A 15 MMgy biodiesel plant in New Haven, Connecticut, formerly known as Greenleaf Biofuels LLC, has been acquired by Kolmar Americas Inc., a subsidiary of Swiss firm Kolmar Group AG, and renamed American GreenFuels LLC.

Kolmar Americas is an integrated petroleum, petrochemicals and renewable fuels marketing and trading company headquartered in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

“This is a very important acquisition for Kolmar,” said Raf Aviner, president of Kolmar Americas. “It is the first such acquisition in the company’s history, and it shows the deep commitment Kolmar has to Connecticut, the environment, the biodiesel industry in general, and to the employees at the plant, in particular. Kolmar has had a strategic relationship with the biodiesel plant for several years, and bringing this facility and its employees into the Kolmar family is a good development for all stakeholders.”

Kolmar employs more than 30 people at the New Haven biodiesel facility, and the company says it has an active goal to expand production capabilities. The plant produces biodiesel from used cooking oil and other waste greases from Connecticut and New England, and its finished product is consumed primarily by companies selling diesel fuel and by Connecticut homeowners as biodiesel-blended heating oil.

The company says 2015 was an exciting year of change and improvement for the plant, which completed its annual turnaround in early December, which included $1 million in capital improvements.

Aviner said while Kolmar is pleased with the reinstatement of the $1-per-gallon blenders tax credit, the company, like most biodiesel producers, was hoping it would be restructured as a producer incentive. “This tax credit is important to the growth of the industry,” Aviner said. “While we would have preferred a credit for producers of biodiesel, as opposed to the tax being available to biodiesel blenders, because a producer credit benefits the U.S. industry over foreign production, we are pleased that Congress passed this credit through 2016—it provides for a year’s worth of planning. Throughout this year we will again work hard to convince Congress that it is in the industry’s, and the country’s, best interest to modify this credit to focus on U.S. producers of biodiesel.”

American GreenFuels is also a participant and supporter of the Step Up program, specifically the Unemployed Armed Forces Member provision, which gives American veterans career opportunities.