Bridgeport Biodiesel declares Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Bridgeport Biodiesel 2 LLC, a Connecticut firm that recycles used cooking oil, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

The company declared $32,000 in assets and $2.4 million in liabilities in a petition filed on Feb. 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains.

Its production facility is in Bridgeport, and founder and CEO Brent Baker lives in Pearl River in Rockland County, New York. Bridgeport Biodiesel and its parent company, Sustainable Biodiesel Co., are also affiliated with Tri-State Biodiesel in the Bronx.

The Bridgeport Biodiesel website describes Sustainable as a “social enterprise” and the largest cooking-oil-to-biodiesel-fuel company on the East Coast. It has operations in California, District of Columbia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

The website states that Baker was instrumental in helping to pass a New York City law requiring the use of biodiesel in all heating oil sold in the city. It says Sustainable was the first company to sell biofuel to private fleets in the city and to set up a biodiesel pump at a gas station in the city.

In bankruptcy filings, the National Development Council”™s Grow America Fund claims it is owed $2.4 million. The New York City nonprofit helped finance construction of a refinery at the Bridgeport Eco-Industrial Park in 2014.

The list of the 20 largest unsecured creditors does not show amounts for their claims, suggesting that liabilities could come in significantly higher than shown in the first-day summary.

Bridgeport Biodiesel 2 had gross revenue of $750,000 in 2016 and $3.3 million last year.