Aug. 9--A brand new biodiesel plant sits in Cheshire, almost ready for service, and it's for sale.

The price: "Whatever anyone will pay for it."

This 7,500-square-foot web of pipes and unfilled tanks, centrally located in the state, might seem a hot property at a time when homeowners face the ugly prospect of $5-a-gallon heating oil this winter. Biodiesel -- which converts vegetable oil and animal fat into fuel for heating systems and diesel engines -- has been a much ballyhooed technology in recent years.

For now, the plant isn't fueling anything but speculation over what its selling price will be at an upcoming auction. It is the single largest asset of F&S Oil Co. -- a Waterbury-based heating oil company that closed abruptly, stiffing thousands of residents who had long-term contracts.

Hype around the plant is not wanting, since the company owes an estimated $7.7 million in civil penalties and restitution, and the cleaner-burning fuel plant could provide the bulk of that relief. The court-appointed lawyer overseeing the sale estimated that 30 businesses have expressed an interest.

But the complex could end up being a tough sell, especially since the economics of biodiesel can be cloudy, like the old oils used in the process.

"We're looking at a smaller facility, incomplete, never been tested. We've sold a lot of alternative energy equipment. But one in Cheshire? That produces five million gallons? In a 7,500-square-foot building? I just can't tell you where it will go," said Thomas J. Gagliardi Jr., whose industrial auction firm, Guilford-based Thomas Industries, is running the sale. "There's just nothing that's comparable to it."

A Resonating Collapse The drama behind F&S has fanned the interest in the biodiesel plant on Sandbank Road, expected to be auctioned off in September. When the company, owned by Richard Stevens, collapsed in March, it reneged on promises to deliver millions of gallons of fuel oil to an estimated 3,500 customers who had already paid for it.

The controversy heightened two weeks after the collapse, when Gov. M. Jodi Rell withdrew her nominee to lead the state's high-tech venture capital agency. Edward M. Bowman Jr., named by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal as "a person of interest" in his investigation of the F&S closing, had been serving as chairman of Connecticut Innovations Inc. as he awaited confirmation by the General Assembly.

Bowman had sold his family-owned heating oil company to F&S in 2004, but agreed to do occasional consulting work for the company. A state grant application lists him as part of the management team for the biodiesel plant, but Bowman said he stopped working on the project last summer when he joined Connecticut Innovations.

The demise of F&S also prompted state legislators to enact a law protecting consumers from losing prepaid heating oil deposits made when they lock in prices before winter.