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Biofuels Developer to Build North Carolina Refinery

Cut logs (Okko Pyykkö/Flickr)Maverick Biofuels in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said today it plans to build a pilot scale biorefinery to produce mixed-alcohol biofuels from biomass and municipal solid waste. The pilot scale biorefinery, says the company, is the next step towards design and construction of a large-scale commercial facility.

Maverick says it is raising its first round of financing to build the pilot biorefinery. Engineering design is currently underway. Site selection and groundbreaking is expected in 2011 with first production following in 18 months.

The company says its biofuel produces 85% of the energy of gasoline, and can replace ethanol in fuel blends, as well as eliminate the use of gasoline in flexible-fuel vehicles. Maverick uses a gasification-based process to convert biomass such as crop and timber waste or municipal solid waste into biofuels that are burn cleaner than gasoline.

The process involves three conversions: First from biomass to a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases, then from gas to an olefin liquid after exposing the gas to a catalyst, and finally from the olefin liquids to biofuels. Maverick has been awarded a patent in South Africa for production of alcohol blend usable in flexible fuel vehicles via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (second conversion stage). Other patents are pending in U.S., Brazil, India, Europe, and the Philippines.

Related: Biofuels Plant Produces First Cellulosic Methanol

Photo: Okko Pyykkö/Flickr

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