Officials from KiOR, a Pasadena, Texas-based biofuels company which has announced it will be constructing five biofuel production facilities in Mississippi, announced today that it has received a term sheet for a loan guarantee supporting a more than $1 billion biofuels project from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Loan Guarantee Program.
KiOR’s project under the DOE loan guarantee program will consist of four biorefineries that will contribute approximately 250 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel to the Renewable Fuel Standard. The DOE-supported project’s first two plants are expected to be in Mississippi, one in Newton and one in the southwest region of the state, and additional project sites are planned in Georgia and Texas.
“Last year, Mississippi realized the tremendous potential of the KiOR technology and made a decision to bring it to our state,” Governor Haley Barbour said. “We are excited the U.S. Department of Energy has come to the same conclusion to support this one-billion-plus dollar project to speed up the construction of two additional KiOR facilities here.”
In August 2010, KiOR announced it would be building a total of five biofuels production facilities in Mississippi, with its first facilities in Columbus, Newton and southwest Mississippi. These facilities represent a $500 million company investment and will create 1,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state. KiOR recently began construction of its Columbus facility, which will be the company’s first commercial-scale biofuels production facility.
KiOR’s revolutionary catalytic conversion process allows the company to convert biomass, from a variety of feedstocks, into a high-quality renewable crude oil known as Re-Crude™. Re-Crude is then refined into gasoline and diesel blendstocks that are compatible with the existing U.S. fuel infrastructure and provide a viable near-term solution to help ease our dependence on foreign oil, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create high-quality jobs and economic benefit in rural communities.
“We are pleased to work with DOE on reaching this milestone and are excited about the scale and impact of the project. The DOE-supported project’s first facility, planned in Newton, Mississippi, is expected to be the largest cellulosic biofuels facility in the United States,” said Fred Cannon, president and chief executive officer of KiOR.
“While the term sheet is an important step in the process, we recognize that more work lies ahead to finalize the loan guarantee and there is no assurance it will be issued until the loan is closed,” Cannon said.
For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.kior.com.
About Mississippi Development Authority
Mississippi Development Authority is the State of Mississippi’s lead economic and community development agency. More than 300 employees are engaged in providing services to businesses, communities and workers in the state. While the agency is best known for its efforts to recruit new businesses to Mississippi, the Authority provides services to promote tourism, help communities improve their quality of place, help existing employers identify and meet opportunities and challenges and help workers improve their skills – all with the goal of improving the quality of life and economic well-being of Mississippians. For more information, visit MDA’s website at www.mississippi.org.