A start up at the GreenHunter BioFuels' biodiesel refinery in Houston has been initiated following repairs to the facility following the damage caused by Hurricane Ike. Plant debugging had just been completed and the facility was beginning to ramp up production when Ike struck in September, causing th eplant to close completely for repairs.

Commenting on the repair and restart of the company’s biodiesel refinery, Bruce Baughman, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Technology, said; "The approximate 12 feet of floodwater from Hurricane Ike took out a significant amount of electrical equipment, electronic instruments and control devices that have now been replaced and repaired over the last eight weeks. In the same period we have repaired process piping, pumps, intermediate tanks and bulk storage tanks that were damaged by flood waters."

He continued; "Prior to Hurricane Ike, GreenHunter BioFuels was systematically ramping-up processing rates. While it is our intent to again engage in a similar ramp-up of continuous throughput rate, it is reasonable to anticipate some troubleshooting during our second startup phase due to the magnitude of the repairs that were necessary to recover from Hurricane Ike. As such, we anticipate that we will achieve an approximate 50% of capacity sometime over the next four operating weeks."

Previously, the company had stated that it anticipated that most of the damage sustained by its wholly-owned subsidiary, GreenHunter BioFuels, Inc., would be covered by existing property and casualty insurance along with business interruption insurance. For all repairs completed to this point, GreenHunter has utilized its existing working capital to fund the cost of the repairs prior to receipt of any of the significant amounts presently due from the company's various existing insurance carriers.