Willie Nelson welcomes biodiesel plant

Willie Nelson welcomes biodiesel plant
The facility will produce 5 million gallons per year

By Dennis Thompson Jr.
Statesman Journal
August 30, 2008

A Salem commercial-grade producer of biofuel cut the ribbon Friday on a plant upgrade that will increase its capacity to 5 million gallons per year.

Country star Willie Nelson, an investor in Salem-based SeQuential Pacific Biodiesel, attended the opening ceremony.

"Thank you, Salem, and thank you, Oregon, for being so forward and progressive in your thinking," Nelson said to the more than 120 people in attendance.

The new plant was built at 4725 Turner Road SE using $6 million in financing from the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The plant produces biodiesel from used cooking oil and crops grown in Oregon. Company co-founder Ian Hill said this year the company harvested 3,000 acres of canola oil from Eastern Oregon for use in making biodiesel.

Also, 100 percent of the used cooking oil produced by Kettle Foods and Burgerville restaurants are recycled into biodiesel at the plant.

The new plant replaces a 1 million-gallon-per-year facility that has been in operation for a couple of years, Hill said. The old plant will be dismantled.

The plant's capacity will trigger renewable fuel standards set by the Oregon Legislature that require locally produced biodiesel to be included in all normal petroleum diesel sold in the state.

By next year, all diesel sold in Oregon will have in it 2 percent biodiesel made in Salem, Hill said.

Straight biodiesel can be used in any car or machinery built to run on regular diesel.

That includes cars and buses, but also boilers and generators. Cherriots' bus fleet operates on 20 percent diesel from the company.

Biodiesel tends to cost about 50 cents more per gallon than petroleum diesel but is renewable and better for the environment. The fuel produces less carbon dioxide than petroleum when it burns, and is made in part from recycled materials.

Speakers at the opening ceremony said these efforts help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign sources of oil.

The company hopes to have the plant operating at full production by Oct. 1.