Massachusetts is about to get its first commercial biodiesel distribuiton facility.
This story from the North Andover (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune says Baystate Biofuels is using an old Lucent property for the center and will come as the state’s biodiesel mandate kicks in next summer:
“In about 10 days, we’ll have biofuel for sale off our rail cars,” Baystate Biofuels chief executive officer Jesse Reich promised the crowd.
Reich noted that parts for the pumping station had arrived. Once it is assembled, oil companies will be able to buy biodiesel shipped in from Chicago and New Jersey to blend with petroleum diesel for use in automobiles and home heating to meet the requirements of the state’s Clean Energy Biofuels Act of 2008 which goes into effect in July of next year.
Under the first year of the law, diesel and home-heating oil sold in Massachusetts must contain 2 percent biodiesel. The mix increases by 1 percent per year until it reaches 5 percent in 2013.
Reich told the gathering Tuesday night that North Andover’s master plan had called for two 175,000 storage tanks already on the Lucent property at Osgood Landing to be torn down within a few years.
Instead, Baystate Biofuels cleaned them up and converted them so they can hold biodiesel, a clean-burning fuel produced from oil bearing plants, animal fats, algae and recycled products like oils and greases.
In the next year and a half, Baystate Biofuels plans to have its own 10-millon-gallon-a-year facility at the location, with plans to eventually expand that to 57 million gallons.