Largest U.S. Biodiesel Plant Breaks Ground in Indiana

The $150 million Louis Dreyfus Soybean Processing and Biodiesel Plant, to be constructed southwest of Claypool in north-central Indiana, should begin processing 2007 crop soybeans in early 2008, and nearly 50 million bushels of soybeans annually thereafter.

The Claypool plant is expected to produce more than 1 million tons of soybean meal for livestock and poultry feed and 80 million gallons of biodiesel for blending into motor fuel each year, as well as more than 80 million pounds of glycerin a year as a by-product to be used in soaps and detergents.

In addition, the plant is expected to purchase $450 million worth of soybeans from Indiana and southern Michigan and employ 70 full-time workers.

This is the first entry into the biodiesel field for Louis Dreyfus Commodities, a French company that has been trading in grains internationally since 1851 and operating in the United States for 98 years. The company says it is developing additional biofuel assets in the U.S., including an ethanol plant in Norfolk, Neb.