The Minnesota Department of Agriculture awards four grants to expand biofuel access and production
Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) will expand biofuel access and
production to advance renewable energy efforts around that state by means of
four grants from the Agricultural Growth, Research and Innovation (AGRI)
Program. More than 500 k$ were awarded to four recipients through two separate
competitive review processes.
Press release: “MDA Biofuels Grants Expand Access
and Production”,
12/8/2019.
Figure 1. REG biorefinery in Albert Lea (taken from REG
website). It is one of the recipients of the Biofuel Blending Infrastructure
Grants.
Bioenergy/Biochemical Pilot Project Grant
Aim: To advance a bioenergy or biochemical
production technology beyond the bench scale/proof-of-concept scale toward commercial
scale, through construction and operation of a pilot plant.
(1) Plasma Blue (150 k$). Scaling up of
its plasma technology pilot plant at the University of Minnesota toward
real-world use in biodiesel production. Shaobo Deng (Southern Research and
Outreach Center, Waseca) has developed a new technology (liquid phase plasma
discharge) which has the potential to drastically reduce the energy consumption
and cost of biodiesel production.
Biofuel Blending Infrastructure Grants
Aim: To support the installation of biofuel
blending infrastructure equipment to promote economic growth and
environmentally friendly practices in Minnesota’s biofuel industries.
(2) Kwik Trip Inc. (185 k$). Expansion
of their existing Biofuel blending facility in Eyota.
(3) Renewable Energy Group in Albert Lea
(113 k$). Installation and upgrading of tanks and dispensers at fuelling
locations and a conversion system to fleet vehicles that will allow them to
operate on B100 fuel.
(4) Denco II (82 k$). Upgrading of their Morris site to offer E15 fuel to local marketplace and create an E85 product using regular gasoline.
