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| 1/6/2009 6:00:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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Journal/Sam Green
Nathan Morris, chief technology officer at San Juan Bioenergy, talks about the process of extracting oil from sunflower seeds before the processing plant began operations in December. The Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Advancing Colorado’s Renewable Energy program has awarded a grant to San Juan Bioenergy to sample the analysis of Syngas from a biomass gasifier for performance. |
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San Juan Bioenergy earns ag grant
San Juan Bioenergy in Dolores County has been awarded a grant from the Colorado Department of Agriculture's Advancing Colorado's Renewable Energy program to sample the analysis of Syngas from a biomass gasifier for performance.
The ag department program, ACRE, recently awarded 14 grants totaling more than $620,000, according to a statement from the department.
ACRE is administered by the Colorado Agricultural Value Added Development Board, which encourages and promotes business projects that add value to agricultural products, as well as agricultural energy-related projects.
"ACRE is a statewide effort to promote energy-related projects beneficial to Colorado's agriculture industry," Tom Lipetzky, Markets Division director at the agriculture department, said in the statement from the agency. "The grants awarded by this project are an important step toward helping our agriculture industry to be a leading participant in the new energy economy."
Projects must in some way benefit or be tied to agricultural production or the utilization of agricultural land or water, according to the ag department. Grants were awarded in three categories: feasibility studies, project participation and research.
Feasibility studies address the viability of establishing an agricultural energy-related project and may address the market for the product, engineering requirements, economic viability, environmental concerns, legal requirements, management and other necessary study components. A maximum grant amount of $25,000 was awarded to three feasibility projects:
n Crowley County - to assess the feasibility of a Green Community Plan.
n Feedlot Biofuel, Crowley, Otero, Bent, Prowers, Baca, Kit Carson, and Morgan counties - to assess the feasibility of locating small ethanol plants in east-central and southeastern Colorado.
n KL Process Design Group, Grand County - to asses the feasibility of co-locating a cellulose-based ethanol facility with a wood pellet plant to process area beetle-kill pine.
Project participation grants are those where a satisfactory feasibility study has already been completed; funds can be used to assist with the purchase or lease of equipment, construction costs and land costs. A maximum of $100,000 was awarded to four projects:
n iCast, Jefferson County - to assist in the implementation of two pilot projects for Colorado farm-scale oil seed crushing and biodiesel production.
• Brink Inc., Boulder County - to assist in the measurement and valuation of onsite wind resources at three Colorado livestock facilities.
n Colorado Corn Growers, Weld County - to assist in developing ethanol pump infrastructure in various rural Colorado locations.
n Nunatak Alternative Energy Solutions, Gunnison County - to develop year-round solar water pumping for remote grazing locations.
Research grants into agricultural energy related topics and issues could receive up to $50,000 for a single research project. In addition to the grant for San Juan Bienergy, six others were awarded.
n Colorado Working Landscapes, Arapahoe County - to research ways that local communities can benefit from renewable energy projects and develop an action plan to address the issues.
n Golden Plains, Washington County - to evaluate renewable energy crop sequences for Northeastern Colorado Dryland farms.
n Flux Farm Foundation, Garfield County - to research a distribution network of biomass pyrolyzers to potentially generate on-farm bioenergy.
n iCast, Jefferson County - to research briquetting biomass ag waste products to produce energy.
n Stewart Environmental, Larimer County - to inventory available feedstock in Colorado for use in anaerobic digestion for biogas production.
n Synergistic Building Technologies & Cure Organic Farm, Boulder County - to research the potential of a new style of greenhouse capable of producing throughout the year with a close-to-zero carbon footprint.
"In all, grants were awarded to businesses spanning across 18 Colorado counties," Lipetzky said. "This says a great deal about Colorado dedication to renewable energy."
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