Biodiesel plant may grow like a weed

Peoria Journal Star
By STEVE TARTER
Posted Nov 03, 2008 @ 07:59 PM

Facility near Mapleton would blend pennycress oil with petroleum

PEORIA — A new plant may grow soon in Peoria, a biodiesel plant that will make use of a whole new energy source: a weed called pennycress.

Biodiesel Manufacturers of Illinois plans to build a $40 million manufacturing plant near Mapleton, 10 miles southwest of Peoria, that would produce 45 million gallons of fuel annually. That's the equivalent of 10 percent of all the biodiesel fuel produced in the United States last year.

Biodiesel is specially treated vegetable oil - traditionally, soybean oil - blended with petroleum diesel to make a more environmentally friendly diesel fuel with reduced emissions.

The Peoria plant would take advantage of a new source for biodiesel: pennycress.
What excites Sudhir Seth, BMI's president and CEO, is that using pennycress, an oil-rich plant with up to 36 percent oil content, would sidestep the entire fuel-versus-food debate.

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