Green Plains Renewable Energy receives $2.19 million from Iowa for landmark algae project

In Iowa, Green Plains Renewable Energy received a $2.19 million grant from the Iowa Power Fund for algae-related development. Details over licensing and royalties remain to be worked out in coming weeks. The grant will fund 75 percent of a $2.8 million, 195-day algae production trial that will produce 1.6 tons of algae biomass. A second phase costing $4.2 million would produce a half-ton per week of algae biomass, and a third phase costing $80 million for a commercial scale plant would produce 1700 pounds per hectare per day of biomass.

The United States Department of Energy has projected that a 15,000 spare mile facility can produce enough algae to replace all US petroleum fuel. The process, which uses no fertile land or potable water, also recycles CO2 produced by smokestacks and fermentation. It will produce algae oil for biodiesel as well as biomass for power generation.

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