New biodiesel plant will use restaurants' old oil

A new biodiesel plant is set to be built in Boulder, Colorado that will use waste cooking oil from local restaurants as a base for biodiesel. The new plant will be able to produce around 11.5 million gallons a year of clean burning biodiesel from the oil.

The plant is the product of a partnership between Bio Plant Technologies LLC and GHP Biodiesel USA Inc, who have signed up to build and run the operation that will re-purpose oil from the many restaurants in the area.

Kurt Lange, CEO of Bio Plant Technologies LLC, said: "Together with our restaurant partners, we will create a cleaner environment and cleaner communities in Colorado. The usage of local restaurants' grease to create biodiesel for our municipal fleets ensures that the economic and environmental benefits of our business stay in the region. As our business grows, we will create jobs for Colorado."

The merger between the two companies brings together expertise from two different areas. GHP Biodiesel USA Inc was originally a German company and provides biodiesel production systems with multi-feedstocks conversion. Bio Plant Technologies, which operate as ClearEcos, is a cooking oil collector.

Gregory Gettinger, chief executive of GHP Biodiesel USA, said: "We are happy to announce this strategic merger between the used cooking oil collection and biodiesel production. The synergies in production and logistics are striking, moving up the value chain from used oil collection to an integrated energy provider is a logical strategic step in this industry."

The use of recycled cooking oil as a base for a clean-burning biodiesel could prevent a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions being created and so could help towards stalling the effects of climate change. The biodiesel that will be manufactured reduces the release of carbon monoxide by around 50 per cent, contains no sulphates and helps to reduce the release of unburned hydrocarbons.