The biodiesel facility will employ 24 people and add $1.4 million in annual payroll to local economies.

URBANDALE, Iowa - The Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) leadership congratulates Soy Energy, LLC, on its official groundbreaking held earlier today at the new biodiesel plant site near Marcus, Iowa. A crowd of 200 people listened to several speakers during the groundbreaking ceremony.

“I'd like to thank the leaders of Soy Energy, LLC, for their commitment to Iowa farmers and to the communities of northwest Iowa. The groundbreaking of another biodiesel plant in Iowa is a huge success for farmers,” says Tom Oswald, an ISA director and soybean farmer near Cleghorn, Iowa.

“How often do you get to watch your product help reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil and increase our energy security? The Iowa biodiesel industry has tripled production each year for the past two years,” says Oswald.

The Soy Energy, LLC, biodiesel plant will have an annual production capacity of 30-million gallons of biodiesel and 3 million gallons of glycerin after completion in 2008. The plant was designed and will be built by Bratney Companies in Des Moines, Iowa, using German technology from Cimbria-Sket and Westfalia Separator, Inc.

The biodiesel plant will be a flexible front-end facility that could use a variety of feedstocks including soybean oil, other vegetable oils and animal fats. The plant will also feature a biomass boiler that will use biomass pellets from the Cherokee County landfill for its source of energy. By using the boiler and biomass pellets, a savings of 60 percent on energy costs compared to natural gas is anticipated.

The Soy Energy, LLC, facility will join 13 operating plants and is one of three currently under construction in Iowa, says Grant Kimberley, ISA director of market development.

“Biodiesel can be made from many different animal fats and vegetable oils, although soybean oil is the primary U.S, feedstock that is used. It just makes sense that Iowa is the epicenter of biodiesel production in the nation because Iowa is also the leader in soybean production in the United States,” says Kimberley.