Pilot Project To Test New Biofuel Production Method.

The Tri-City (WA) Herald (5/18, Cary) reports that a DOE grant "will pay for a pilot project to test a promising new way to produce biofuel and use Mid-Columbia ag and other waste to do it. The $1.5 million "BioChemCat" pilot project will be conducted at the Bioproducts, Sciences and Engineering Laboratory at Washington State University Tri-Cities in cooperation with the Port of Benton, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and startup company Clean-Vantage." The goal of the program is to demonstrate that many types of agricultural waste can be converted into jet fuel, diesel or gasoline with the BioChemCat process. The article explains that "unlike most biofuel manufacturing, the fuel doesn't need to be bone dry, which requires energy at the front-end of the production process and increases cost and production time."