November 15, 2009
A $19 million biomass fuel production plant will rise near Marquette, as the board of directors of Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) approved the construction for its RenewaFuel LLC subsidiary.
The plant will be built at the Telkite Technology Park, which is located at Sawyer Airport near Marquette.
RenewaFuel intends to move forward with a lease agreement for the use of two large aircraft hangars, which formerly housed B-52 aircraft when the facility was part of K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base. RenewaFuel's lease of the hangars is subject to the final approval of the Marquette County Board of Commissioners and the Federal Aviation Administration. Once begun, construction and renovation is expected to take about nine months.
"This is an exciting new economic development opportunity for RenewaFuel and Michigan's growing renewable energy industry," said William A. Brake, chairman of RenewaFuel and executive vice president, human and technical resources for Cliffs Natural Resources.
The plant is expected to employ about 25 people and will produce 150,000 tons per year of high-energy, low-emission biofuel cubes. The cubes are a composite of sustainably collected wood and agricultural feedstocks, which will be supplied from local farmers and loggers.
"Our objective with this first full-scale plant is to establish safe, profitable production and demonstrate to utilities and other industries currently using non-renewable energy sources that RenewaFuel energy cubes are a cost-effective way to supplement or replace fossil fuels in their operations," Brake said. "We anticipate being in production at the Sawyer facility by the middle of 2010."
The biofuel cubes -- about the size of a coal briquette -- generate about the same amount of energy as coal from the Western United States. However, they emit 90 percent less sulfur dioxide, 35 percent less particulate matter and 30 percent less acid gases than coal. In addition, the feedstocks used to create them are considered biogenic carbon -- meaning they are already part of the natural carbon balance and will not add to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.
Because of their size and density, the cubes can be used in most solid fuel systems with little or no modifications required.
More at www.cliffsnaturalresources.com.
Source: Great Lakes IT Report
