Farm Progress

USDA announced a $105 million loan guarantee to Fulcrum Sierra BioFuels, LLC to finance development of a ground-breaking facility to convert municipal solid waste into advanced biofuels.

USDA

August 8, 2012

2 Min Read

USDA announced a $105 million loan guarantee to Fulcrum Sierra BioFuels, LLC to finance development of a ground-breaking facility to convert municipal solid waste into advanced biofuels. The project will help reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, relieve pressure on existing and future landfills, and stimulate economic growth in Northern Nevada through job creation.

"The time is now to embrace alternative American-produced feedstocks that support our nation's energy independence, provide jobs in rural areas, and support the Obama Administration's 'all of the above' energy strategy," Vilsack said. "At USDA we are focused on the production of renewable energy from a wide variety of non-food sources, including waste, algae, wood, and switchgrass as a long-term solution to America's energy needs. The facility we are announcing today will help create nearly 500 jobs in Nevada and is a perfect example of how producing home-grown energy is good for the economy and good for our energy future."

The Nevada plant is expected to create an estimated 430 jobs during construction and 53 permanent jobs in Storey County, 20 miles east of Reno. Once operational, the plant is expected to convert 147,000 tons of processed municipal solid waste into over 10 million gallons of advanced biofuels annually using a two-part thermo-chemical process.

Based in Pleasanton, California, the operator, Fulcrum Sierra BioFuels is a privately held company that focuses on developing facilities that convert municipal solid waste and other waste products to a low-cost, reliable and environmentally clean renewable transportation fuel.

USDA, through its Rural Development Biorefinery Assistance Program (Section 9003 of the 2008 Farm Bill), approved an 80 percent loan guarantee to finance the project, with a conditional commitment that Fulcrum Sierra BioFuels, LLC must meet before loan closing.

Today's announcement is part of a larger USDA effort to produce advanced biofuels in every region of the country. USDA has funded 7 additional biorefineries that are using feedstocks like agriculture residue, woody biomass, municipal solid waste, and algae in states from Florida and Michigan to New Mexico. USDA is also investing in research by coordinating with five regional research centers to work on the science necessary to ensure profitable biofuels can be produced from a diverse range of feedstocks. To encourage the production of advanced biofuels from non-food, non-feed sources, USDA has incentivized farmers to grow advanced feedstocks on nearly 60,000 acres, helping companies across the country spur production of new biofuels from non-food, non-feed sources.

The Biorefinery Assistance Program, administered by Rural Development's Business and Cooperative Service, is designed to financially assist with the commercial deployment of production technologies to produce advanced biofuels, and thereby increase the energy independence of the United States; promote resource conservation, public health, and the environment; diversify markets for agricultural and forestry products and agriculture waste material; create jobs and enhance the economic development of the rural economy.

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