A biodiesel plant in Iowa should be back on line later this month after a fire last fall idled the 10-million-gallon-a-year facility.

This story from the Iowa Independent says Nova Biosource Fuels’ Clinton County Bioenergy Plant has been repaired after the September 30, 2008 fire:

“The repairs to the damaged equipment are now completed at a cost of less than $100,000,” [Kenneth Hern, chief executive of Nova Biosource Fuels, Inc.] said. “We are optimistic that the refinery will be functioning and ready to re-establish operations during early 2009. We want to extend our appreciation to our engineering and construction staff, who efficiently and effectively repaired the damaged equipment, returning the refinery to a production-ready status.”

The fire was believed to have been started by a build up of methanol vapors in the column during a ventiliation process, a portion of the maintenance activities. The plant in Clinton is slated to resume production as a 10 million gallon per year facility.

The plant was the first commercial scale biodiesel refinery to use Nova’s proprietary processing technology.