Startup General Biodiesel puts China biofuel ventures on hold

Seattle-based General Biodiesel has placed its biodiesel ventures in China on hold because of price controls in China that would leave it with very little room to be profitable, its CEO Yale Wong said late Wednesday. The startup biofuel company had gone into several joint ventures with local Chinese companies last year to build biodiesel plants in Shanghai, Guizhou, Wujin and Guangzhou. Last week, the company completed the acquisition of Imperium Renewables Inc.’s Seattle biodiesel facility — which has an annual capacity of 5 million gallon per year or 119,048 barrels per year (bpy)– for an undisclosed amount at a time when many biodiesel plants in the US are running at extremely low capacity due in part to the current economic conditions. The plant is located one mile from its other proposed plant location, Wong said about the reason for the acquisition. We have plans to convert the existing rendering plant into a biodiesel plant,” he said. General Biodiesel is converting the facility to produce biodiesel from waste oils such as recycled cooking oil and animal fat, which the company collects from restaurants and grocery stores around the region. (July 2, 2009)