Tuesday’s Environmental Protection Agency announcement that KiOR was granted registration as a renewable gasoline product is “great news” for the company and the Columbus KiOR facility, KiOR CEO Fred Cannon said Wednesday.
KiOR was granted Part 79 registration by the EPA, which is required by manufacturers of motor vehicle fuel and must be completed prior to sale of the product.
“It is essentially a green light for KiOR to bring the renewable gasoline it produces in Columbus to the market,” Cannon said. “Even before construction began, KiOR had agreements in place to sell the fuel from the Columbus plant to Catchlight Energy, Hunt Refining, and FedEx. Yesterday’s milestone clears the path for these sales to occur once Columbus begins producing fuel.”
In the KiOR process, biomass — non-food products, like bark, leaves, wood chips, switchgrass, and other plant material — are converted into renewable crude oil in one-second reactions. The product then is converted to renewable fuel, which is the same as petroleum. The finished product is not biodiesel and not ethanol, but rather a true hydrocarbon fuel, with the same energy density as petroleum or diesel, company officials said, noting the finished product easily drops into today’s infrastructure and is compatible in all engines, cars and trucks.
The expected product — 11 million gallons of fuel a year — from the Columbus facility already was sold out before ground was broken on the $222 million Columbus plant.
“As for the facility itself, KiOR announced that it had completed construction last quarter,” Cannon said. “The facility is now in the commissioning phase and is on schedule to begin producing fuel in the second half of this year. As soon as the production begins, KiOR will be selling its fuel to its customers, who will add KiOR’s cellulosic gasoline and diesel into their fuel supply.”
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