California’s second biodiesel plant sets up shop in Gonzales.

Shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, Richard Gillis was sitting with some friends in a Guadalajara, Mexico hotel talking about how the terrorist attack would affect America.

“Suddenly we realized we were talking about power,” Gillis says. “I remember saying, ‘Maybe we should get into the biodiesel business.’”

“America uses 40 billion gallons of diesel every year. California alone uses 4.4 billion.”

At the time, Gillis was an associate dean at Gilroy’s Gavilan College, running both the Small Business Development Center and the Applied Biotechnology Department. When he returned from his trip to Mexico, he began looking into the viability of building a biodiesel plant.

Five years later, his company, Energy Alternative Solutions, Inc. (EAS, Inc.), will begin producing biodiesel in a roughly 10,000-square-foot complex off Alta Street in downtown Gonzales, with a second plant in Watsonville to follow.

“We’re hoping to begin production in either late October or early November,” Gillis says. “We sort of flew under the radar until we’d actually gotten a permit from the city of Gonzales. We were actually issued the permit on Sept. 11, 2006.”

Derived from vegetable oils, animal fats, or waste fats and oil such as “yellow grease” from renders and restaurants, biodiesel is made through a chemical process called transesterification, whereby the glycerin is separated from the fat or vegetable oil. The process leaves behind two products: methyl esters (the chemical name for biodiesel) and glycerin (a valuable byproduct usually sold to be used in soaps and other products).

“Also road workers use it to keep dust down,” Gillis says. “When it’s blended with water, the glycerine is highly effective in keeping dust down on roads. Plus it’s organic so there’s no impact.”

EAS, Inc. will import tallow, a clear liquid derived from animal fats, which will be supplied by local companies such as Salinas Tallow, San Jose Tallow and industry giant the Darling International Inc., which has plants in Fresno, Stockton and the Bay Area.

Although tallow will be the primary raw material at EAS’s plant, which was designed by industry pioneers Bob and Kelley King of Pacific Biodiesel, it will also be capable of processing virgin vegetable oil and yellow grease.