Imperium Renewables opened its Imperium Grays Harbor biodiesel facility last week (15th August). With an annual capacity of 100 million gallons per year, the company says, it is the largest biodiesel production facility in the United States.

“The launch of Grays Harbor represents a coming of age for the biodiesel industry,” said John Plaza, founder and president of Imperium Renewables. “This facility has the scale and the systems to produce fuel comparable to petroleum diesel that meets or exceeds ASTM standards. The difference is that our fuel has far less impact on our environment than fossil fuels and is made from renewable resources.”

Biodiesel is a clean burning alternative fuel made from oils derived from farm crops and animal fats and can be used in most conventional diesel engines with no significant engine modification. It can be used in pure form (100 percent biodiesel) or in a “blended” form, in which it replaces a percentage of regular diesel. Its environmental benefits include:

• 78 percent fewer carbon dioxide emissions than petroleum diesel
• The ozone forming potential of biodiesel hydrocarbons is 50 percent less than that measured for petroleum diesel

The facility is sited on a 12 acre parcel of land at the Port of Grays Harbor, Washington.  The production facility has the capacity to produce up to 100 million gallons of biodiesel fuel, and is capable of storing up to 17 million gallons of biodiesel and feedstocks (the oil that is used to produce biodiesel) at any one time.

The site includes eight main tanks, which can hold 2 million gallons each and two reserves that can hold 500,000 gallons. The tanks are supported by massive, three-and-a-half foot thick concrete foundations, each one totaling 1,000 cubic yards of concrete supported by 185 piles driven 75 feet into the ground.  Connection between the various equipment is achieved via an elaborate network of more than 70,000 linear feet of piping. The facility is “feedstock agnostic” meaning it can create biodiesel from numerous different feedstocks – even simultaneously.

The new facility incorporated proprietary technology techniques and processes that had been developed and improved at Imperium’s original facility, Seattle Biodiesel. Imperium chose the Port of Grays Harbor for its strategic connections to rail, road and water transportation for both inbound raw materials as well as outbound biodiesel fuel.