A special use permit for Biodiesel Investment Company, LLC, of Verdi, to build a biodiesel manufacturing plant in Hazen was approved at a Planning commission meeting Wednesday.
Jake Huber, chief operating officer for Biodiesel Investment, described the plan, procedures and answered questions from the board.
The plant will be part of the Black Butte Industrial Park located in Hazen north of U.S. Highway 50A and Union Pacific Rail Road.
No members of the public asked questions during the meeting. However, planning commissioners probed Huber with many questions.
Huber explained that all products would be shipped in and out by rail. He said the products used for manufacturing B100 biodiesel fuel are palm oil, soy oil and methanol as a catalyst.
B100 biodiesel is 100 percent biodiesel, made with natural products, he said. This product is sold and shipped to petroleum plants. The B100 is then mixed with 98, 95 or 80 percent diesel fuel and sold to diesel fuel distributors as B2, B5 or B20. The number with the B stands for the percentage of biodiesel fuel in the final mixture.
"This process is not done at our manufacturing plant," said Huber. "The manufacturing at our plant has little to no emissions from manufacture through shipping."
Myles Van Gorder asked several railroad-related question about the operation, to which Huber was unable to answer specifically.
The facility will be set back approximately 2,300 feet from Highway 50A, said Huber.
It will have a metal building for the main plant, he said. The administration building will be located away from the manufacturing facility for safety reasons.
Huber said there would be approximately 10 tanks on the facility, two of which will be 24 feet high and 100 feet across. These two tanks can hold approximately 1 million gallons, he said.
"If we expand later, additional tanks may be necessary," Huber said.
Biodiesel fuel, before and after mixing with diesel fuel, can be safely stored for approximately six months, he said.
He said the plant will manufacture approximately 3.3 million gallons per month of biodiesel and all the manufactured product is pre-sold. The shipment will be weekly by unit trains, he said.
"We will hold cars until there are approximately 70-75 cars ready for shipment," Huber said. "One unit train will come in with product to manufacture and another will ship out."
Unit trains are freight trains moving large tonnage of single bulk products between two points, according to Union Pacific Rail Road. The number of cars on a unit train is specified by the railroad.