Web exclusive posted April 16, 2008 at 3:57 p.m. CST
Seaboard Foods, a U.S. pork producing company, has announced the official start up of its subsidiary biodiesel plant – High Plains Bioenergy. The facility, located in Guymon, Okla., conducted start-up procedures in March. The first product shipment was delivered during the second week of April, according to company spokesman David Eaheart.
The plant is expected to produce 30 MMgy annually, although Eaheart wasn’t sure if the plant would reach nameplate capacity by the end of this year. The project has cost Seaboard more than $40 million to date. Final cost totals have yet to be released.
High Plains is colocated with Seaboard’s pork processing facility to more easily use pork fat. The High Plains facility was designed to use multiple feedstocks, but Eaheart said anything other than pork fat will depend on its availability and market price. Pork fat is the plant’s feedstock of choice for now.
Eaheart said the biodiesel facility is part of Seaboard’s plan to be a fully vertically integrated company. Seaboard owns everything from the farms on up, he said, so it “makes sense” to begin producing biodiesel with pork fat from the processing plant. “Biodiesel adds to the element of using everything,” he said. It was hard for Eaheart to say whether the biodiesel project would have been successful were it not for the convenience of using Seaboard’s available pork fat as feedstock because the project “worked for many reasons.”
Biodiesel produced at the facility meets ASTM D6751 specifications, according to High Plains. Eaheart said they are not BQ-9000 certified but will be as soon as possible. Oklahoma City-based Musket Corp. will serve as High Plains’ distributor.
Seaboard Foods is a major exporter of pork to Japan and Mexico. The company employs people in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, Montana and Utah.
A grand opening for High Plains Bioenergy is planned for April 24. For more information on the biodiesel facility, visit their Web page,
www.highplainsbioenergy.com.
