Biodiesel Plant In Wabuska, Nevada, Uses Geothermal Energy And Crops To Create Renewable Energy.

By Karen Woodmansee

With gasoline prices hitting over $3 a gallon in the U.S., Claude Sapp, principal for Infinifuel Biodiesel, is working to turn the oldest geothermal plant in Nevada into a biodiesel processing facility, where camelina oil seed and even algae is becoming diesel fuel.

"The water at the geothermal plant comes out of the ground at about 220 degrees," Sapp said. "The plant makes electricity, with any excess sold back to Sierra Pacific, so it is all self-contained. We're trying not to use any petroleum products at all."

-- Claud Sapp, Infinifuel Biodiesel, principal
Any plant that produces high oil yields can someday power a vehicle said Sapp.

"We can get it from crambe, canola-type plants, oily seeds, even algae, " he said.

Sapp expects to have the first crop available in July, when camelina oil seed will be harvested and sent to a Lovelock plant to be crushed. Eventually, however, he hopes to have the plant at 15 Julian Lane in Wabuska, Nevada, ready to grow its own algae, which he said can be harvested monthly.

"It (algae) starts out in a test tube and replicates itself," he said. "We can grow it in our test ponds. It is about a thousand times more productive to grow algae than growing oil seed in the dirt. We have plenty of land to expand. We can grow acres more than our test ponds."

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=48504