The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) has issued a key permit to Strategic Biofuels LLC allowing the operator to proceed with development of subsidiary Louisiana Green Fuels LLC’s (LGF) proposed grassroots renewable fuels project to be built on a 171-acre tract of land at the port of Columbia, in Caldwell Parish, La., about 25 miles south of Monroe (OGJ Online, Jan. 20, 2022).
Following a comprehensive technical review and public comment period, DEQ approved LGF’s application for an air permit—a first of its kind in the state—on Sept. 21 upon finding the project will not have an adverse impact on local air resources, Strategic Biofuels said.
LDEQ’s approval of LGF’s air permit clears a major regulatory hurdle for the integrated project that, once operable, will include:
- A biorefinery capable of producing nearly 32 million gal/year of renewable fuel with a carbon intensity of -294 from a feedstock of wood waste made up of timber byproducts supplied by responsibly managed, sustainable plantation forests within Louisiana.
- A carbon capture and storage (CCS), or sequestration, complex that will be sited on and around the biorefinery.
- An adjacent bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) power plant able to generate more than 85 Mw of electric power.
State approval of the air permit follows Strategic Biofuels’ June contract award to SLB for provision of site derisking and front-end engineering and design (FEED) services—as well as future injection operations and long-term carbon dioxide (CO2) monitoring services—for the project’s CCS complex (OGJ Online, June 27, 2023).
The LGF project is still awaiting EPA approval of an application for a Class VI permit for CCS at the site.
Strategic Biofuels previously estimated LGF’s integrated biorefinery-CCS-BECCS project—which will be classified as a synthetic minor source (SMS) of air contaminants and subject to all applicable state and federal regulations, including the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS)—will have a combined offsetting of up to 1.36 million tonnes/year of CO2 emissions.
Based on its most recent timeline, Strategic Biofuels said it plans to reach mechanical completion of the LGF and BECCS plants in 2027.
