Chemrec Awarded One Of Europe's Largest Government Grants For Next-Generation Biofuels Plant
Investment Grant for Building Industrial Scale Biorefinery for BioDME and BioMethanol Production; Fuels-From-the-Forest Biofuels Plant to Produce 40 Million Gallons of Renewable Motor Fuels a Year by 2012
Deerfield, IL--(Marketwire) - Biofuels company Chemrec has been awarded a US$70 million (500 million Swedish Krona) investment grant by the Swedish Energy Board (contingent on approval by the EU Directorate General for Competition according to the State aid rules) to build the world's first industrial scale biorefinery for the production of renewable motor fuels BioDME and BioMethanol.
This industrial scale woody biomass gasification biorefinery will be integrated into the Domsjö Fabriker pulp mill in Örnsködsvik, Sweden. Chemrec is headquartered in Stockholm, with a U.S. subsidiary headquartered in Deerfield, IL, and operates a demonstration scale biorefinery plants at a Smurfit Kappa pulp mill in Piteå, Sweden.
"Chemrec gasification technology has been proven at demonstration scale plants in both Sweden and the USA," says Richard J. LeBlanc, Chemrec CEO. "This grant is a huge endorsement of our technology and provides the key financial support necessary to build an industrial-scale plant."
The award is believed to be one of the largest government grants ever made in Europe for a next-generation biofuels plant. The Chemrec black liquor gasification technology to be used in this plant has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 95% compared to gasoline and diesel, replace imported fossil fuels with renewable fuels, and create improved profitability and employment for forest-based industries.
In other second-generation biofuels news, Chemrec, along with consortium members Volvo, Preem, Total and others, recently broke ground on a separate BioDME demonstration scale plant at the Piteå site that will begin producing biofuels as early as mid-2010. As part of the BioDME project, Volvo AB plans to build heavy trucks to run on BioDME and delivery and filling station sites will be built for dispensing BioDME.
Founded in 1989, Chemrec AB along with its subsidiary Chemrec USA is a pioneer of the black liquor gasification biorefinery process and holds a patent on the technology. It has operating biorefinery plants in operation in Sweden and is actively pursuing opportunities with U.S. pulp mills. For more information contact CEO Richard J. LeBlanc at rick.leblanc@chemrec.se.
SOURCE: Chemrec