New biofuel plant to be built in US
The plant will be built by Cleveland’s Cliffs Natural Resources subsidiary RenewaFuel, on the Telkite Technology Park, which is located at Sawyer Airport near Marquette.
The plant will produce 150,000 tons per year of high-energy biofuel cubes, which are a mixture of sustainably collected wood and agricultural feedstocks. The cubes will be dispersed in the local community to farmers and loggers.
William A. Brake, chairman of RenewaFuel, said: ‘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’.
The biofuel cubes generate the same amount of energy as coal from the Western US but they emit 90% less sulphur dioxide, 35% less particulate matter and 30% less acid gases than coal.
The plant will be in production at the new site by the middle of 2010.