The Port of Columbia has received a $15-million grant from the government of Louisiana for improvements intended to support development of Strategic Biofuels LLC’s proposed grassroots renewable fuels plant on a 171-acre tract of land at the port, in Caldwell Parish, about 25 miles south of Monroe (OGJ Online, Apr. 26, 2021).
Awarded by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development-administered Louisiana Port Construction and Development Priority Program, the infrastructure improvement grant will enable road, rail, and traffic flow upgrades at and around the port that will allow Strategic Biofuels to advance its aggressive construction schedule for subsidiary Louisiana Green Fuels LLC’s (LGF) planned renewable fuels plant, the parties said on Jan. 19.
Actual plant construction is scheduled to begin as soon as full project funding is secured, which Strategic Biofuels expects to occur in early 2023, said Bob Meredith, Strategic Biofuels’ chief operating officer.
First announced in early 2021, the LGF-operated plant would use established refinery processes to produce up to 32 million gal/year of renewable fuel from a feedstock of wood waste made up of timber byproducts supplied by responsibly managed, sustainable plantation forests within Louisiana.
Project details, timeline
The proposed project also would feature carbon capture and storage (CCS), or sequestration, which—combined with its sustainably sourced feedstock—would enable LGF’s plant to produce renewable diesel in a carbon-negative fashion.
Strategic Biofuels, which previously received a $200-million tax-free bond allocation from the state of Louisiana to help advance the estimated $700-million development, completed its CCS test well program for LGF’s renewable diesel fuel project in third-quarter 2021, the company said in an Aug. 11, 2021, release.
Based on its most recent timeline, Strategic Biofuels said it plans to reach mechanical completion of the LGF plant in mid-2025 for targeted full-commercial operation in late 2025.
Once operational, LGF’s refinery would produce about 83% renewable diesel and 17% renewable naphtha chemically identical to fossil-derived diesel and naphtha.
