The giant oil company ExxonMobil Corp. has obtained a permit to assemble a $3 million biodiesel blending project in Spokane Valley, and a young company based in Arlington, Wash., separately plans to extend to Eastern Washington the distribution network for biodiesel it makes.


ExxonMobil, which is based in Irving, Texas, has obtained a mechanical permit for a biodiesel blending project at its Spokane Valley facility at 6311 E. Sharp, city records show. Big diesel, ethanol, and gasoline storage tanks dot ExxonMobils 15-acre property there, and the permit application on file with the city of Spokane Valley says, The project involves installing and reusing piping and equipment to blend biodiesel, including exterior equipment.


Shane Halicek, an employee at ExxonMobils Spokane Valley site, referred a reporter to the companys offices in Texas for information, but a spokeswoman for ExxonMobil there said the staff member who would handle a reporters call on the Spokane Valley project was on vacation, and other members of the companys public relations staff were dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike and were unavailable to answer questions.


SPEC Consulting LLC, of Albany, N.Y. is listed as the engineer on the permit application.


Meanwhile, the young Arlington, Wash., company, two-year-old Standard Biodiesel, is looking for distributors of its biodiesel blend in Eastern Washington, and eventually plans to produce the fuel here, says John Scofield, that companys CEO.


John Wick, Standard Biodiesels vice president and founder, says the company, which employs 45 people, collects used cooking oil from more than 1,200 restaurants in Eastern Washington and North Idaho and processes it at a facility in Coeur dAlene into about 20,000 gallons each month of a commodity called waste vegetable oil.


That oil currently is trucked to Standard Biodiesels plant in Arlington, where its processed further into biodiesel thats 5 percent recycled cooking oil and 95 percent conventional diesel. Its selling for about $3.80 a gallon at the companys pumps in Arlington.


Scofield says Standard Biodiesels goal is to reach an operational level within three months at which it transports 1 million gallons of the blended fuel a month to Eastern Washington and North Idaho fueling stations.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at mikem@spokanejournal.com.