GLENVILLE — The idled SoyMor Biodiesel plant west of Glenville may soon re-open under new ownership.

Biodiesel producer Renewable Energy Group, of Ames, Iowa, announced this week it has purchased the SoyMor Biodiesel plant and facility assets with plans to restart production by the end of the summer.

The company had been the general contractor and manager for the facility, which produces 30 million gallons per year, since it began production in 2005.

“Renewable Energy Group is proud to add this production-proven, strategically-located facility to our network of owned and operated biorefineries,” said the company’s CEO Jeff Stroburg in a news release.

The plant has been idled since 2008 as a result of high prices for soybean oil.

The release states the company has already begun the hiring process to employ more than 20 full-time, family-wage jobs, including administrative positions, biodiesel plant operators and load-out staff.

“With nationwide demand for biodiesel growing steadily through implementation of the Renewable Fuels Standard and Minnesota’s continued biodiesel consumption leadership, we expect to quickly ramp up production at REG Albert Lea LLC,” Stroburg said.

He said the company is proud to bring green-collar jobs to the community while supporting ag producers in Minnesota and across the Midwest.

Gary Pestorious, the chairman of the SoyMor Board of Governors, said more than 600 members of the SoyMor Cooperative approved the sale during a meeting June 27.

“It hasn’t been running for 3 1/2 years,” Pestorious said. “We believe REG is going to start it back up.”

He said the plant closed after a big jump in soybean oil prices.

In 2007, the price went from 28 cents to 45 cents a pound. It has steadily grown since.

The longtime record for soybean oil had been 45 cents a pound in 1974, but more recently commodity trades have risen above 60 cents.

The Chicago Board of Trade closing price Friday for July soybean oil was 57.5 cents per pound.

Pestorious said he thinks it will be positive for the community to have the company started back up and people hired.

While the SoyMor plant was built as a refined vegetable oil feedstock biodiesel plant, REG officials noted the facility could be upgraded to process a wide variety of lower cost natural fats and oils. That could include cooking oil, inedible corn oil from ethanol production and other materials.

REG states in its release it is the largest biodiesel producer in the United States. The plant in Glenville will bring the REG-owned and operated total to more than 210 million gallons, with biorefineries already built or under construction in Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Texas, Illinois, New Mexico and now Minnesota.