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State's First Biodiesel Production Plant to Close Temporarily
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 06/05/2009

Just two years after going online, the Sanimax Energy plant in DeForest is temporarily shutting down its biodiesel production facilities. The company announced this week they are laying off about two-thirds of its 30 employees that work in the biodiesel wing of the factory. The operation will continue to pick up and process restaurant grease, which they had been using as a raw ingredient in the production of its biofuel. That division employs around 80 workers.

A spokesperson for the Canadian-based Sanimax, which has 24 locations across the continent and three other facilities in Wisconsin, says the closing is attributed to the economy. The firm did not release a possible re-opening date.

Sanimax began construction of its 15,000 square-foot plant in early 2006. In May 2007, the company sold its first large-scale load of fuel to Progressive Farmers Cooperative in Northeast Wisconsin. Sanimax was using a patented multi-feedstock technology developed by Nova Biosource Fuels to transform recycled cooking grease, rendered animal fats and vegetable oils into high-quality, clean burning biodiesel fuel.

Also in 2007, Sanimax partnered with BEST Energies Inc., a start-up biodiesel plant located in Cashton, in which BEST would produce biofuels at its own factory while Sanimax marketed the fuels. That operation is still online and was recently awarded $1 million in grants and loans from the Wisconsin Energy Independence Fund to commercialize its process for producing biodiesel from crude corn oil extracted at ethanol plants.


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