U.S. Military Biofuel Development Contract Placed

BioProcess Algae LLC awarded $6.4-Million U.S. Department of Energy grant to develop advanced drop-in biofuels for military jets & ships.

BioProcess Algae LLC has been selected to receive a grant of up to $6.4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), as part of an innovative pilot-scale biorefinery project related to production of hydrocarbon fuels meeting military specification. The project will use renewable carbon dioxide, lignocellulosic sugars and waste heat through BioProcess Algae's Grower HarvesterTM technology platform, co-located with the Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq:GPRE ) ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa.

"BioProcess Algae was the only algae platform chosen to be a part of this project by the DOE," said Todd Becker, President and CEO of Green Plains. "This project will link our commercial scale platform for growing and harvesting algal biomass with technology partners for conversion into advanced biofuels. While this is a project for the development of drop-in biofuels, we continue to focus our technology for growing and harvesting algae for feed, food or fuel."

"We believe our Grower Harvester platform will be vital in the development of this project with the DOE," added Tim Burns, President and CEO of BioProcess Algae. "For this project, we will integrate low-cost autotrophic algal production, accelerated lipid production, and lipid conversion in an effort to develop a cost-effective advanced biofuel for military needs. This development is consistent with our current plans to build the next phase of Grower Harvester reactors in Shenandoah."

The project will demonstrate technologies to cost-effectively convert biomass into advanced drop-in biofuels and the recipient is required to contribute a minimum of 50% matching funds for the project.

BioProcess Algae LLC is a joint venture between CLARCOR Inc., a global provider of filtration products, BioProcessH2O LLC, a wastewater purification technology company, and Green Plains Renewable Energy. BioProcess Algae was created to commercialize advanced photo-bioreactor technologies for growing and harvesting of algal biomass.