Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Kinder Morgan’s Plantation Pipe Line to ship biodiesel to Southeast

ATLANTA, Ga. – What is being described as a “technological breakthrough” in transporting biofuels soon will provide a new supply of bio-diesel to fuel distributors across metro Atlanta.
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. successfully tested last fall the movement of 20,000 bbls. of a biodiesel blend through the Plantation Pipeline system, which runs through northern Georgia on its way from Louisiana to Virginia, according to a report filed Jan. 21 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Based on those results, the project could be in commercial operation on a limited basis within 30 to 60 days with full ramp-up late this year, said Mark Evans, the Houston-based company’s director of business development.
The biodiesel pipeline innovation comes on the heels of ethanol shipment by pipeline which Kinder Morgan has innovated in Florida.
The Tampa-to-Orlando ethanol project, which went on line in December, made the Central Florida Pipeline the first transmarket gasoline pipeline in the country to transport biofuel.
Until now, shipments of biofuels have been limited to trucks and trains because of problems running ethanol or biodiesel through pipelines. Evans said ethanol corrodes the pipes while biodiesel tends to contaminate other fuels that run through the system, particularly jet fuel.

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