Mar 1, 2013
Sundrop Fuels Inc. of Longmont, Colo., bought 1,213 acres of land in Rapides Parish on Thursday on which to build a biofuels plant projected to cost as much as $500 million. The land is adjacent to the former Cowboy Town venue (above) off of Interstate 49 in Boyce, just north of Alexandria. Sundrop Fuels bought that 28-acre site earlier this year. / The Town Talk
Written by: Jeff Matthews
Sundrop Fuels has had an option on the property, owned by Ballina Farms, for more than a year while it moved forward with pre-construction efforts, including permitting. The sale price was $4,752,000, according to Rod Noles with NAI/Latter & Blum of Alexandria, who represented the property owners.
Sundrop, a Colorado-based biofuels startup, announced plans in late 2011 to build a $500 million pilot plant for its renewable fuel in the Alexandria area. It chose the Ballina Farms property, which is located off Interstate 49 just north of Alexandria in Rapides Parish.
The plant will use woody biomass and natural gas to produce liquid fuel -- billed as the world's first "green gasoline" -- ready to drop into a gas tank. Vehicles don't need to be modified to use it, and it doesn't need to be blended with petroleum-based gasoline.
Dirt work on the project could begin in April in advance of construction.
Sundrop also recently reached an agreement to buy the closed entertainment venue formerly known as Cowboy Town, which is bordered on three sides by the Ballina Farms property. The company bought Cowboy Town from Yahweh LLC, a venture by local businessmen James Greer and Richard Kyle, for $2.5 million.
The facility, now known as Sundrop Fuels Louisiana LLC headquarters, will contain offices as well as maintenance and fabrication operations.
Louisiana taxpayers helping Sundrop with project
Published Jan. 6, 2012:
ALEXANDRIA, La. -- Sundrop Fuels Inc., a Colorado-based renewable fuels company, will build its $450 million plant north of Alexandria with help from the state.
Louisiana taxpayers will fund $4.5 million to help with the costs of moving Sundrop's research and development department to Alexandria, and give performance-based grants totaling $14 million over 10 years based on employment figures, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret said.
THE PROCESS
Sundrop Fuels Inc.'s technology converts wood waste such as branches and other low-grade tree parts into "green gasoline" -- transportation fuel able to be dropped into vehicles and pipelines like any petroleum refined gasoline.
Here's the process:
1. Biomass material is fed into Sundrop's proprietary RP Reactor. The reactor can be powered by high-temperature heat sources such as natural gas, concentrated solar power or electric power. The company currently finds natural gas to be the most effective heat source. Though the technology works with many different types of biomass, the planned facility in the Rapides Station area will use woody biomass.
2. Natural gas is added to the biomass as a second feedstock. Woody biomass by itself does not contain sufficient hydrogen to create a fuel usable in standard engines. In other biomass-to-fuel conversion processes, this has meant using twice as much biomass and discarding a large part of it. Adding natural gas corrects the hydrogen imbalance and allows nearly all the biomass to be used, rather than wasting a good portion of it.
3. Temperatures in the reactor of more than 1,300 degrees Celsius (2,372 degrees Fahrenheit) "gasify" the feedstock, creating synthetic gas.
4. Using a methanol-to-gasoline process developed by ExxonMobil, the synthetic gas is made into transportation fuels such as unleaded, diesel or aviation fuels. The fuel is ready to use and does not have to be blended into gasoline in the way that ethanol does (though much of it is expected to be sold to refineries for blending with traditional gasoline).
5. According to Sundrop officials, the green gasoline can be produced at prices competitive with petroleum refined gas, and the process dramatically reduces the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere compared to traditional gasoline refining.
Note: The Alexandria facility will not use all aspects of Sundrop's proprietary technology, as the larger planned future Sundrop plants will.
---The Town Talk
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