DOE awards $30M toward ethanol plant at Old Town pulp mill in Maine
SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2008 (RISI) - The US Dept. of Energy this month awarded a $30 million investment in a cellulosic ethanol project at the former Georgia-Pacific pulp mill in Old Town, ME, as part of $86 million awarded to three alternative energy projects. RSE Pulp & Chemical, a unit of Red Shield Environmental, proposes a biorefinery facility to be installed next to its pulp mill to produce ethanol from lignocellulosic (wood) extract.
RSE Pulp plans a 2.2 million gallons/yr plant to be operational in 2010. Reports valued the project near $90 million. The company reopened the 200,000 tonnes/yr northern bleached hardwood kraft pulp mill in Old Town last year with assistance from the state of Maine, and is also selling electricity from hydro and biomass facilities. G-P closed the mill in 2006.
The energy project uses a proprietary process for pre-extracting hemicelluloses from woody biomass during the pulping process. "This process has been proven on a laboratory and pilot scale, and RSE will now prove the viability of the process at the demonstration plant level," DOE said. The new plant will consume 80 dry tons/day of hemicellulose extract.
RSE Pulp participants and investors include the University of Maine Orono and American Process of Atlanta.
DOE also awarded $26 million toward a switchgrass ethanol plant in Tennessee proposed by Mascoma and $30 million toward an agricultural biorefinery in Kentucky planned by Ecofin. DOE said more than $300 million is being invested in the three projects in total.
