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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.

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 my post from Oct. 16, 2007) has plans to fly a Learjet around the world on the green fuel.

Four months ago, Douglas Rodante with chief pilot Carol Sugars at the controls and the team from Green Flight International flew a 40-year old Czech Aero L-29 Delfin for 30 minutes above the Nevada desert for a half-an-hour. The jet was made for short flights to stop potential defectors. With that in mind, the folks from Green Flight have decided to fly a Bombadier Learject around the world later this year or early in 2009. This story in the Candian Press has more details:

Bill Lear Jr., the president of Learjet before it was purchased by Bombardier in 1990, and Chris Cordova, a former flight engineer on Air Force One, have signed on as consultants.

“I think it’s necessary that we do this first and foremost for environmental reasons.”

Since the jet flies at high altitude where the temperatures are really cold, Green Flight is planning on using tank heaters and chemicals to keep the fuel liquid and possibly mixing the biodiesel with kerosene. Officials believe emissions could be cut 50 to 80 percent compared to conventional jet fuel.

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.

Paul Aakre University of Minnesota-Crookston researcher is one of those looking at expanding the field of oilseeds, according to this article in the Dickinson, North Dakota Press:

“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.”

Aakre and one of his students, Jade Estling, Roosevelt, Minn., are embarking on a project that will test the viability of canola meal as a heating source in wood stoves.

Aakre and Estling will team with a group of canola growers from the Wannaska, Minn., area, which provided the UMC researchers with a twin-screw expeller, a $16,000 machine used to extract oil and meal from oil seeds.

Aakre will be producing some of that oil into biodiesel right on the UM-Crookston campus with some of the biodiesel going back to farmers who provided the canola. The canola meal, a by-product of the oil extraction process, will be fed to cattle.

The Georgia State Legislature is considering a measure that would mandate that all diesel sold in the state would have at least 2 percent biodiesel.

This story in the Macon (GA) Telegraph says the bill’s sponsor expects opposition to his bill:

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.

“I think it’s a bad bill and anti-business,” Lane said. “If there’s a need for that product to exist, it will. I have no intention of supporting legislation that mandates a product.”

Gee, there’s a stunner. Someone in the oil business opposed to biodiesel. Freeman counters the argument by pointing out that there’s already more than enough soybean oil, rendered chicken fat, and other biofuels to meet the anticipated demand of 40 million gallons a year for Georgia.

Keep an eye on this one. I expect that this could be a real fight.