INEOS New Planet BioEnergy closes $75M loan with USDA guarantee

August 19, 2011 |

In Florida, INEOS New Planet BioEnergy has closed $75 million in private financing utilizing the USDA loan guarantee program for its new Indian River BioEnergy Center located in Florida.  This is the first large-scale advanced bioenergy project in the United States to finalize its financing in the latest round under the USDA government program to commercialize biorefinery technology, and concludes all necessary funding to complete the project.

The BioEnergy Center, located near Vero Beach, Florida, will start production in 2Q, 2012, producing 8MGy ethanol and 6 megawatts from local yard, vegetative and household waste.

The project will use INEOS Bio’s feedstock-flexible BioEnergy technology, which uses a unique combination of gasification and fermentation technology to turn different types of waste materials – including municipal solid waste — into advanced biofuels and renewable power.
The financing for the project includes a $75 million privately financed loan backed by a guarantee from the USDA through its 9003 Biorefinery Assistance program.  Construction is already approximately 20 percent complete at the BioEnergy Center, and will be completed by end April 2012.

As the first plant in the world to use INEOS Bio’s advanced bioenergy technology, the BioEnergy Center will serve as a reference plant demonstrating the economic conversion of a variety of different biomass feedstocks into advanced biofuel and renewable power at full commercial scale.  To meet the U.S. Government’s goal of replicating the technology, INEOS Bio will enter into licensing agreements with third parties to build similar commercial bioenergy plants around the U.S. and the world.

In 2009, the project was awarded a $50 million cost matching grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and a $2.5 million dollar cost matching grant from the State of Florida.

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