The plant will process municipal solid waste (MSW) or household garbage, revolutionizing waste disposal while creating a much needed low-cost, reliable and environmentally clean renewable transportation fuel.
When it begins operations in early 2010, the Sierra BioFuels plant is expected to produce approximately 10.5 million gallons of ethanol per year, and to process nearly 90,000 tons per year of MSW that would otherwise have been disposed off in landfills.
Fulcrum BioEnergy will design, finance, construct, own and operate the plant, which will be located 10 miles east of Reno at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center in Storey County, Nevada. This late-stage development project is expected to cost approximately $120 million and is set to enter construction by the end of 2008.
The Sierra BioFuels plant is the first of the several projects that Fulcrum is currently developing across the US. The plant will utilize gasification technology licensed from Integrated Environmental Technologies and a licensed proprietary catalytic technology for converting synthesis gas to ethanol jointly developed by Nipawin Biomass Ethanol New Generation Co-operative and the Saskatchewan Research Council.
