Biodiesel plant OK’d for former truck-stop site

A company that now sells biodiesel fuel at a south Petaluma gas station is planning an expansion of its operation to manufacture the product, as well.

Royal Petroleum received the county’s blessing earlier this year to add a 9,000-square-foot biodiesel plant at the former Rinehart’s truck stop and scales, near the Highway 101 off-ramp to Petaluma Boulevard South.

The company — the first in Petaluma to offer biodiesel fuel — says it wants to serve a growing market of farmers, ranchers and industry that use biodiesel-powered vehicles and equipment

“The biodiesel product will be consumed almost exclusively in Sonoma and Marin counties by the farm and commercial business communities,” Royal Petroleum said in its proposal to the county.

Company co-owner Clif Hill said there is “very limited” production of biodiesel fuel in Northern California right now, with some of the product being trucked up from the southern part of the state.

Each year, the plant is expected to produce 5 million gallons of the fuel — a processed form of plant oil — to be sold at Royal Petroleum’s network of stations, Hill said.

It will operate seven days a week and employ two technicians during a shift — between 11 and 14 total employees.

Initially, the unprocessed plant matter needed to make the fuel will be trucked to the site from Richmond, but the finished product will supplant standard petroleum-based diesel, the company noted.

The site’s proximity to the Petaluma River and the railroad tracks could also mean future deliveries via barge or freight train, the company suggested.

But before the plant can get up and running, the company needs to secure funding for construction, Hill said.

“We’re looking at our funding options right now,” he said. “This is a tough time to be going to the money markets.”

The recession has slowed sales, but the county’s approval of a use permit for the plant should help attract investors, he said.

“We still feel there’s a good future for it because it makes so much sense environmentally,” Hill said.

(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)