USDA offers $91m to Cool Planet’s biofuel plant in Louisiana

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded $91m in loan to help finance Cool Planet Energy Systems’ advanced biofuel facility in Rapides Parish, Louisiana.

The loan amount will be used in the construction of the proposed biofuel plant at the Port of Alexandria in early 2016.

The company broke ground on the facility earlier in 2014 and site preparation as well as detailed engineering design work is currently underway.

Upon completion, the facility will generate renewable fuels by converting wood chips into high octane gasoline and aromatic blendstocks.

The facility will also produce a co-product, dubbed CoolTerra, which will allow agricultural producers to retain water and nutrients in soil in order to increase crop yields.

Cool Planet will contribute $50m in the plant, which also has investors including Google Ventures, BP, Conoco Philips, GE, Exelon and NRG Energy.

Cool Planet CEO Howard Janzen said: "We expect to work closely with the USDA as we bring this commercial facility online.

"The umbrella of a supportive and consistent federal government policy is important to the initial commercialization of our technology. We expect this commercial plant to be the first of hundreds of plants that our company will build across the United States."

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said: "This partnership is the latest example of the Obama Administration’s continuing support for innovative, home-grown energy sources.

"USDA’s support for renewable energy projects like this helps create jobs in rural areas, promotes U.S. energy independence, and leads to further expansion of the growing and increasingly significant bioeconomy."

USDA has recently issued a conditional commitment on a $105m loan guarantee to Fulcrum Sierra Biofuels to construct a biorefinery in Nevada to generate renewable jet fuel from municipal solid waste.