Biofuels refinery receives USDA loan

1/23/2012

Utilizing the United States Department of Agriculture's Biorefinery Assistance Program, the USDA was able to provide a $25 million loan to a biorefinery plant in Blairstown, Iowa, Biofuels Digest reports.

The plant will be constructed by clean technology company Fiberight. It will use USDA loan funding to help build a 55,000-square-foot facility that will produce celluosic ethanol by converting municipal solid waste into advanced biofuels. The total cost of the project is an estimated $59.5 million.

"This project is another step the Obama administration is taking to support production of a new generation of renewable fuels, in order to build an active biofuels and biomass production industry in every region of the country," said U.S. agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack as quoted by Biofuels Journal.

The facility is expected to produce around 3.6 million gallons of ethanol per year - up to 15 percent more than traditional fermentation technology would have allowed, Biofuels Digest adds.

Fiberight is also using a $2.5 million grant from the Iowa Power Fund it received in 2010 toward the project, which is expected to create about 100 jobs during the build phase and 55 jobs within the facility once constructed, Bioenergy Insight reports.