. Indiana will produce an additional 400 million gallons of ethanol and 95 million gallons of biodiesel annually with these new facilities, bringing the state closer to its goal of producing a combined one billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel per year. Indiana is also home to BioTown, USA, an effort to create a community where all energy needs are met through the use of biorenewable resources.
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