BlueFire Ethanol wins California air permits for landfill-to-energy plant

In California, cellulosic ethanol leader BlueFire Ethanol announced that the Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District has issued all required Authority to Construct Air Permits for its planned cellulosic ethanol biorefinery in Lancaster.

The air permit is comprised of 28 individual permits and is the final environmental permit necessary for BlueFire Ethanol to proceed into final design and construction of its first U.S. commercial cellulosic ethanol plant. The Lancaster, CA-based biorefinery will use BlueFire’s patented and proven Concentrated Acid Hydrolysis Technology Process to convert cellulosic waste (”Green Waste”) into approximately 3.7 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year.

BlueFire Ethanol selected the Lancaster location because biowaste material, including yard waste, woodchips, grass cuttings and other organic waste, already passes by the property every day while en route to an adjacent landfill. The plant is also designed to use reclaimed water and lignin, a byproduct of the production process, in order to produce its own electricity and steam.

BlueFire Ethanol was also awarded $40 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for construction of a second Southern California plant and has received the first installment of funding from the DOE for the development of the BlueFire Mecca, LLC plant.

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