El Paso will soon get its first industrial biodiesel producer, and the company, Global Alternative Fuels, will get a tax break from the city as a result of City Council action Tuesday.

The company is investing nearly $9 million at a plant now under construction on a 30-acre site at 3500 Doniphan on the West Side that until last year was home to Southwest Irrigated Cotton Growers.

By a 5-1 vote, the council approved a five-year, 50 percent refund on property taxes that will be worth $37,518 in the first year and $172,935 for a five-year period.

Northeast city Rep. Melina Castro voted no, and East Valley Rep. Eddie Holguin abstained.

Kathy Dodson, the city's economic development director, recommended the tax break for the company, which said it expected to create 22 jobs with an average salary of $37,500 in the first year.

The company's president is Carlos Guzmán, a 32-year-old former Army captain who said he ended up in El Paso when he left the military in 2006.

"El Paso is right smack in the middle of two areas of the country, and the business traffic that goes through here on I-10 is huge," he said.

Guzmán said he expected to have the Doniphan plant operating by March with financial backing from the Las Cruces-based Mesilla Valley Transportation, which operates 1,000 trucks.

Global Alternatives, he said, will process virgin oils, including palm, soybean, cottonseed and canola, and waste restaurant grease to produce what is known as B-20 fuel.

Background material submitted to the City Council states that "biodiesel is more soluble than table sugar and less toxic when swallowed than table salt. It is less flammable than No. 2 Diesel and is even used as a detergent for marine oil spills."

By 2012, Guzmán said, the plant should be producing more than 100 million gallons of biodiesel a year.

"One of the benefits of biodiesel is your exhaust smells like french fries," he said.

David Crowder may be reached at dcrowder@elpasotimes.com; 546-6194.