BlueFire Ethanol Fuels, Inc. (OTCBB: BFRE), which is developing cellulosic ethanol, has received the first round of funds from a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant of $40 million.
“The DOE funding will enable BlueFire Ethanol to build a facility that will convert post-sorted green waste and other cellulosic materials from the landfill into roughly 17 million gallons of fuel-grade ethanol per year,” said BlueFire Ethanol CEO Arnold Klann. “The same process can be replicated at the majority of the Nation’s 1,600 landfill sites, increasing the essential production of biofuels, while simultaneously helping cities cope with increasing volumes of landfill waste.”
BlueFire will launch its second U.S. commercial ethanol production facility in California. DOE designated the facility to demonstrate the economic feasibility and environmental superiority of producing cellulosic ethanol from post-sorted green waste and other cellulosic materials.
BlueFire will use the funds to continue pre-construction development activities which include design, environmental engineering, permitting and other preliminary activities.
Upon completion of phase one, an additional agreement for phase two will be negotiated outlining the facility’s construction, which is expected to last 18-months. BlueFire anticipates the facility will be operational by 2010.
All the ethanol produced will be sold under a long-term contract with Petro-Diamond, Inc., a Mitsubishi Corp. subsidiary. Colmac Energy will purchase the lignin produced for use as boiler fuel for its biomass power plant located in Riverside County. The gypsum will be sold to local landscape wholesalers and the yeast will be sold as an animal feed supplement.
BlueFire Ethanol holds the exclusive North American license to employ the Arkenol Process Technology, a patented, commercially viable and profitable system that transforms cellulosic waste into usable ethanol.
Its “biorefineries” will convert widely available, inexpensive, organic materials such as agricultural residues, high-content biomass crops, wood residues, and cellulose from MSW into ethanol. Ethanol will be produced from biorefinery facilities opportunistically constructed on or near landfills, waste collection and waste separation sites.
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