AdvancedBiofuelNews Jan. 27, 2011 – GE Capital, NRG Energy, ConocoPhillips joint venture invests in Cool Planet
Sept. 17, 2013 – Completes second close of “D round” equity raise
Jan. 11, 2012 – Fleet tests of Cool Planet gasoline kick off in California
Dec. 11, 2011 – BP joins GE, Google Ventures, ConocoPhillips, NRG Energy and others in investing in Cool Planet
Aug. 23, 2013 – Announces location of first commercial project
Feb. 26, 2014 – Construction commences on first commercial project
Oct. 2, 2013 – Agreement signed with Acritaz Greentech to build plants in Malaysia
Cool Planet breaks ground on Project Genesis commercial-scale plant Cool Planet Energy Systems has broken ground on its first commercial facility. The project, known as Project Genesis, is located in Alexandria, La. and will take in wood residue as feedstock. The plant is designed to produce 10 MMgy of high-octane renewable gasoline blendstocks. The plant will also produce biochar. The company has noted its technology has the capability to be carbon negative. Biochar produced via the process sequesters carbon. When used as a soil amendment, trials have shown the Cool
Terra biochar product results in yield improvement of more than 50 percent with significant reductions in fertilizer and water use. Permits have been received to begin earthwork and grading on the project, with construction expected to follow immediately. The plant will be located at the Port of Alexandria on the Red River Waterway. The site was chosen because of its biomass availability, interstate and rail access, and direct barge access to refineries.
Business consortium targets advanced biofuel production Fortum, UPM and Valmet have partnered to develop a new technology to produce lignocellulosic fuels. The companies plan to develop and commercialize a catalytic pyrolysis technology for upgrading bio-oil. The five year project, dubbed LignoCat, (lignocellulosic fuels by catalytic pyrolysis), is a continuation of the consortium’s earlier bio-oil project with the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, which focused on commercializing integrated pyrolysis technology for production of bio-oil for replacement of heating oil in industrial use.
In the new project, the consortium aims to develop novel integrated technology to produce high-value transportation biofuels, creating new business for the consortium companies. "Our aim is to become a significant advanced biofuel producer. In accordance with our strategy, we will start production in Lappeenranta with crude tall oil residue as a raw material, and simultaneously, we are looking for ways of producing biofuels out of solid wood biomass. Catalytic pyrolysis is one of the promising options we are looking into," said Petri Kukkonen, vice president of UPM Biofuels.