Biodiesel Producer Receives $25M Guaranteed Loan

U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development has approved a $25 million guaranteed loan to Minnesota’s SoyMor to expand biodiesel production.

SoyMor will use the loan to purchase equipment to convert multiple types of feed stocks, including an unrefined corn oil waste product from nearby ethanol facilities, into biodiesel. In its current configuration, the plant only has the ability to process soybean oil.

High feedstock costs forced SoyMor to suspend operations at its Albert Lea, Minn., facility in Spring 2008. The plant opened in 2005 and has an annual capacity of 30 million gallons.

Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack said, "This is great news for a community that recently saw this company cease production of its operations due to tough economic conditions."

The loan is made under the Section 9003 Biorefinery Assistance Program of the 2008 Farm Bill.

The Biorefinery Assistance Program promotes the development of new and emerging technologies for the production of fuels that are produced from non-corn kernal starch biomass sources. The program provides loan guarantees to develop, construct and retrofit viable commercial-scale biorefineries producing advanced biofuels.