Exactly how F&S collapsed remains unclear. Court-appointed receiver Carlton E. Helming, who was charged with investigating the company's closing and securing its assets, said in a court statement that he "faced and managed chaos" in the weeks after his appointment.

Among his challenges: computers with key financial information allegedly stolen in a robbery days after the company shut down; allegations of backroom dealings by some former company executives; and an extensive list of creditors still owed money, according to court files.

"I had no choice but to acquiesce to the overwhelming evidence that this company lacked the necessary financial partners to make another go of it," Helming said in a court report.

'Beautiful Prototype' The biodiesel plant marks the third auction of F&S property that Helming has organized. The first two -- consisting of company real estate in Waterbury and Thomaston, customer lists, trucks and other equipment -- brought in $2.8 million. Helming is hoping the biodiesel plant, in which the company invested at least $4 million, will rake in the largest sum.

"Everyone's excited about it. It's a beautiful prototype facility," said Helming, who added that the roughly 30 businesses that have expressed interest in the plant range from oil distributors and biodiesel plant owners to investors such as international hedge funds.

But Helming hasn't put a price tag on the complex, saying only that it's worth "whatever anyone will pay for it."

F&S came to Cheshire officials with plans to turn its distribution center into a biodiesel production facility about a year ago, according to town planner Bill Voelker. But company officials had only gotten so far as to introduce the concept in a "back-of-the-napkin" way, he said.

Planning and zoning permits to operate the plant would have been fairly simple to obtain, Voelker said. The company was converting the facility and hadn't yet sought permits, he added, when "all of a sudden, the thing went south."

"The whole concept is a good concept," Voelker said. "It sounded like these were just local guys who wanted to manufacture this stuff here."

Proposals for biodiesel plants have been popping up around the state, driven by a rapid increase in fossil fuel prices. The largest proposal so far was for a production plant in Suffield that would have made 50 million gallons of biodiesel fuel a year, but those plans were rejected by town zoning officials.

Biodiesel plants have faced difficulty recently because of the rising cost of buying and transporting the raw oils and fats, and because refining requires large amounts of energy.

The Cheshire plant, which would produce between four million and eight million gallons a year, pales in comparison to a typical facility.