Industrial blast kills Alberta man

An Albertaworker has died in an explosion at a newly built biodiesel plant south of Calgary.

Kevin David Lodge, 33, was welding on top of a 30-foot biodiesel settling tank just before noon Tuesday at the Western Biodiesel plant near High River when a buildup of fumes and methanol caused an explosion, said RCMP Const. Ferida Balic.

Lodge, a subcontractor from the hamlet of Cayley, Alta., was killed instantly, she said. About 15 other workers were on scene, but no one else was injured.

A fire continued to burn in the tank for several hours after the explosion, because there was no way to extinguish it other than waiting for the biodiesel to burn off, Balic told CBC News.

The plant, located between Aldersyde and High River, about 60 kilometres south of Calgary, was shut down as Alberta Occupational Health and Safety investigated the incident.

Biodiesel, a fuel made by chemically combining any natural oil or fat with an alcohol such as methanol or ethanol, burns much cleaner than gasoline and traditional diesel.

The facility, which opened in January, was built to convert beef tallow and canola oil into 19 million litres of biodiesel per year for American markets. An expansion plan would bump that up to 38 million litres for 2009.