Primus Green Energy, a New Jersey alternative energy company based in Hillsborough, New Jersey, has signed on to the Northeast Woody/Warm-season Biomass Consortium (NEWBio) as an industry collaborator. The company will provide technical insight to the group as it develops perennial feedstock production systems and supply chains for biomass feedstocks.

The consortium is led by Penn State's College of Agricultural Science and supported by a nearly $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Other consortium partners include eight universities based in the Northeast, the USDA's Eastern Regional Research Center, the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory. The consortium includes eight other industrial collaborators, and Primus is the only advanced alternative fuel company of the group.

NEWBio will focus on the development of four large demonstration projects throughout the Northeast operating at commercial scales of thousands of acres to produce between 500 and 1,200 tons per day of lignocellulosic biomass for alternative fuel production. Plant scientists will work to improve the ability of crops to grow on marginal lands and to resist insects and disease, with a goal of increasing yields by 25 percent and reducing costs by 20 percent.

Primus Green Energy is the developer of a syngas-to-gasoline (STG+) technology that converts syngas derived from natural gas and/or biomass into jet fuel, high octane gasoline and aromatic chemicals through a proprietary version of a proven catalytic fuel synthesis process. The fuels produced from the Primus STG+ technology are virtually indistinguishable from the same fuels produced from petroleum. For that reason, they can be used directly in engines as a component of standard fuel formulas and do not require costly engine modifications, overhauls of the fuel delivery infrastructure or changes in consumer behavior.

The company has already produced gasoline at its pilot facility in Hillsborough, and is currently in the process of completing a demonstration plant at its Hillsborough complex. The company expects to break ground on its first commercial plant in 2013, which will be designed to produce over 20 million gallons of jet fuel annually from natural gas.

"The development of a cost-effective and sustainable biomass supply chain for alternative fuels is an important goal, even more so in a time when petroleum-based fuels are increasingly prone to price volatility and supply uncertainty," said Robert Johnsen, CEO of Primus Green Energy. "With our own alternative fuel technology moving steadily toward commercialization, we look forward to lending our technical knowledge and working with the consortium to develop a robust biomass feedstock ecosystem right here in the Northeast."

Image credit: Primus Green Energy