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The U.S.’s first wholly-owned canola biodiesel plant has opened near Velva, North Dakota. The ADM plant is right next to ADM’s crushing facility and will produce 85 million gallons of biodiesel when it’s fully operational.

This article from the Minot (ND) Daily News says the grand opening attracted company officials, local, state, and federal officials:

“This is an exciting time for North Dakota,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. “Our state has the potential to serve as the nation’s powerhouse. North Dakota’s vast resources can be used to reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil, control energy prices and grow our state’s economy. This plant in Velva is leading the way.”

The plant will use the equivalent of 600,000 acres of the state’s canola crop… a fact not lost on North Dakota’s Governor John Hoeven:

“The Northern Canola Growers (Association) will need a lot more canola, so there’s no coasting,” Hoeven said. “This is good for the economy because it’s creating jobs and it’s for the country.”

The plant is expected to do a lot to help meet the growing demand for biofuels.

U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) was among those attending a a grand opening and open house this week at Magellan Midstream Partners’ biodiesel blending facility in Mason City, Iowa.

This article in the Mason City Globe Gazette says the new facility is the first biodiesel blending system located inside a petroleum terminal in Iowa:

“This is a perfect example of cooperation between energy companies — of companies working arm in arm instead of in competition with one another to solve a problem,” said Grassley.

Magellan plays a significant role in Iowa’s biodiesel infrastructure as the majority of diesel in Iowa flows through its system, and this terminal to blend biodiesel is a big part of that.

Don Wellendorf, president and chief executive officer of Magellan, says the Clear Lake facility is part of the “critical infrastructure in the local, state and regional economy.”

“Our investment in biodiesel blending infrastructure at the Clear Lake terminal is underpinned by customer demand and the renewable fuel policy requirements passed by Congress and the state legislatures in Iowa and Minnesota,” he said.

Chicago-based biodiesel refinery builder Benefuel, Inc. will build the world’s first industrial-scale biodiesel refinery that uses a novel solid catalyst to convert low-grade fats and vegetable oils into biodiesel. The 10-million-gallon plant is to be built in Seymour, Indiana in conjunction with Seymour Biofuels.

This company press release says the plant will eliminate the need for water in the refining process and produces a market-ready glycerin by-product:

The catalyst, developed in collaboration with leading chemical engineers from India’s prestigious National Chemical Laboratory, can turn virtually any vegetable oil or high free fatty acid (FFA) animal fat directly into biodiesel without the need for costly pre-processing.

Thanks to the unique nature of the Benefuel catalyst, the operators of the new Seymour plant will realize significant production savings through the purchase of the lowest-cost feedstock. As an added economic benefit, the glycerin by-product of the Seymour refinery will have an initial purity of more than 98%, making it market-ready for use in other applications.

Production is expected to start later in 2008.