EdeniQ, NREL, Aemetis, Kent Bioenergy among winners of California clean energy grants
In California, the California Energy Commission approved funding of $23,110,015 for projects that will advance the development of green fuels, and the installation of fueling stations. The awards are provided through the Energy Commission’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, created by Assembly Bill 118. The program provides approximately $100 million annually to encourage the development and use of alternative and renewable fuels and new vehicle technologies.
The award recipients are:
* Clean World Partners, LLC, will receive $6 million to increase the Sacramento BioRefinery’s capacity from 25 tons to 100 tons a day. This will divert 100 tons per day of food waste from landfills and use that to produce enough renewable natural gas to replace 566,000 gallons of diesel fuel and generate 3.17 million kWh of electricity every year – enough to power nearly 400 average California homes for a year.
The anaerobic digester system that will be used was developed as a pilot project at the University of California, Davis. New equipment will be fabricated in Marysville, in Yuba County, creating an expected 60 short-term manufacturing jobs. The biorefinery is located at the Sacramento Recycling and Transfer Station on Fruitridge Road in Sacramento, where this project is expected to create 20 short-term construction jobs and six long-term operations jobs. World Partners is based in Sacramento County.
* EdeniQ, Inc., will receive $3.9 million to modify an existing biorefinery to test and optimize the use of non-food woody plant materials to produce low-carbon ethanol, called cellulosic ethanol. The project will evaluate the potential of several plant materials, and production processes, including installation and testing of equipment. The project includes the demonstration of a 2-ton per day ethanol biorefinery, producing at least 70 gallons of ethanol per ton of biomass. EdeniQ is based in Visalia, Tulare County.
* The University of California, Davis, will receive $2,770,072 to research the comparative value, benefits and drawbacks of all types of alternative fuels in California. The multidisciplinary research will be based at the university’s Institute of Transportation Studies. Findings will be used to inform the Energy Commission’s investment plans for AB 118 funds.
* tmdgroup, Inc., will receive $2,210,000 for an outreach and marketing campaign to accelerate California market acceptance and use of alternative fuels and new efficient low-carbon vehicle technologies that reduce petroleum dependence and greenhouse gas emissions. Outreach will focus on commercial and public fleet owners and managers. tmdgroup is based in Sacramento.
* The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory will receive $2,152,273 to assess the effectiveness of the Energy Commission’s AB 118 investments in alternative and renewable fuels and vehicle technology. Among the questions to be considered: How much investment is needed to bring the alternative fuel vehicle market to maturity, and when can that be expected? A summary of the most promising emerging technologies and the best strategies for attracting private investment will also be provided. This project will help the Energy Commission track its progress in reaching energy security and petroleum reduction goals as well as improve the future AB118 investment portfolio.
* Aemetis, Inc., will receive $1,875,528 as a cost-share for the development of a facility in Keyes, in the Modesto area, that will demonstrate and analyze the production of ethanol using various crop refuse, including wheat straw, cotton gin waste, sugar cane and corn waste. The ethanol will be mixed with conventional gasoline for a lower-carbon, less-polluting fuel. Aemetis is based in Cupertino, in Santa Clara County.
* Kent BioEnergy Corp. will receive $1,496,426 for research to develop processes with commercial potential for producing fermentable sugars from algal biomass that has been grown on land that is not suitable for agriculture, in brackish water, and fed nutrients from waste. Sugars produced in this way can be used to create sustainable and renewable ethanol.
The project will include cutting-edge bioengineering research of strains of algae adaptable to large-scale cultivation in outdoor ponds. Kent BioEnergy of San Diego and major subcontractors Protabit, LLC, and Professor Stephen Mayo’s group at the California Institute of Technology, both in Pasadena, will provide equal matching funds. About half the award funding will support biotech jobs.
* North Star Biofuels, LLC, will receive $500,000 to develop a commercial-scale biodiesel blending facility at a biodiesel production facility in Watsonville, in Santa Cruz County. The biodiesel, to be blended with conventional diesel, is derived from waste oils, including used cooking oil. The blending technology will create a fuel of more consistent quality than was produced using older processes. The blended fuel at this facility will have a carbon intensity that is 75 percent to 85 percent less than that of conventional diesel. North Star Biofuels is based in Emeryville, in Alameda County.
* The U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station will receive $361,716 as additional funding to an existing $1.5 million project to examine the sustainability of using forest biomass in the production of biofuels, with particular attention to the risks and effects of wildfire on overall forest health. Researchers based at the Davis and Berkeley campuses of the University of California are participating in this project.
* The Institute for Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, will receive $227,000 to address facility siting and life-cycle issues of using forest biomass to produce alternative fuels in California. This project will be carried out in conjunction with an ongoing project of the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station that is supported by the Energy Commission.
Category: Research
