Company gets loan for Mississipi biomass project

The state of Missisippi will provide a $75 million loan to a Pasadena-based company that has been testing turning wood into a crude oil substitute, according to this entry from the Enterprise-Journal of McComb, Miss.
The Mississippi Legislature, in special session Aug. 27, approved a financial package to help KiOR begin in Mississippi what is being billed as a first-in-the-world project to turn biomass into a crude oil substitute that can in turn be refined into competitive gasoline and diesel.
KiOR has been testing its biomass production process for 1 1/2 years. Privately held KiOR is pledging to invest $500 million of its own money to build its first three processing plants in Mississippi, where wood chips and other biomass would be turned into fuel.
In addition to the $75 million loan, the bill also included $4 million for worker training, $1 million for biofuels research at Mississippi State University and $1 million for biofuels research at Alcorn State University.
KiOR says its first plant will be in Columbus and could open by the end of 2011. Two others are projected, one in Newton County and one in Southwest Mississippi, in or near Franklin County, by 2015.
The company will get no subsidies or state support until it has formed a partnership with a major oil company to refine its product.