Dec 14 2010
The Port Commission of San Francisco has given sanction for the scheme submitted by Darling International to convert a part of its tallow delivering plant into a biodiesel production facility.
Darling International, which was originally shipping its tallow products to soap and cosmetic production companies had made an application in 2006 to utilize a part of its tallow products for the production of biodiesel. Though the port agreed for the project and approved it, but later withdrew the sanctioning due to protests from the members of the community and the project was stopped. Richard Berman, Port of San Francisco’s regulatory specialist for the real estate division, said that the objection was not actually against the project, but against the sanctioning process that quickly approved the 10 MW project.
The company made an application for review and the review process commenced after a lapse of two-and-a-half year period and took over a year to review the project. The reviewing committee performed all the required reanalysis to determine the ecological impingements posed by the project and found no extra alleviation is required to commence the project. In the mean time Darling also availed the services of a health risk consultant to overcome objections raised over the stinking discharges from the tallow. The sampling and analysis plan developed by the consultant along with the health risk assessment was examined by a number of members from the local community, department of public health, port staff and scores of others.