FeedsZoning could lure biodiesel plant
The proliferation of biodiesel fuel could be one way that Inkster can attract new business.
The Inkster Planning Commission scheduled a special meeting last week to add biodiesel facilities into the manufacturing zoning code, and Inkster City Council members are expected to follow suit at their first meeting in May, said City Manager Joyce Parker.
“It’s too soon to tell if Inkster could be a place where several biodiesel facilities could locate,” she said. “There’s a lot of incentives from the federal government and the state government to encourage biodiesel usage. But it’s just too soon to try to predict whether we’ll be able to attract that sort of development.”
Biodiesel is a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from a variety of fats and oil. It is a renewable fuel that is often touted as one of the solutions to weaning U.S. consumers from foreign oil dependence. The goal of biodiesel producers is to replace conventional diesel fuel and home heating fuel with something more environmentally friendly.
Though biodiesel contains no petroleum, it can be blended at any level with petroleum to create a “blend” that can be used in typical compression-ignition diesel without requiring that vehicle engines be modified, according to industry literature.
The plants require only a small parcel of land and must be near or adjacent to a rail line to make transportation of corn oil and feedstock cost effective. Inkster is a community in need of development that does provide that sort of access, but does not have a variety of vacant land.
Currently, the state of Michigan is home to only one biodiesel refinery, which is located in Bangor, though others are under development. In nearby Romulus, a company called Alternegy has proposed building a $14 million refinery on a small parcel of land on Wick Road. If it comes to fruition, the biodiesel facility proposed in Romulus would refine 10-11 million gallons of biodiesel per year, according to company estimates.
Merrill Kramer, the director of Alternegy, said the reason Romulus was chosen for the site is in part because of the rail line.
The Inkster business base, particularly in the manufacturing area, has taken a beating during the past five years. Carron and Co., a maker of small plastic parts for Ford Motor Co., went out of business, leaving the city with few large taxpayers. A prototype firm recently announced they will move into the vacant Carron building, but opportunities to shore up it’s business base have generally been few and far between.
Mayor Hilliard Hampton said biodiesel could help the city out of that slump.
“We’re located in a good spot, and we have places we could put a refinery,” he said. “It’s something we need to consider . . . we could be an incubator for such development.”
Inkster City Council members will have to approve the biodiesel provision for it to take effect. Parker said she expects the matter to be on the May 7 agenda.
