Posted on 11/11/2014 1:27:34 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Arnold Klann had spent two decades on his planet-friendly enterprise: making transportation fuel from plant waste.
But two years ago, the CEO and President of Irvine-based BlueFire Renewables recalled, “We were thinking of shutting down the business.” Grants from the U.S. Department of Energy had dried up, as private banks, tightening credit in the wake of the financial crisis, refused to match government funds.
Now, it seems, China is coming to the rescue.
BlueFire announced Thursday that The Export-Import Bank of China has issued a letter of intent to provide a $270 million loan to build BlueFire’s first commercial plant, a $300 million facility in Fulton, Miss.
The plant would be the first of five in the United States, Klann said. More would be built in China, with BlueFire’s proprietary technology, which makes ethanol from cellulosic material such as wood waste, landfill grass clippings and other agricultural residue.
The Chinese initiative comes as the U.S. government, after spending more than a billion dollars on advanced fuel research and development since 2007, has cut back on renewable-energy funding.
Venture capitalists and energy companies have also retreated from biofuels, daunted by the high cost of commercialization, after lavishing hundreds of millions of dollars on start-ups. Cellulosic biofuel, using plant waste – as opposed to commonly used corn-based ethanol – presents particularly difficult technical challenges.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Jokes on them! That biofuel stuff will be worthless when Lockheed brings its fusion reactors on line. [/s]
How do you hook up that Lockeheed fusion reactors thing a ma jig up to a Muncie 4 speed?
I suggest — “carefully”.
Is this guy a shuck and jive master or what?...sucks off of the U.S. taxpayer (wonder what he paid himself with our money) then when the GRANTS...not loans dry up he falls into someone who knows some pan faces who who will furnish shit steel and pressure vessels and finance the rest of the initial plant in Mississippi? He only has a market share of 6 million now, what will he do in comparison to corn based ethanol as far as capturing some of that obscene (more energy to make than derived )market? And he has the gaul to ask the grant...GRANT to be reinstated after no more private AMERICAN venture capitalist will touch the losing foray?...he’s got ball’s ...is an Obama aide running the show over there....god bless him I hope he sucks the chinks dry before they realize that there is a reason why it does not produce a profit...
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