FutureFuel restarts biodiesel plant, appoints new director

FutureFuel’s 60 mgy biodiesel plant in Batesville, Arkansas. (Photo: FutureFuel Corp.)

Biodiesel producer FutureFuel Corp. announced in late March that it was initiating the restart of its 60-million-gallon-per-year biodiesel production facility in Batesville, Arkansas.

On Jan. 31, the company announced it had initiated scheduled annual maintenance and turnaround of its biodiesel plant at the end of December.

The turnaround was more extensive than expected.

FutureFuel originally anticipated the turnaround to go through February.

On Feb. 28, however, the company said severe inclement weather in the Batesville area during February impacted its ability to complete the turnaround and restart the various production processes and delayed restart to late March.

In other company news, FutureFuel announced April 3 that its board of directors increased to nine members.

The company appointed Pamela R. Butcher as a class C member of the board “until her successor is duly elected and qualified or until her earlier death, resignation or removal.”

Butcher has served as a director on the boards of publicly traded and privately held companies and has extensive business management and marketing experience in the chemical industry, according to FutureFuel.

Currently, she is a member of the board of directors of J.M. Huber Corp. and Pilot Chemical Corp., since 2022 and 2016, respectively.

Previously, Butcher served as a member of the boards of directors of Arch Resources Inc. (now Core Natural Resources Inc.) from 2023 to 2025, PDC Energy Inc. from 2022 to 2023, Gruden Topco Holdings LP/Quality Distribution Inc. from 2016 to 2021, and Trecora Resources from 2016 to 2022.

Butcher was CEO, president and chief operating officer of Pilot from 2010 to 2021.

Butcher will be granted an option to purchase 10,000 shares of the company’s common stock.