Biodiesel refinery up for grabs in Florida

Biofuels producer Agri-Source Fuels (ASF) is seeking a buyer for its biodiesel refinery located in Dade City, US.

ASF claims the plant is only currently refining glycerine but, although it is producing nearly 2 million gallons per year of 99.7% pure USP, further retrofitting and enhancements are  required to bring over 12 million gallons of bidiesel refining back on line.

The refinery is the former Lykes-Pasco juice plant, complete with 5.2 million gallons of liquid storage, which ASF took over in 2007. The company invested millions to retrofit the plant in order to produce biodiesel and glycerin but this created a debt load the business could no longer support.

The company filed for bankruptcy protection in August in order to preserve the jobs and maintain going concern value of the assets.

‘This is the perfect time to purchase the refinery and make the necessary investment to bring it back on line,’ says ASF CEO Rodney Sutton. ‘Florida’s fuel consumption is the third highest in the country and biodiesel will be an important part of the state’s future.’

ASF have retained the services of Equity Partners to help with the sale and one of its MDs, Matt Locascio, believes ‘the bankruptcy filing will allow ASF to cleanse the asset and either restructure or sell to another operator’.