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A town in Central Florida is on track to become a vital center of biodiesel production, second only to an area around Houston Texas.

This story from the Orlando (FL) Business Journal says Groveland, about 30 miles west of downtown Orlando, is on track to have three biodiesel refineries up and running by the beginning of next year:

Together, the three Groveland plants — CleanFuel LLC, Southern Energy Holdings Inc. and Summit Biodiesel — represent a significant investment in the area: Southern Energy estimates its operation alone cost $5 million — and the three firms could create up to 100 jobs, paying a minimum of $15 an hour.

The companies also have ambitious 2009 sales targets for their operations: Summit Biodiesel, $3.8 million; Southern Energy Holdings, $9 million; and CleanFuel, $120 million.

CleanFuel currently produces about a million gallons of biodiesel a year and expects to ramp that up soon to five to six million gallons a year. Southern Energy Holdings will open its 350,000-gallon-a-month plant next month with plans of increasing that output to 1 million gallons a month. Summit will open a 1-million-gallon-a-year refinery in the Groveland area next year.

A year ago, I was telling you about how Imperium Renewables was opening a 100-million-gallon-a-year biodiesel plant in Grays Harbor, Washington (near Seattle) and how just the week before that announcement Imperium had inked a deal to provide 18 million gallons of the green fuel a year for the next four years to Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

But what a difference a year makes, as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that a series of missteps by the company has resulted in Royal Caribbean canceling that long-term contract and Imperium continuing its downward spiral:

The loss of the contract with Royal Caribbean – Imperium’s largest customer – is a huge setback. And it follows a series of events over the past eight months – including the cancellation of an initial public offering, staff layoffs and executive departures – that highlight the troubles facing the one-time rising star in Seattle’s clean tech industry.

A spokesman for Imperium also declined to comment.

This latest development raises some serious questions about the future of Imperium and the Grays Harbor refinery, which was the nation’s largest biodiesel plant in the nation when it opened a year ago.

A company that turns leftover turkey parts into biodiesel has made a $100-million initial public offering as the company goes public.

This story from SustainableBusiness.com says West Hempstead, N.Y.-based Changing World Technologies, Inc. sells biodiesel and organic fertilizers that it produces from animal and food processing waste:

The company is noted for financial backing by the owners of the New York Mets and also for a plant in Carthage, Missouri that takes roughly 250 tons of carcasses daily from the ConAgra Butterball turkey factory and turns them into fertilizer and diesel fuel for heating oil.

Changing World Technologies is funded by Apex Capital, ConAgra, Stonehill Capital and the venture capital unit of Fred Wilpon’s Sterling Equities. Mr. Wilpon is chairman and principal owner of the Mets.

A full three-quarters of all the biodiesel produced in the U.S. now meets the important BQ-9000 certification… a standard that couples the foundations of universally accepted quality management systems with the product specification ASTM D 6751, and has become the premier quality designation in the industry.

This press release from the National Biodiesel Board says six companies picked up the certification this week… the largest group to ever achieve the quality standard at one time:

“BQ-9000 companies dominate the industry with 75% of biodiesel produced in the US, which is a huge achievement,” said Leland Tong, Chairman of the National Biodiesel Accreditation Commission which is the governing body for the BQ-9000 program. “I think that demonstrates the market power of BQ-9000.”

A 2008 study by Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) shows the biodiesel industry has achieved a high degree of success in meeting national fuel quality standards. The study demonstrated that plants certified under BQ-9000 fared the best. BQ-9000 producers consistently hit the mark, no matter how large or small the plant.

The six that just made the certification include biodiesel marketer Downs Company of Corona, Calif.; Piedmont Biofuels of Pittsboro, N.C.; Beacon Energy Corp. of Cleburne, Texas ; Lake Erie Biofuels of Erie, Pa.; Paseo Cargill Energy of Kansas City, Mo.; and Ag Processing Inc. (AGP) of St. Joseph, Mo.