The former Clinton County Biodiesel facility in Clinton, Iowa, is officially under new ownership. Lake Erie Biofuels, doing business as Hero BX, purchased the assets of the facility from Tenaska Commodities LLC, an affiliate of Tenaska Inc., on Sept. 21.

The ambitious Hero BX Founder and CEO Samuel P. “Pat” Black III has been eyeing strategic acquisitions across the U.S. and is pleased to quickly find a second facility in Iowa. Hero BX began a tolling arrangement at the Iowa Renewable Energy facility in Washington, Iowa, in May. “Expanding our expertise harvested from our flagship plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, nationwide is part of our growth strategy,” Black said.

The Clinton plant is particularly strategically located in east central Iowa, on the Illinois border, and within driving distance to the Chicago markets.

Tim Keaveney, executive vice president of business development at Hero BX said, “We are bullish on biodiesel and all Iowa has to offer. It is a terrific market, feedstock is plentiful, and Iowa along with neighboring state Illinois have tax incentives in place for biodiesel. It’s a very attractive geography to produce and sell biodiesel.”

Tenaska Commodities offered a market-ready, operational asset where Hero BX will apply many of its proprietary processes that continue to set the company apart from its competition.

John Nies, Hero BX vice president of operations, said that a new acid esterification process will be added along with “new reactors to increase efficiency along with cooling towers and boilers allowing the facility to reach desired production capacity.”  

Hero BX cites the professionalism of Tenaska Commodities as a main reason for the expedited and aggressive timeline of acquisition and operation. Chris Peterson, president of Hero BX, spoke highly of the process. “Tenaska and staff were gracious and courteous and made what could have been difficult and tedious, very smooth and easy,” he said. “We are grateful.”

Hero BX expects the upgrades to be completed by mid-fourth-quarter of this year and production to begin. This acquisition brings the production complement of Hero BX to Erie, Pennsylvania; Moundville, Alabama; South Roxana, Illinois; tolling at the IRE facility in Washington, Iowa; as well as blending and distribution in North Hampton, New Hampshire.