Guaranteeing a Biorefining Future

January 20, 2011

BY Erin Krueger

The U.S. DOE’s loan guarantee programs have been criticized as slow and inefficient. Through its program, however, the USDA seems to be stepping up support for the biorefining sector. In January, the department issued a conditional commitment for a $75 million loan guarantee to a joint venture project being developed by Ineos Bio and New Plant Energy LLC. The joint venture project is known as Ineos New Plant BioEnergy. Ineos is the world’s third largest chemical company.

The USDA’s 9003 loan guarantee program is designed to provide guaranteed loans for the development and construction of commercial-scale biorefineries. The program can also support the retrofit of existing facilities to use eligible technology for the development of advanced biofuels.
The loan guarantee issued to the joint venture will be used to construct the Ineos BioEnergy Center. The planned site for the project is near Vero Beach, Fla. Once complete, the facility will have an 8 MMgy production capacity. It will also produce 6 megawatts of renewable power.

The facility will employ a patented anaerobic fermentation technology developed by Ineos Bio in which naturally occurring bacteria convert gases derived from biomass directly into ethanol. One benefit of the process is that it is feedstock-flexible, meaning the facility will be able to produce ethanol from multiple biomass sources, including construction waste, municipal solid waste, and forestry and agricultural residues.

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Site preparation and construction of the facility are already underway. The center is expected to begin production in 2012. In addition to the USDA loan guarantee, the joint venture has also received a $50 million cost matching grant from the DOE. 

—Erin Voegele 

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