RUMFORD – The Maine Technology Institute believes the River Valley may lead the rest of the state in the development of far-reaching biomass technologies.

To prove it, a grant for $80,000 was given to the River Valley Technology Center for the development of a design and business plan for a so-called, fractionation development center at the tech center’s new facility.

Scott Christiansen, economic developer for the River Valley Growth Council, told the board of those plans during Wednesday’s monthly meeting.

About of quarter of the yearlong grant will be spent for his time working on the plan, while the rest will go for outside consulting and support services. At the end of the year, a plan should be developed that will define the tasks of a fractionation development center, who the partners will be in the venture, how fledgling businesses figure into the tech center’s services, and a multitude of other information.

That information will then be used as part of the application process for a multimillion dollar federal grant that could turn the fourth floor of the technology center into a fractionation center.

“This is a big step,” said Christiansen, who has been devoting a considerable amount of time to finding funding for the hoped-for next step at the technology center.

A fractionation center would provide resources and a place to use technologies tied to biomass that could be developed into a variety of new products and businesses, then sold commercially. The technology center and growth council have already nailed down partnerships with the University of Maine and a New York college. Biomass is vegetable matter, in this case trees, used to create fuel or energy.

A fractionation center would help develop and commercialize other uses for biomass such as chemicals, gases, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

The technology center and growth council are going after $5 million in federal money and about $3 million in state money to make the center happen, said Christiansen.

He said a lot of interest has been shown from investors in some sort of biomass conversion center. He believes that at least some of that interest will be invested in the fractionation center.

“Three years from now, we’ll see the third and fourth floors of the tech center developed,” he said.