RUMFORD – The fledgling Fractionation Development Center in the River Valley Technology Center received a boost last week when two long-term biomass projects received nearly $300,000 from the Maine Technology Institute.
This means two speculative companies, Maine Biodiesel LP and Maine Bioproducts, will now have better opportunities to continue to design facilities and to write financial plans for their companies.
The Fractionation Development Center, administered by Scott Christiansen, aims to identify and attract companies that are working with biomass conversion and to help establish these companies in Maine. Biomass, for the purposes of the FDC, comes from wood wastes.
Tucker Kimball, communications manager for MTI, said Maine Biodiesel received a $97,627 development grant and Maine Bioproducts received $196,000. Both grants were also matched by additional money from MTIs Forest Bioproducts Matching Fund, as well as by private investors.
He said the MTI and grants were established in 1999 by the Maine Legislature to bolster jobs and the economy.
He said MTI development grants would have to be repaid within two years of successful commercialization of a product.
Christiansen said the FDC, a Canadian company known as SCI of Sherbrooke, Quebec, and Frontier Energy of China, Maine, are partnering for the establishment of a plant that would convert wood products into biodiesel that could then be used for vehicular or heating fuel.
The grant received by Maine Biodiesel LP was for companies expected to be in operation within three years, Kimball said.
Joel Glatz, vice president of Frontier Energy, said his company already distributes a blended biodiesel fuel in several southern Maine towns including Raymond, South China and Union. The fuel must come from out-of-state right now, he said. With a Maine company that produces biodiesel, he expects the costs would be less.
If Maine Biodiesel LP constructs a plant for converting waste woods into fuel, then Frontier Energy would distribute it, Glatz said.
Paul Nace, a Boston investor, has been working with the FDC for the establishment of Maine Bioproducts for more than a year, Christiansen said. He could not be reached for comment on Monday.
That company is considered a “far to market” firm, meaning commercialization of products are at least three years in the future.
Maine Bioproducts aims to convert wood waste into fuel additives and chemicals, such as levulinic acid, particularly for use on the European market, Christiansen said. The MTI development grant supports manufacturing process and development planning required for construction of a biorefinery.
Eight other technology-related companies throughout the state also shared in $2.2 million in MTI grants.
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