Dexter businessmen say biodiesel plant on schedule for Thanksgiving start-up

DEXTER, Mo. -- Two Dexter businessmen say their biodiesel plant is on schedule to be up and running by Thanksgiving. The 10,000-square-foot facility could be the first of its kind in the state depending on when another facility under construction near Mexico, Mo., is finished.

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, visited the construction site Monday as part of her annual farm tour.

"This will be the first renewable fuel plant in our district. There's been a lot of talk of others, but this is the real deal here, and we're extremely excited about it," Emerson said.

Three other groups of investors plan to build ethanol plants in Chaffee, Cape Girardeau County and Scott City, respectively. None is near completion.

The plant will produce a biodiesel that is largely soy-based but includes other ingredients like animal grease.

Co-owners Jerry Bagby and Harold Williams said the construction will cost just under $5 million and the capacity of the plant will be 3 million gallons of pure biodiesel per year when it gets up and running.

The plant, to be called Global Fuels LLC, will be just one component of what the investors hope will be an industrial complex dedicated solely to agriculture and related industries. The pair own 55 acres at the spot.

The site is surrounded by fields of soybeans, which is not unusual in Stoddard County. Local agricultural officials estimate the county has 150,000 acres of soybeans. The plant would require about 60,000 acres of beans to operate at full capacity for one year.

The possibility of being locally sustained is one that appeals to Williams.

"We're going to furnish it right here and we're going to take care of our own customers first," he said. "The fuel will go to people locally first, and if we have excess then we'll look at what to do with that."

Personal motivation

Williams also admitted the motivation for the plant was, at least in part, personal. "I purchased 3.5 million dollars' worth of diesel fuel last year, so that put an in-built instinct in me to try and correct what is wrong in the Middle East," said Williams, who owns a trucking company. "We're going to run out of oil eventually -- it's just a matter of when -- but we'll never run out of soy."

The plant will produce B100, biodiesel, or pure bioproduct. That product would then be mixed with standard diesel to produce a blend that is 25 percent biodiesel called B20.

B20 has the minimum bio-component that most government incentive programs require. B20 currently costs about 15 cents more per gallon than standard diesel in some parts of the country.

Asked about the cost difference, Bagby said he would not predict how much the fuel will sell for in Dexter, but believes it can be priced competitively with standard diesel.

Stoddard County, one of the most agriculturally productive in the state, consumes 20 million gallons of diesel fuel per year, Bagby said.

"There is far more demand out there right now than we could supply, even if we supplied 100 percent of our fuel to this county we wouldn't be able to meet the demand," Bagby said.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245