In the United States (US), the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) Agricultural Growth, Research, and Innovation (AGRI) Program recently awarded grants totaling more than US$500 000 to four recipients, through two separate competitive review processes. The aim is to expand biofuel access and production to advance renewable energy efforts around the state.
According to a statement, four grants were recently awarded from MDA’s Agricultural Growth, Research and Innovation (AGRI) Program with the recipients selected through two separate competitive review processes.
The AGRI Bioenergy/Biochemical Pilot Project Grant provides funding that would advance bioenergy or biochemical production technology beyond the bench scale/proof-of-concept scale toward commercial scale, through construction and operation of a pilot plant. A Bioenergy/Biochemical Pilot Project Grant was awarded to:
- Plasma Blue (US$150 000) to scale up its plasma technology pilot plant at the University of Minnesota toward real-world use in biodiesel production.
The AGRI Biofuel Blending Infrastructure Grant provides funding for biofuel blending infrastructure equipment to promote economic growth and environmentally friendly practices in Minnesota’s biofuel industries. Three Biofuel Blending Infrastructure Grants were awarded to:
- Kwik Trip Inc. (US$185 465) to expand its existing biofuel blending facility in Eyota.
- Renewable Energy Group (REG) in Albert Lea (US$113 050) to install and upgrade tanks and dispensers at fueling locations and a conversion system to fleet vehicles that will allow them to operate on B100 fuel.
- Denco II (US$82 685) to upgrade its Morris site to offer E15 fuel to the local marketplace and create an E85 product using regular gasoline.
