Flambeau River BioFuels project wins $30m grant

15 July 2008 22:13  [Source: ICIS news]

NEW YORK (ICIS news)--Flambeau River BioFuels will receive up to $30m (€19m) from the US Department of Energy to build and operate a first-in-class biorefinery at a pulp and paper mill in Park Falls, Wisconsin, company officials said on Tuesday.

“With this funding, we will be able to accelerate the retrofitting of this mill from a pure pulp and paper plant to a broader production facility that will produce biofuels within the same facility, thus sharing key infrastructure elements and costs,” said Bob Byrne, president of Wisconsin-based Flambeau River BioFuels.

The total cost is estimated at $87m, the company reported.

The bio-refinery will produce at least 6m gallons (22.7m litres) of sulphur-free diesel from forest residuals and agricultural waste - materials that would otherwise go unused, officials said.

Unlike bio-refineries that produce ethanol by fermentation, Flambeau River BioFuels will not depend on sugars derived from food-based feedstocks or the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulosic materials, said Flambeau officials.

Instead, Flambeau River will employ gasification technology developed by Maryland-based TRI to convert biomass to synthesis gas. The company said it will use Fischer-Tropsch technology from Oklahoma-based Syntroleum to transform the syngas to diesel fuel.

The process will generate at least 1,000bn Btu/year of process heat, which will be sold to Flambeau River Papers, making it the first integrated pulp and paper mill in North America to be free of fossil fuels, they said.

Once operational, the bio-refinery will serve to validate the technology while offering a new business model for pulp and paper mills throughout the US, officials said.

“This grant will help meet our government’s goals of creating new jobs, stimulating remote areas, repositioning traditional industries for a new world era, and, most importantly, producing clean fuels from renewable resources abundantly found in the US,” said Byrne.

($1 = €0.63)

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By: Clay Boswell
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