World Energy acquires Elevance’s biorefinery in Natchez, Miss., U.S.A.

World Energy has acquired from Elevance Natchez, Inc. (ENI) the company’s 72 million-gallon-per-year biorefinery located on the Mississippi River in Natchez, Miss., U.S.A.

World Energy is an advanced biofuels supplier based in Boston, Mass., U.S.A., with more than 200 million gallons (600,000 metric tons) of production capacity in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas and more than 16 million gallons (48,000 metric tons) of biofuels storage.

World Energy has been supplying BQ9000-certified biodiesel from the plant under a production contract with ENI since January 2013. The plant is currently fully staffed and fully operational.

In June, World Energy and its joint venture partner BIOX Corp. announced the acquisition of a 90 million-gallon-per-year production plant known as World Energy BIOX Biofuels (WEBB) located at the Kinder Morgan Liquid Fuels Terminal on the ship channel in Galena Park, Texas, U.S.A. WEBB is now in its final stages of preparing to startup production.

Also in June, the companies announced the establishment of a 315,000 barrel multimodal biofuels distribution center known as the Houston Hub, which is co-located and co-operated with WEBB at Kinder Morgan’s Galena Park Terminal. Houston Hub is fully integrated into Houston’s petroleum distribution network by truck, rail, barge, ship and pipeline.

“Today’s acquisition of ENI’s Mississippi River plant expands on the initiatives we took earlier this summer with BIOX,” said Gene Gebolys, World Energy CEO. “Advanced biofuels are here to stay, but they won’t be fully mainstream until we integrate our 21(st) century fuels into the sprawling production and distribution complex established for traditional fuels in the 20(th) century. That system originates in the U.S. Gulf, so we need to originate there too with both production and distribution. The Natchez and Houston operations now combine to enable us to supply BQ9000 quality biodiesel in the Gulf at a scale and level of seamless integration never before available.”

“ENI has been a fantastic business partner for more than three and half years,” Gebolys added. “This transaction allows both companies to deliver greater long term value in our respective core businesses and is just the latest step in our long and productive relationship.”