Two Ohio agricultural companies have received more than $4.4 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to research and develop technologies to produce biofuels, bioenergy and high-value biobased products.
Gov. Ted Strickland recently congratualted Yenkin-Majestic Paint Corporation in Columbus and Velocys, Inc., in Plain City for their work.
"With agriculture and food processing as two of Ohio's largest industries, we have tremendous potential for creating energy out of natural, renewable resources. And growing Ohio's advanced and renewable energy industry is a cornerstone of our plan to create new Ohio jobs," says Gov. Ted Strickland. "We appreciate Secretaries Vilsack and Chu, and Ohio's Congressional delegation, for helping to boost our growth industries with resources through the Recovery Act."
The awards were part of $24.5 million in grant awards announced today through the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Energy.
Ohio is committed to growing our advanced energy industries, and the Ohio Agriculture to Chemicals, Polymers, and Advanced Materials Task Force studied and recommended ways to improve interactivity among these key industries, including maximizing biomass energy production.
The Ohio projects, which were U.S. Department of Agriculture award recipients for biofuels and biobased products, include:
Yenkin-Majestic Paint Corporation, in Columbus, was awarded up to $1.8 million to demonstrate, at scale, the operation of a dry fermentation system that uses pre- and post-consumer food wastes from supermarkets and restaurants, waste sawdust, grass, leaves, stumps and other forms of wood waste to produce biogas, heat, and electrical power. Yenkin-Majestic will use these products to demonstrate a distributed stand-alone system for the operation of a large industrial facility.
Velocys, Inc., in Plain City, was awarded up to $2,651,612 to improve biorefinery economics through microchannel hydroprocessing. This project will explore the unique capabilities of heat and mass transfer inherent in microchannel reactor technology with advanced catalysts to intensify chemical processes, resulting in more efficient conversion of cellulosic residues to liquid transportation fuels.