As a chief component of its 2012-2013 grants award process targeting biofuels development in the western part of the state, the Biofuels Center of North Carolina will award $766,256 to a consortium of partners led by AdvantageWest Economic Development Group to fortify the biofuels sector and trigger its expansion in the region. The project, “Planting the Seeds for a Robust WNC Biofuels Sector,” will be collaboratively executed by AdvantageWest and 13 other entities, including: N.C. State University Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center, Catawba and Transylvania counties, Appalachian State University Energy Center, Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, the N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Bent Creek Institute, Biltmore Estate, Blue Ridge Biofuels, Land-of-Sky Regional Council, Renewable Developers, Mountain Research Station, and communities and organizations brought together by a unique multiparty partnership.
The project partners will invest a 50 percent matching contribution of $383,128, for a total project investment of $1,149,384. The project also dovetails well with ongoing Biofuels Center-supported projects from previous grant cycles, including feedstock efficiency projects, woody biomass-to-biofuels feasibility analyses, and the Field to Fryer to Fuel initiative.
The partnership project will measurably increase biofuels production and use in western North Carolina through four central goals: (1) expand feedstock reliability, including oil crops, spent brewery grains, and woody biomass; (2) improve value-chain economics through coproduct opportunities, including harnessing nutraceutical fractionations and waste glycerin; (3) expand demand through the establishment of a new biofuels-testing laboratory and development of outreach tools; and (4) ensure regional coordination from a new strategic western North Carolina biofuels coordinator, and investigate a multi-tenant biofuels and bioproducts industrial park. Read more.