Iowa Power Fund awards $2.9M to Fiberight cellulosic ethanol project
In Iowa, in a follow up to a May 10 Biofuels Digest story regarding Fiberight, the Iowa Power Fund Board on Thursday awarded a $2.9 million grant to a cellulosic ethanol plant in Blairstown.
Fiberight-Blairstown received the grant to demonstrate how municipal solid waste can be converted into cellulosic ethanol, biochemicals, and other processed fiber products using a proprietary biochemical technology on a highly cost efficient, commercial production scale.
With more than $4.1 million in leveraged funds, the total demonstration project cost will be over $7 million.
Maryland-based Fiberight paid $1.65 million in November 2009 to acquire the idled Blairstown ethanol plant from Xethanol LLC. It plans to invest $20 million to convert the plant to use cellulosic feedstock instead of corn. Fiberight President Craig Stuart-Paul said the plant will initially produce ethanol using industrial waste from a Cedar Rapids manufacturing plant. The cellulosic ethanol output is expected to be about 6 million gallons a year, roughly the same as its previous output.
Category: Fuels