Last fall, Alabama Agriculture & Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks and Montgomery, Alabama Mayor Bobby Bright announced a partnership that would make used cooking grease into biodiesel to be run in the city’s vehicles. This week, they cut the ribbon on the new Center for Alternative Fuels Biodiesel Production facility.
This Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries press release has more details:
“This has truly been a special day for the City of Montgomery in opening our newly built biodiesel facility,” I can not think of a better way to help clean up our environment and fuel our vehicles and farm equipment,” said Commissioner Sparks.
“Reducing the amount of used cooking oils that goes into the landfill is good environmental policy,” Mayor Bright said “This process is working in several other cities across the state and we are extremely pleased that we can put this into action for Montgomery’s citizens.”
Commissioner Sparks says the facility will also be used for instructional purposes to encourage the state’s farmers to produce a variety of crops that can be turned into biodiesel, including soybeans and canola. Approximately 110 gallons of B100 will be produced every day. Expected cost of the biodiesel should average between 75 cents and 1.00 dollar per gallon.
The team that flew a Czech military jet on 100 percent biodiesel last October (see 
Four cabinet-level officials will be participating in the upcoming 
The Southern Waste Information eXchange and the Florida BioFuels Association are sponsoring the 1st Annual 
The conference will provide a forum for informing the public and private sectors of the economic and environmental benefits of converting waste materials to alternative fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol as well as energy recovery. 
The first E85 station for the state of Mississippi is scheduled to open later this month.
Ford’s Fuel off I-20 in Newton is pleased to be offering the fuel at 
Research into additional oilseeds to make into biodiesel is gaining more popularity, especially as the cost for soybean oil, currently the most commonly used feedstock, soars to record levels.
“We are hearing more and more positive talk when it comes to biodiesels, even more so than corn for ethanol,” Aakre said. “One of the advantages of biodiesel is the potential for individual farmers or a small group of farmers to produce their own fuel in a much simpler technology than ethanol.”
Rep. Alan Freeman, R-Macon, said House Bill 1174 would help farmers and agribusinesses in Georgia’s small but growing biofuel industry. With co-sponsors that include the Democratic minority leader and the governor’s floor leader, Freeman said he hopes the measure can win passage.
Jack Purdy, who has farmed in Woodstock for more than 30 years, now also is the owner of P.K. Biodiesel — a plant on his farm that makes fuel from soybean oil.
Now I can tell you that algae as an additional feedstock for biodiesel was a hot topic of discussion at the recent National Biodiesel Conference and Expo in Orlando, Florida. In fact, the last general session of the conference included a discussion of the various feedstocks, including talk about how algae could produce a thousand gallons of oil for every acre grown. 
The statement from the 25x’25 Alliance says, “environmentally sensitive lands should not be exploited in pursuit of renewable fuels. In fact, we have long held that the growing increase in demand for energy, along with food, feed and fiber, can be met with a boost in production facilitated by advances in technology.”