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RSE will receive up to a $30 DOE grant to build a biorefinery in Maine. The proposed biorefinery facility will be installed in an existing pulp mill in Old Town, Maine, and will produce cellulosic ethanol from lignocellulosic (wood) extract. The project uses a proprietary process for pre-extracting hemicelluloses during the pulping process. This process has been proven on a laboratory and pilot scale, and RSE will now prove the viability of the process at the demonstration plant level. RSE Pulp & Chemical is part of the RSE renewable energy and technology-based business consortium that consists of 22 companies in the U.S. and Canada. RSE Pulp & Chemical participants/investors include: University of Maine Orono, Maine; and American Process Inc Atlanta, Georgia.
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OLD TOWN, Maine
RSE Pulp & Chemical LLC, a subsidiary of Red Shield Environmental, intends to use grant funds it received from the Maine Technology Institute to continue research and development efforts to integrate the University of Maine' s patent-pending process to create alternative fuels and chemicals from wood chips.
The process has significant technical and commercial advantages over competing technologies because the hemicellulose can be extracted from wood chips using existing pulp facilities infrastructures.
The $500,000 in MTI funding is coupled with $1.1 million in matching funds from the pulp company.
MTI, of Gardiner, was created in 1999 by the Legislature to encourage, promote, stimulate and support research and development activity leading to the commercialization of new products and services in the state' s technology-intensive industrial sectors, according to the organization' s Web site.
The competitive Development Awards are presented three times a year by MTI to support companies in their early activities for product development, commercialization, or business planning and development.
The technology involved in Red Shield' s project to create a biorefinery pilot plant that would use wood chips to create alternative fuels fits into the country' s goal of finding alternative energy sources and reducing its dependency on foreign oil.
In addition to the MTI grant, Red Shield officials said Friday they' re waiting to hear if they' ve been selected to receive a $30 million matching grant from the Department of Energy.
The money would allow for the second phase of biorefinery construction. The first portion of the project already is being funded by a $10 million research grant that previously was awarded to the University of Maine. UM is partnering with Red Shield in creating the biorefinery pilot plant.
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