Sep 23 2010
Lincolnway Energy LLC, an ethanol plant located in Nevada Iowa manufacturing 55 MMgy of ethanol, will get $1.9 million re-powering funding from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture USDA, while making the announcement said that the company was selected as a bio-refinery company that uses biomass as fuel in place of fossil fuel under the program endorsed in the farm bill of 2008.
Rick Brehm, President and CEO of the plant, has informed the plans of the company to spend the money in the purchase of biomass for use in an installed boiler to offset the use of coal as fuel in the plant. He added that the grant approval was the result of the company’s effort to use renewable energy sources for the production of ethanol another green product.
Brehm, elaborated the feasibility study undertaken by the company in identifying biomass fuel source and how it zeroed on tons of tree trimmings available with the local communities as feedstock for the boilers. He voiced his concern about the continued availability of the feedstock and stressed the need to evaluate the current changed conditions. He hinted that his company is also evaluating other feedstock options such as corn stover, agriculture residues, soybean stalks, wood based materials and wooden pallets.