Michigan teacher starting biodiesel plant after years of work

5/8/2012

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — A teacher in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula is starting a biodiesel fuel plant after roughly eight years of planning, experimenting and regulatory work.

Bill Koucky’s Northwest Michigan Biodiesel LLC plant is expected to be in full production within weeks, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported (http://bit.ly/IUKu3q ) Tuesday. The upper elementary teacher at Grand Traverse Academy said the aim is for it to be “100 percent sustainable.”

“The concept incorporates bringing a sustainable energy source to the community by utilizing recycled materials right from the area,” he said.

Koucky’s three-part plan begins with a production facility that will process locally grown canola into oil. Koucky plans to sell the oil to local restaurants and buy back the used product from them. The recovered oil will be processed into biodiesel fuel that Koucky plans to sell in the area.

“Some people talk, some people do. I am definitely a doer,” said Koucky, who is experimenting with plans to distill other forms of food waste to produce ethanol.