INEOS venture receives $75mn in US financing for Florida bio-refinery project
INEOS Bio announced that its joint-venture project, INEOS New Planet BioEnergy (INPB), has finalized $75 million in private financing utilizing the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) loan guarantee program for its new Indian River BioEnergy Center located in Florida.
This is the first large-scale advanced bioenergy project in the US to finalize its financing in the latest round under the USDA government program to commercialize bio-refinery technology.
INBP is a joint venture between INEOS Bio and project development company New Planet Energy.
The financing concludes all necessary funding to complete the project and will be used for equipment, engineering and construction of the BioEnergy Center.
The BioEnergy Center, located near Vero Beach, Florida, is a commercial scale project that will produce eight million gallons (24kta) of advanced biofuels and six megawatts (gross) of renewable power annually from renewable biomass including local yard, vegetative and household wastes.
"We want to commend the USDA on its partnership with us in advancing this bioenergy technology and making it commercially available," said Peter Williams, CEO of INEOS Bio.
"The Vero Beach BioEnergy Center is the first of its kind in the world and provides a template for a technology that can make a real contribution to energy independence and job creation, while also reducing green house gas emissions and diverting wastes from landfill and lower value uses,” he added.
The project will use INEOS Bio's feedstock-flexible BioEnergy technology, which uses a unique combination of gasification and fermentation technology to turn different types of waste materials – including municipal solid waste - into advanced biofuels and renewable power.
When completed, the project is slated to be one of the first projects in the US to produce advanced cellulosic biofuels under the new Renewable Fuel Standard and provide renewable power for 1400 homes in the area.
The financing for the project includes a $75 million privately financed loan backed by a guarantee from the USDA through its 9003 Biorefinery Assistance program.
Construction is already approximately 20% complete at the BioEnergy Center, and will be completed by end April 2012.
Over 85% of the equipment for the project is being supplied by manufacturers in the US, creating or retaining jobs in the cleantech industrial sector.
The project is also utilizing local companies for construction and other services, specifically recruiting at the NASA Space Center, where the recently concluded Shuttle Program has laid off thousands of skilled workers.
In total, the BioEnergy Center will provide 380 direct and indirect jobs (including 200 construction jobs) over the next year and 50 full-time jobs when the facility is operational.
As the first plant in the world to use INEOS Bio's advanced bioenergy technology, the BioEnergy Center will serve as a reference plant demonstrating the economic conversion of a variety of different biomass feedstocks into advanced biofuel and renewable power at full commercial scale, the company said.
To meet the US government's goal of replicating the technology, INEOS Bio said it will enter into licensing agreements with third parties to build similar commercial bioenergy plants to supply advanced bioethanol and renewable electricity around the US and the world.
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