A biodiesel plant idled by bankruptcy last year will get new life as a new tenant moves in. This article from Capital Press says TransMessis Columbia Plateau has moved into the former Inland Empire Oilseeds, LLC refinery in Odessa, Wash., and could be operating in the next few days and at full capacity early next year.
TransMessis Columbia Plateau (TCP) will produce biodiesel from canola, said CEO Damon Pistulka. The company is newly formed and backed by an investment group based in Houston, Texas, and several investors in Washington.
TCP is leasing the building from the Odessa Public Development Authority, with an option to purchase.
Pistulka said the company plans to produce 8 million gallons of biodiesel annually, and hopes the feedstock will eventually be locally sourced.
“We’ll use well over 50,000 tons (of canola) next year,” he said.
The facility is being cleaned and readied for production, he said. Pistulka expects to begin production by the end of November, and reach full capacity in the first quarter of 2014.
The opening of this facility along with a Pacific Coast Canola plant in Warden, Wash., should create a good market for canola in that region.