BY MATT HERSH

Salem will be the state’s first hub for commercial biodiesel fuel production after two local businessmen have proposed the idea to planners.

On Tuesday, April 10, the Planning Board unanimously approved a site plan submitted by Dan Espinal and Tim Hickey for a manufacturing plant at 51 Northwestern Drive, just off Interstate 93.

The two Salem residents said they will start a company called Atlantic Biodiesel in hopes of providing a new source of energy for the area and encouraging local farmers to grow oil-seed crops to create the fuel.

Hickey and Espinal said they have been formulating their business plan for more than a year and were happy planners approved their proposal.

Espinal said he came up with the business idea after attending a conference in South America about alternative energy sources. One of the discussion topics was biodiesel fuel.

“I had an idea already about doing something with renewable energy sources because of what is going on with the world and global warming,” he said. “I heard about biodiesel, and I thought we could do this right here in Salem.”

Espinal said he recruited Hickey, who he had known professionally already. The two men came up with an idea that could be profitable while helping the environment.

“We need to pay ourselves,but it is our full intent to keep New Hampshire a green state,” Hickey said.

Biodiesel is made by heating vegetable oil or fat to 150 degrees and mixing it with lye and alcohol. The result is a fuel which is both biodegradable and nontoxic. Typically, it produces about 60 percent less carbon dioxide emissions than petroleum-based fuels.

Proponents of the fuel source also cite it as a way to move the country away from relying on foreign oil sources.

The Salem proposal came less than a week after the House passed a bill to establish a commission which will promote biodiesel fuel production in the state.

Espinal and Hickey said their plant would likely produce about 3 million gallons of biodiesel a year with the hope of upping the amount to about 10 million gallons in the future.

Atlantic Biodiesel will likely sell their fuel to a distributor who would mix it with home heating fuel and diesel gas, Hickey said.

Members of the Planning Board had one potential issue with the proposal. Board member Robert Campbell said a town law prohibits the storage of fuels in certain areas. Campbell said he was concerned about potentially violating the town’s zoning laws.

However, after a lengthy discussion, the board concluded that the law, which was written in 1987, did not apply to biodiesel because the product will not be stored at the facility.

In addition, biodiesel is not considered to be a fuel until it is mixed with other petroleum-based fuels.

“It’s a matter of semantics,” said board member Eugene Bryant. “Unless you want to look for a meaning and make it apply, then the (law) in question does not apply to the manufacturing and processing of this product.
The technology has run in front of our 1980s zoning.”

Hickey said the biodiesel product will be picked up on a daily basis and storage at the facility will be limited to 24-hour periods.

Other concerns about the plant’s potential impact on the air quality were eased when Hickey explained that the process is entirely sealed and produces no air or water emissions.

In addition to comments from Hickey and Espinal, other officials came to speak in support of the business.
James Garrity, a state representative and chairman of the state Energy Policy Commission, told planners he was excited to hear about the proposal.

“Biodiesel does what we want to do,” he said. “It creates non-Middle Eastern fuel that can be a source for America’s school buses, vehicles and eventually our basement oil heaters.”

Now that planners have given the nod, the two men will only need to obtain local permits from the Environmental Protection Agency before they can get to work.

Hickey said the company will not require any permits from the state for water or air emissions because the fuel creation process is fully sealed.

Should the business succeed in Salem, the two men said they would like to expand it to other locations on the East Coast.

For the time being, Espinal and Hickey said they will work on getting the Salem plant up and running with the hopes of opening sometime this summer. Espinal will serve as the company’s chief executive officer.