A Kansas-based company that owns four Iowa ethanol plants is buying a biodiesel plant in southeast Nebraska. Flint Hills Resources is purchasing the plant in Beatrice for $5-million. It cost $52-million to build the plant in 2007 but Beatrice Biodiesel filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and the plant never opened. Beatrice city attorney Tobias Tempelmeyer says he’s encouraged by the sale.
“The bankruptcy court will now have to approve the purchase by Flint Hills Resources,” Tempelmeyer says. “I think they have pre-approval from the bankruptcy trustee and bankruptcy judge already for the sale so I don’t expect it to take long for a final blessing from the court.”
The initial plan was to use soybean oil to create diesel fuel and a byproduct, glycerine. Reports say the new company will make use of another product to make biodiesel. Tempelmeyer says, “We’re happy to see the plant get sold and finally be put into some hands we hope will make it productive, open it up and begin operation.”
Flint Hills, based in Wichita, Kansas, also runs four Iowa ethanol plants in: Menlo, Shell Rock, Fairbank and Iowa Falls.
By Doug Kennedy, KWBE, Beatrice