KiOR now shipping world’s first cellulosic diesel from its first commercial plant

March 20, 2013 |

In Texas, KiOR announced the initial shipments of cellulosic diesel from its first commercial-scale facility in Columbus, Mississippi.

KiOR’s facility uses pine wood chips previously feeding a shut down paper mill at Columbus and produces gasoline and diesel, the first renewable hydrocarbon fuels in the U.S. manufactured at commercial scale and derived solely from non-food feedstocks to avoid competition with human food needs. Unlike traditional biofuels like ethanol or biodiesel, KiOR’s fuels have no compatibility issues. KiOR’s renewable gasoline is also the first renewable cellulosic gasoline ever registered by the Environmental Protection Agency for sale in the U.S.

Although the company did not specify the customer for the fuels, KiOR and Catchlight Energy (a JV owned by Chevron and Weyerhaeuser) signed a conditional offtake agreement in May 2011 for Catchlight Energy to purchase gasoline and diesel fuel blendstocks from the Columbus, MS plant. In March 2011, KiOR announced a similar agreement with Hunt Refining Company.

Reaction at KiOR

“This is a major step forward for KiOR, the biofuels industry and the entire renewable fuels sector,” said Fred Cannon, KiOR’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “With first production at Columbus, KiOR has technology with the potential to resurrect each and every shut down paper mill in the country and to replace imported oil on a cost effective basis while creating American jobs. This facility demonstrates the efficacy of KiOR’s proprietary catalytic biomass-to-fuel process with the potential to deliver cellulosic gasoline and diesel to the U.S. We are proud to be making history in Mississippi. The technology is simply scalable and we believe sufficient excess feedstock exists in the Southeast alone to build almost fifty KiOR commercial scale facilities.”

Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State and a current member of KiOR’s Board of Directors, added, “KiOR is changing the American energy equation by innovating and commercializing an entirely new generation of hydrocarbon-based diesel and gasoline fuel. By making the promise of cellulosic fuels a reality, KiOR demonstrates that these fuels are an attractive option for lessening America’s dependence on foreign sources of energy.”

Haley Barbour, former Governor of Mississippi, who was instrumental in attracting KiOR to Mississippi, remarked, “The shipment of this first fuel from KiOR’s Columbus, Mississippi, facility is the culmination of a vision to establish Mississippi as the birthplace of the wood-to-fuels production technology. This progress highlights our highly skilled labor force, abundant natural resources and supportive government climate for innovative companies like KiOR seeking a home to expand their businesses. Mississippi has partnered with KiOR throughout this history-making project, contributing economic development support ranging from research and testing projects within our world class universities, to technical training within our superb community college system.”

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