Biofuel company Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc. announced that engineering, procurement and
construction (EPC) activities are underway for the company’s Sierra BioFuels Plant (Sierra
BioFuels).
Fulcrum entered into a contract with a subsidiary of Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) for the EPC
services for the Sierra BioFuels project, a commercial-scale biorefinery that will
convert post-sorted municipal solid waste (MSW) to ethanol when it enters operations in 2012.
Sierra BioFuels will provide more than 550 engineering, manufacturing, construction and
operations jobs. The project will be one of the Nation’s first large-scale facilities capable of
transforming everyday trash into a clean, renewable transportation fuel.
Located approximately
20 miles east of Reno, Nevada, Sierra BioFuels is expected to convert approximately 90,000 tons of post-sorted MSW--the amount of trash produced by a city with a population of approximately
165,000--into 10.5 million gallons of ethanol annually.
Utilizing MSW as a feedstock, Sierra BioFuels will produce cellulosic ethanol that
reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than 75% on a lifecycle basis when compared
to traditional gasoline production from oil.
With long-term feedstock contracts in place, Fulcrum said it is advancing development on
additional projects across the U.S. that will have the capacity to produce one billion gallons of
ethanol annually.
Fulcrum BioEnergy is based in Pleasanton, California.
