AmCan man plans biofuel plant in city

AmCan man plans biofuel plant in city
Company would manufacture biodiesel from waste materials from sources throughout Vallejo
By RACHEL RASKIN-ZRIHEN/Times-Herald staff writer
Article Launched: 05/07/2008



Parked in front of the future bio diesel manufacturing plant located at the West end of Lemon Street, the rear window of Jacque Barsotti's VW Passat reads 'Biodiesel Yum.' (Stacey J. Miller/Times-Herald)

If biodiesel is the wave of the future, Rodney Pitts said he plans to catch it and take Vallejo along for the ride.

The American Canyon resident said if all goes according to plan, he and his partners and investors will build a biofuel manufacturing plant on Vallejo's Lemon Street near the water. Pitts said the plant will produce fuel from waste materials from the nearby treatment plant and other sources, and produce no toxic waste of its own. Not even dirty water.

"Every city has waste materials it doesn't use, like brown oil, that can be used to make biodiesel," said Pitts, 42, a married father of a 4-year-old son. "Material from the waste treatment plant is now broken down into methane, brown oil and other elements and mostly winds up in landfills or the ocean, but we can make fuel out of it."

Pitts, a former Navy man and self-described "computer science guy," said he hopes his firm, Go Green Biofuels, will be able to build a 40,000-square-foot facility on 25 acres. The plant will eventually produce 30 million gallons of clean-burning fuel annually, he said. And not only will the plant be self-powered, it will generate energy to "feed into the grid," Pitts said.

The idea is to use special, self-re-generating algae oil to create fuel, which doesn't impact food supplies the way ethanol does, Pitts said. And unlike traditional fuel refineries, Go Green's process produces no toxic by-products or smell, he said.

"The only byproduct is glycerin, for which there is a growing demand for use in making plastics and from chemical companies, like Dow Chemical, who already want it," he said. "It's used in soaps, pet feed stock, all sorts of things."

In the past, some have questioned whether algae oil can be efficiently produced in enough quantity at a low enough cost to be a viable fuel option. That was before gas prices soared, Pitts said, adding that the fourth generation technology his firm uses, addresses those issues.

The facility Pitts hopes to create would take some 150 workers about a year to build and will employ at least 50 employees when it opens, he said. The plan is to hire only Vallejo workers for all phases of the operation. Company officials hope to break ground next month, he said.

"Vallejo has the perfect infrastructure for this, and we want to create jobs here, and educate people about biofuels," Pitts said.

To that end, Pitts will have a biofuel-powered recreational vehicle available for school presentations, he added.

"This will also attract other 'green' business to Vallejo. It could be huge," Pitts said.

Creating and building a market for biofuels will lower the cost of diesel, thereby lowering shipping costs, which, in turn, will lower the costs of everything else, Pitts said.

And as people see the benefits, more passenger cars will be built and sold that can run on this fuel, which will cost less than gasoline. Go Green already has contracts with several companies to supply biodiesel to their truck fleets, Pitts said.

"Biodiesel hybrids are already being built, and other countries are already using them," he said.

Vallejo's chief building official said what he's heard of Pitts' concept sounds good, but it's only a concept so far.

"He's met with some city staff members, including myself and presented his ideas, but no plans have been submitted to us," West said. "But the zoning is right for the site, and the concept is interesting. The city is interested and will help him with it if we can."



A rendering of the new Go Green Biofuels plant planned to open later this year at the west end of Lemon Street in Vallejo. (Courtesy photo)

• E-mail Rachel Raskin-Zrihen at RachelZ@thnewsnet.com or call 553-6824.