CEO Scott Johnson explains how GEN-X Energy Group has achieved rapid growth in a volatile industry by staying flexible and responding rapidly to fluctuations.
Written by Emmet Cole & Produced by Melissa Abbott
GEN-X Energy Group president Scott Johnson describes life at his biodiesel company in three ways: “You don’t sleep. You don’t go home. But it’s been a lot of fun for the whole team.”
Instead, thanks to supreme patience, feed stock flexibility, and dedicated employees, GEN-X is able to take best possible advantage of the economic commodities markets and, in the process, has become a leader in renewable fuels.
Burbank Biodiesel
The idea happened in the lobby of a McDonalds near the company’s headquarters in Burbank, Wash., located on the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers in eastern Washington, the dryer half of the state. Johnson, a microbiologist by trade with experience in the food processing industry, saw potential in producing biodiesel from sustainable products like potato waste oils after he began making the product in his garage at home. At first, Johnson and his two co-founders planned for a small, $50,000 plant that would pump out 400,000 gallons of B100 (pure biodiesel) each year. But after just one meeting, goals shot upward.
“It quickly grew from three owners to six when we realized the amount of local oil feed stocks available and greatly increased the capacity of the plant to five million gallons,” Johnson says.
The new version of the plant cost $800,000 to build. Built in 2007 in an 18,000 square foot warehouse on the Port of Walla Walla, it’s permitted to produce five million gallons of biodiesel per year, and at its current configuration could produce 15 million gallons if needed…
May 12, 2008
Click here to view the corporate brochure on Gen-X Energies
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