Mar 19 2013
KiOR, Inc., today announced the initial shipments of cellulosic diesel from its first commercial-scale facility in Columbus, Mississippi.
KiOR's facility uses pine wood chips previously feeding a shut down paper mill at Columbus and produces gasoline and diesel, the first renewable hydrocarbon fuels in the U.S. manufactured at commercial scale and derived solely from non-food feedstocks to avoid competition with human food needs. Unlike traditional biofuels like ethanol or biodiesel, KiOR's fuels have no compatibility issues. KiOR's renewable gasoline is also the first renewable cellulosic gasoline ever registered by the Environmental Protection Agency for sale in the U.S.
"This is a major step forward for KiOR, the biofuels industry and the entire renewable fuels sector," said Fred Cannon, KiOR's President and Chief Executive Officer. "With first production at Columbus, KiOR has technology with the potential to resurrect each and every shut down paper mill in the country and to replace imported oil on a cost effective basis while creating American jobs. This facility demonstrates the efficacy of KiOR's proprietary catalytic biomass-to-fuel process with the potential to deliver cellulosic gasoline and diesel to the U.S. We are proud to be making history in Mississippi. The technology is simply scalable and we believe sufficient excess feedstock exists in the Southeast alone to build almost fifty KiOR commercial scale facilities."
Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State and a current member of KiOR's Board of Directors, added, "KiOR is changing the American energy equation by innovating and commercializing an entirely new generation of hydrocarbon-based diesel and gasoline fuel. By making the promise of cellulosic fuels a reality, KiOR demonstrates that these fuels are an attractive option for lessening America's dependence on foreign sources of energy."
Haley Barbour, former Governor of Mississippi, who was instrumental in attracting KiOR to Mississippi, remarked, "The shipment of this first fuel from KiOR's Columbus, Mississippi, facility is the culmination of a vision to establish Mississippi as the birthplace of the wood-to-fuels production technology. This progress highlights our highly skilled labor force, abundant natural resources and supportive government climate for innovative companies like KiOR seeking a home to expand their businesses. Mississippi has partnered with KiOR throughout this history-making project, contributing economic development support ranging from research and testing projects within our world class universities, to technical training within our superb community college system."
Major benefits of KiOR fuels include:
- Fuels are identical to petroleum based fuels made from conventional methods and will drop in to the existing fuels infrastructure.
- Studies show that KiOR fuels will have a significant reduction in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions when compared to fossil-based fuels. KiOR fuels in today's engines can provide a carbon emissions profile that is comparable to or better than electric cars run off the U.S. electric grid.
- Construction and operation of production facilities provides significant economic development in rural areas.
Source: http://www.kior.com/