May 16, 2012
Canada's Biox develops new biodiesel plant in New York Harbour
A second biodiesel refinery is being developed in New York Harbour by Canada's Biox Corp, as mentioned in Biox's announcement of financial results for the quarter ending March 31.
According to the company, it has finalised definitive agreements with International-Matex Tank Terminals to secure the site and related infrastructure to construct a 100 million-litre (26.4 million gallons) per year plant within the IMTT terminal in Bayonne, N.J.
"[The] announcement of our second facility demonstrates the scalability of our business model," said CEO Kevin Norton. "With the US and Canadian mandates in place, we believe long-term demand exists for a quality product from reliable suppliers."
Biox currently operates a 67 million-litre (17.7 million gallons) per year plant in Hamilton, Ontario. Norton noted that the facility features a unique, patented biodiesel production technology that was developed by the University of Toronto and acquired and commercialised by Biox. The production process can convert triglycerides and free fatty acids to biodiesel in a two-step, single-phase continuous process. The conversion in accomplished at atmospheric pressures and near ambient temperatures.
According to Norton, construction of the new plant is scheduled to be complete by December 2013, with start-up and commissioning scheduled for early 2014. Like the Hamilton plant, the new facility will utilise waste greases and oils as feedstock.
There are several reasons why Biox has chosen the New York Harbour as the location for its second plant. Norton said that the local market has experienced some of the highest values for biodiesel. In addition, there are few existing producers in the region. New York's biodiesel mandate was also a significant factor. The terminal location will also offer the new facility access to rail, truck and barge transportation, which is important for both product delivery and feedstock intake.
Norton said it has long been Biox's goal to expand its operations, and that the company will likely develop additional plants in the future. "Our vision has always been to deploy multiple facilities in markets that have accepted the product and have the infrastructure to support it," he said. "The mandates are also a very important piece of the matrix of producing biodiesel, so we plan to do this again. Unfortunately, this [second facility] has taken us a bit longer to roll out while we have been waiting for those market conditions to align, but our desire now is to start running parallel rollouts of our technology. In simple terms, we definitely want to do it again."
Regarding financial results for the quarter, Biox reported the production of 14.9 million litres (3.9 million gallons) of biodiesel during the three-month period ended March 31. Sales for the quarter were US$13.7 million, compared to US$22.86 million during the same period of 2011. A net loss of US$1.28 million was recorded for the quarter, a reduction over the US$1.84 million net loss posted during the same quarter last year.