Two western firms with some complementary biomass power producing technology announced Monday they have received a $23 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant for a demonstration project in Colorado. Los Angeles-based Rentech Inc. and Hawaii-based ClearFuels Technology Inc. will jointly build a biomass gasifier at Rentech’s Energy Technology Center in Denver. The grant is subject to final negotiations with DOE, the companies said in a joint announcement.

The project is one of 19 biorefinery projects that were selected by DOE under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act doling out stimulus package funds. ClearFuels CEO Eric Darmstaedter said Rentech’s successful operations at the Denver center will “help facilitate a rapid and successful commercial validation of our integrated technologies.”

In announcing the biofuel grants last Friday, DOE Secretary Steven Chu said advanced biofuels are “critical to building a cleaner, more sustainable transportation system in the United States.” He said the projects should establish “a new domestic industry” that creates new jobs, particularly across rural America.

Under the grant, the firms will manufacture and install at the Denver technology center a 20-ton/day ClearFuels biomass gasifier that is designed to produce synthetic gas (syngas) from sugar cane bagasse, virgin wood waste and other cellulosic feedstocks. The gasifier will be integrated with Rentech’s existing Product Demonstration Unit (PDU) for production of renewable synthetic fuels from biomass.

The PDU operates with Rentech’s process and upgrading technologies from a Honeywell unit called UOP, producing renewable drop-in synthetic jet and diesel fuels at the demonstration scale of 10 b/d, the companies said. “This [DOE grant-funded] joint demonstration of an integrated biorefinery will lead to the final design basis for commercial facilities that are expected to use the combined technologies,” a spokesperson for Rentech said.

Touting a near-zero lifecycle carbon footprint for their renewable fuels technology shared by ClearFuels and Rentech, the companies expect to co-locate their integrated technology at sugar mills and wood and other biomass processing facilities.

“Jet fuel produced from the Fischer-Tropsch process, on which Rentech’s technology is based, is the only alternative fuel type currently certified for use by the U.S. Air Force and by the Federal Aviation Administration for use in commercial aircraft,” the Rentech spokesperson said.

Rentech CEO D. Hunt Ramsbottom touted DOE for “recognizing the potential importance of innovative biomass-to-fuels technologies, and the impacts they can have on domestic energy production, carbon reduction and the economy.”

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