ClearFuels Technology Inc. and Hughes Hardwood have partnered to develop a biorefinery that will convert 1,000 dry tons of wood product per day to renewable diesel or jet fuel. Hawaii-based ClearFuels will site the facility at the Hughes Hardwood wood component products manufacturing facility in Collinwood, Tenn.
The Collinwood facility will represent an investment of roughly $200 million by ClearFuels and the creation of 50 direct new jobs, with additional jobs to be created in relation to the collection and transportation of feedstock.
At standard capacity, the biorefinery will be capable of producing 16 million gallons of diesel and 4 million gallons of the gasoline feedstock naphtha each year, along with six to eight megawatts of excess electricity.
ClearFuels is slated to break ground on the biorefinery in late 2011, and the facility will reach commercial operation by late 2013 to early 2014.
“The concept of biomass harvesting will revolutionize the logging industry in the South,” said Mike Yeager, land manager, Hughes Hardwood. “Landowners who prefer biomass contractors over a conventional harvest will see both economic advantages and a more attractive post-harvest site. Every landowner Hughes Hardwood has assisted has had an issue with disposing of the remaining residual fiber. Now I can offer a profitable solution to that problem.”
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