September 21, 2017
BY Ron Kotrba
Cargill announced plans Sept. 21 to build a 60 MMgy biodiesel plant in Wichita, Kansas. The 42,000-square-foot facility is expected to cost $90 million and open in early 2019. Construction will begin this December, according to Cargill.
The new biodiesel plant will be located next to its oilseed processing plant and will replace an existing oil refinery currently managed by Cargill’s global edible oil business. The biodiesel plant will employ 35 fulltime workers.
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“At Cargill, we’re prepared to handle demand for biofuels while balancing it against the need to nourish a growing global population,” said Warren Feather, oilseed managing director for Cargill’s agricultural supply chain business.
Cargill currently operates two large-scale biodiesel plants in Kansas City, Missouri, and Iowa Falls, Iowa. It produces ethanol and biodiesel in the U.S. and the EU, ethanol in Brazil, and biodiesel in Argentina.
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The announcement to build a new biodiesel plant in Wichita, Kansas, comes just a month after the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed stiff preliminary duties on biodiesel imports from Argentina. According to Genscape and its data collected through Vesseltracker, Cargill was consignee of at least 10 shipments of biodiesel imported to the U.S. from Argentina in 2016.
The USDA reduced its estimate for 2024-’25 soybean use in biofuel production in its latest WASDE report, released May 12. The agency expects soybean oil use in biofuel to increase during the 2025-’26 marketing year.
HutanBio on May 8 announced that the production process for its proprietary HBx microalgal biofuel achieves net-negative carbon emissions, based on an independent cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) conducted by EcoAct.
Reps. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, and Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., on May 7 introduced a bill that aims to update USDA’s Section 9003 program to expand access to grants, streamline loan guarantees and provide $100 million in mandatory funding over five years.
Novonesis on May 8 released fourth quarter financial results, reporting its Agriculture, Energy and Tech segment achieved 10% organic growth during the three-month period. Much of that increase was driven by the biofuels industry.
On May 6, the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance released a request for proposal (RFP) to increase the supply of next-generation sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), including power-to-liquids and those using advanced biobased feedstocks.