Enzymatic biodiesel plant in Georgia to be sold Dec. 2 at public auction
- Ron Kotrba
- 22 minutes ago
- 2 min read
A 5-million-gallon-per-year (mgy) biodiesel plant in Dublin, Georgia, two-and-a-half hours southeast of Atlanta, is scheduled to be sold at public auction Dec. 2.
The SME Dublin LLC plant was built by Smisson-Mathis Energy, a joint venture between Tactical Fabrication, owned by Franklin Mathis, and the Smisson Group of Macon, Georgia.
The plant will be sold at public auction Dec. 2 to the highest bidder for cash at the Laurens County Courthouse between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eastern time.
First Federal Bank, issuer of a $5 million note in 2019, sued the company and its owners after the loan was defaulted on in 2023.
The plant was originally scheduled for a public auction in July 2024, which Biobased Diesel Daily® reported in June 2024.
When asked in November about why the property was not sold at auction last year, Mathis said, “There was a great deal of interest from your article that the bank postponed the sale, and SME tried to work with potential buyers from your article.”
According to Mathis, a falling out between the owners and poor management led to the default on the loan, and the bank now owns the facility.
The judgement of the civil suit requires the property to be sold so the bank can recoup some of its money.
Despite Mathis telling Biobased Diesel Daily® that he won a summary judgement against SME to have the case dismissed, the litigation is ongoing, he said.
“I had to file personal bankruptcy and close Tactical Fabrication because I had no more money to fight with,” he told Biobased Diesel Daily®.
“I am still bewildered how something that was so good turned out so bad,” he said. “I am back doing fabrication work until the dust settles, and I will jump right back in the renewable energy sector with new ideas.”
Construction of the 5 mgy enzymatic biodiesel production facility began in 2019.
The plant produced its first tanker load of biodiesel made from brown grease in the fall of 2021 and, after some delays related to the market, feedstock quality and the pandemic, SME Dublin manufactured its second load of brown-grease biodiesel in spring 2022.
The facility utilized a batch process involving enzymes, resins and distillation.
The distillation system was developed completely in-house by Tactical Fabrication.
For more information on the history of the plant, its process technology and development, click here.
