On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell announced $10 million in grants to support the state’s adoption of biodiesel and alternative fuel technologies (see In Brief: Pennsylvania’s $10M Biofuel Fill Up).
Below is a list of companies and organizations that scored a piece of the funding (excerpted from press release):
All American Plazas -- $1.9 million production incentive for 37.5 million gallons of biodiesel. All American Plazas proposes to build three, 44-million-gallon biodiesel production facilities at three truck stops in Pennsylvania. All American Plazas anticipates production of more than 20 million gallons per year at each plant over two years.
Alternative Fuels -- $1 million production incentive for approximately 20 million gallons of biodiesel. Alternative Fuels intends to produce more than 25,000 gallons per day of fuel derived from algae for its planned 50-million-gallon biodiesel plant.
Biotechnology Foundation, Thomas Jefferson University -- $1 million to support the research of engineering tobacco plants for the production of biodiesel oil and ethanol. Modification and manipulation tobacco’s oil generation could yield superior quantities of oil per acre than soybeans and significantly cut costs. After oil is extracted for biodiesel production, the remaining sugars, starch and cellulose-matter could be converted into ethanol.
Centre LifeLink EMS -- $1,800 for the incremental cost of purchasing biodiesel for nine vehicles that run on the biofuel. Centre Lifelink is a not-for-profit ambulance service.
Choice FuelCorp --- $250,000 production incentive for 5 million gallons of biodiesel.
Colonial School District --- $35,000 for the incremental cost of purchasing 240,000 gallons of B20 (20-percent biodiesel fuel) for use in school buses over two years.
County of York, Department of Parks -- $847 for the incremental cost of purchasing 5,500 gallons of B20.
Cumberland County Transportation Department -- $25,080 for the incremental cost of purchasing 132,000 gallons of B20 for two years to power county vehicles.
Energy Cooperative Association of Pennsylvania -- $300,070 for the incremental cost of purchasing 2.27 million gallons of B20 for five school systems -- West Chester, Chester County Intermediate Unit, Coatesville, Downingtown and Kennett Square -- through a partnership with Krapf Bus Companies.
Green Renewable Energy, Ethanol & Nutrition Holding -- $750,000 to support the installation of a corn oil-extraction system that creates a biodiesel feedstock from distillers’ dried grain, a byproduct of production at the company’s 100-million-gallon ethanol plant now in development. The extraction system captures up to 75 percent of the corn oil left in the distillers’ dried grain. It will produce approximately 7.5 million gallons of corn oil for biodiesel production.
Haverford Township School District -- $41,600 for the incremental cost of purchasing 200,000 gallons of B10 for school buses and maintenance vehicles.
Lower Merion School District -- $23,370 for the incremental cost of purchasing 150,000 gallons of B20 in a fleet of 43 diesel-powered vehicles.
Lower Saucon Township -- $2,520 for the incremental cost of purchasing 30,000 gallons of biodiesel over two years and for the cleaning of a dedicated storage tank. Biodiesel will be used in highway- and fire-department vehicles, with biodiesel concentrations increasing from 5 percent up to 20 percent within a year.
Middletown Biofuels -- $454,200 to expand and convert an existing 2-million-gallon-per-year batch biodiesel-production facility into a 6-million-gallon continuous-production facility using new technology for biodiesel conversion, purification and methanol recovery. The application of these new technologies will reduce production costs and overall process cycle time.
Millcreek Township School District -- $18,326 for the incremental cost of purchasing 368,000 gallons a year of B5 for a 95-vehicle school bus fleet over two years. Millcreek is replacing half its bus fleet with state-of-the-art buses capable of using higher percentage biodiesel blends.
PA Biofuels -- $400,000 to support construction of an 18-million-gallon-capacity biodiesel plant. The state-of-the-art processing technology, developed in collaboration with the Center for Advanced Fuel Technology at Carnegie Mellon University, reduces operating costs by 30 percent as compared to a conventional system. The technology features a modular, scalable design.
PA Biofuels -- $625,000 production incentive for 12.5 million gallons of biodiesel over the next two years. Pennsylvania Sustainable Technologies -- $292,000 to develop and deploy technology to convert a wide range of biomass, coal and other fuel materials into liquid transportation fuels.
Port Authority of Allegheny County -- $1.15 million for the incremental cost of purchasing 1.7 million gallons of biodiesel for its municipal bus fleet.
Radnor Township School District -- $40,000 for the incremental cost of purchasing 94,000 gallons of B20 for two years and to prepare storage tanks for biodiesel.
Rohm and Haas -- $752,000 to demonstrate a newly developed polymeric catalyst technology that produces biodiesel from low-quality feed stocks, including crude soybean oil, rendered animal fats, waste vegetable oil and yellow grease. This technology will expand the field of available feed stocks, giving biodiesel producers greater flexibility and leading to increased volumes. The pilot-scale facility will be mobile and made available for trial at other established biodiesel production facilities in Pennsylvania.
Sunoco -- $372,846 to support the installation of refueling equipment for E85 (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline) at four plazas on the Pennsylvania Turnpike: Allentown, Sideling Hill, North Somerset and Valley Forge.
United Biofuels -- $273,252 to support increased biodiesel production through use of alternative feed stocks, such as waste poultry fat. United Biofuels also expects to modify its operations to reduce energy and material costs and deploy a boiler that uses alternative feed stocks classified as wastes to provide steam.
United Oil Company -- $350,000 production incentive for 7 million gallons of biodiesel over the next two years. United Oil Company was Pennsylvania’s first commercial biodiesel producer.