Moberly Biodiesel Plant to Open

A Moberly plant is supposed to be producing biodiesel, but in three and a half years and at a cost of $8.5 million to open, the plant still is not producing any product.Officials say the plant should be up and running in the next six months. They say their goal is to have biodiesel production in full swing by next May and plan to produce ten million gallons of the product every year.”We had some problems with the way the plant was originally designed and we ended up having to do a redesign and a partial re-construction of the plant,” said Ted Sander of Producer’s Choice.The company is supposed to help boost the economy, but after the long wait, the people of Moberly are just eager for them to start making a product. The plant currently only has nine employees but once it becomes fully functional, that number could increase to 15. The National Biodiesel Board says that it cane take sometime to open a plant due to numerous requirements that each plant needs to meet.Nevertheless, area residents are happy to see a return of investment after supplying millions of dollars into the biodiesel plant.”We have already pumped in the neighborhood of nine million dollars into the local economy, and we haven’t even operated yet,” said Sander.That money mainly stems from job growth and potential customers.The company says biodiesel is still relatively new to the fuel industry and that is why it could take awhile to get operations approved when opening a new plant.