New Contract to Accelerate Use of Biomass in China

- Octo­ber 13, 2014, Bioen­er­gy News

US-based renew­able fuels pro­duc­er Blue­Fire Renew­ables has finalised and signed a new mas­ter engi­neer­ing, pro­cure­ment and con­struc­tion (EPC) con­tract for its cel­lu­losic ethanol plant in Ful­ton, Mississippi.

The con­tract is with Chi­na Inter­na­tion­al Water and Elec­tric, a sub­sidiary of renew­able ener­gy com­pa­ny Chi­na Three Gorges (CTG).

‘The mas­ter EPC struc­ture will utilise a US-based EPC con­trac­tor to be the onsite engi­neer­ing, pro­cure­ment and con­struc­tion team using local sup­pli­ers and crafts­men gen­er­at­ing much need­ed local rev­enues for Itawam­ba Coun­ty and the sur­round­ing region,’ states Blue­Fire CEO Arnold Klann.

The con­tract is to pro­vide cost sav­ings by lever­ag­ing CTG’s rela­tion­ships and expe­ri­ence to com­plete the Ful­ton project.

‘Our sup­port of this impor­tant com­mer­cial project is con­sis­tent with Chi­na’s goals to advance the use of non-food bio­mass to pro­duce renew­able fuels, pow­er and chem­i­cals in coop­er­a­tion with the US, all the while help­ing the envi­ron­ment,’ says Lin Chux­ue, exec­u­tive VP of CTG. ‘We see this rela­tion­ship with Blue­Fire as an impor­tant step in bring­ing renew­able cel­lu­losic fuels and chem­i­cals to Chi­na’s bur­geon­ing marketplace.’

Klann adds that this con­tract pro­vides Blue­Fire a path­way for financ­ing solu­tions in the US and opens oppor­tu­ni­ties in Chi­na. He says: ‘With a sea­soned team from a com­pa­ny like CTG now involved with the project, it opens doors to financ­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties in Chi­na pre­vi­ous­ly unavail­able to us.’

Blue­Fire Renew­ables’ plant in Ful­ton, Mis­sis­sip­pi is designed to pro­duce approx­i­mate­ly 19 mil­lion gal­lons a year of cel­lu­losic ethanol from renew­able feed­stocks such as green and wood wastes avail­able in the region.