Name: Biofuel Plant
Location: Chacabuco, Argentina
Years: 2005-present
Founded by: Edmundo Defferrari
In 2005, 28-year-old entrepreneur Edmundo Defferrari built a $152,000 prototype of a biodiesel plant about 145 miles west of Buenos Aires. In order to build this prototype plant, Defferrari received funding from an Argentine seed company called Don Mario. This plant takes 12 tons of soybeans and converts it into 360 gallons of biodiesel in just one day. It also produces more than 10 tons of animal feed in a single day. Defferrari wants this idea to catch on throughout the world and imagines that 3-4 farmers could pool their money to build such a plant and turn a portion of their harvest into a profitable source of renewable energy. The biodiesel costs only about half as much as regular diesel, about 95 cents a gallon. The process is also automated, only requiring a human to load the soybeans and turn the machine on and off. This absence of human labor also contributes to the lower price of this biodiesel. Defferrari has also achieved a sustainable circle of use, because his customers who buy the biodiesel are the same people who grow the soybean feedstock that supplies the factory.
http://www.grist.org/article/hearn/
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/08/01/8382246/index.htm
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