Plantation Pipe Line Transports Biodiesel For Commercial Purposes

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. announced that Plantation Pipe Line Company is the first pipeline company in the U.S. to transport biodiesel for commercial purposes.

Plantation completed the first transmarket commercial shipment of blended 5% biodiesel (B5) on a mainline segment of the pipeline. The company injected B99 into ultra low sulfur diesel at Plantation’s Collins, MS, pump station and breakout tank farm creating a 15,000 barrel batch of B5 that it then shipped to marketing terminals located in Athens, GA and Roanoke, VA. Upon receipt of the product at both facilities, Kinder Morgan performed testing on samples from the batch and found that the samples arrived on specification.

“We believe the blending and transportation of biodiesel by pipeline will have significant advantages for our customers when compared to the alternative of installing capital intensive blending facilities at individual marketing terminals,” said KMP Products Pipeline President Tom Bannigan. “Kinder Morgan is responding to customers’ needs for blending and transporting biodiesel to meet federal regulatory requirements.”

In addition to Athens and Roanoke, the company will be able to move blended B5 to markets along Plantation systems in Birmingham and Oxford, AL, Bremen and Atlanta, GA, Belton and Spartanburg, SC and Charlotte and Greensboro, NC.

Kinder Morgan also is optimistic that it will be able to ship blended biodiesel on Plantation’s Tennessee lateral serving both Chattanooga and Knoxville. The company believes jet fuel currently moving on this lateral can readily be supplied into these markets by means other than Plantation which would open the door for shipment of a blended biodiesel on this lateral line.