Worlds biggest biodiesel plant coming to Hoosier state

[jpak]

http://nwitimes.com/articles/2006/03/09/news/top_news/293886d8762832868625712c0001df08.txt

The quantity of soybeans in the state and access to transportation was enough to lure Louis Dreyfus Agriculture Industries to Claypool -- 103 miles from the heart of Northwest Indiana -- where the French company will build a $135 million plant capable of producing more than 80 million gallons of biodiesel per year.

With construction set to start within weeks, the Kosciusko County plant would be the ninth biofuel plant being developed in the state.

The plant will use soybeans grown in Indiana and will double the state's current production of biofuel, Gov. Mitch Daniels said in making the announcement at the second annual National Agriculture and Forestry Renewable Energy Summit.

"In a year in which Indiana has gone from almost nowhere to leadership in renewable fuels, today marks the single biggest step," Daniels told reporters after his speech. In 2005, the state's only alternative energy facility was an ethanol plant in St. Joseph County.

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