FT. COLLINS, Colo., Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Symbios Technologies, a renewable energy project developer, has helped ZeaChem, Inc. to be selected for a $25 million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE). The award comes from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Biomass Program, and is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). ZeaChem is a developer of biorefineries for the conversion of renewable biomass into fuels and chemicals.

Symbios worked with ZeaChem from conception to submission to DOE. "This was a five-month process involving Symbios staff and consultants, plus numerous personnel from ZeaChem and CH2M HILL," said Justin Bzdek, Symbios' CEO, who led the proposal project. "In the past few years we've been part of more than $50 million in grant awards for our clients and partners, and there is more funding available for renewable energy firms."

As outlined in a ZeaChem press release last week, the grant will be used to support construction of the company's first cellulosic biorefinery, which will have capacity of 250,000 gallons per year (GPY) and is proposed to be built in Boardman, Oregon. ZeaChem recently announced that construction is underway. The core technology, which will produce the bio-based chemical ethyl acetate, will be online by the end of 2010. The DOE grant will be used to construct and integrate additional process components to the ZeaChem core, enabling the production of cellulosic ethanol. Upon successful operations at the 250,000 GPY biorefinery, ZeaChem intends to scale to a commercial biorefinery.

DOE awarded $564 million of ARRA funds to spur job creation and deploy advanced biorefinery projects. ZeaChem is one of 19 grant recipients.

About Symbios Technologies

Symbios Technologies LLC is a waste-to-energy project developer and consulting firm that sources funds for renewable energy companies. Symbios is working to reduce its clients' greenhouse gas impacts while improving waste disposal and energy economics. Symbios uses proprietary engineering and financial software to evaluate, design, and optimize integrated renewable energy facilities to produce clean energy, water, and other valuable products from waste. Symbios is working to integrate public and private funding, on-the-ground engineering, and technology selection to make waste-to-energy and combined solar-biomass projects economically feasible.

Contact: Justin Bzdek at Symbios Technologies -- 970-797-2543

SOURCE Symbios Technologies

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