California Energy Commissions Awards Grants

The California Energy Commission approved eight grants totaling more than $9.6 million in state funds to projects aimed at reducing petroleum use and encouraging the use of biofuels, Yubanet.com reported. Projects awarded grants for biofuel production research include:

- Great Valley Energy LLC received $1,989,101 to test the feasibility of creating biofuel from sweet sorghum. If testing is successful, the team will consider building smaller-scale ethanol plants located across California's Central Valley. If successful, the company estimates it could have 15 small plants by 202 that could each produce an estimated 3.15 million gallons of ethanol a year.

-City of San Jose, California received $1,900,000 to build and demonstrate a new system that turns trash into natural gas that can be used as transportation fuel. The project will include creation of a facility to produce methane at the San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution control Plant. The fuel created could save the city an estimated $450,000 a year by using natural gas in its vehicles. Additional savings would be created by no longer having to landfill wood waste, yard waste and other biosolids..

Source:http://www.dtnprogressivefarmer.com /dtnag/view/blog/getBlog.do;jsessionid=1061E4CDCD44F7C3C295C348AFB7515A. agfreejvm2?blogHandle=ethanol&blogEntryId=8a82c0bc2a8c8730012c2c7e197f13d0