WALNUT, Calif., Oct. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- VIASPACE Inc. (OTCQB: VSPC) today announced that its business partner, Maricopa Bio Crops, LLC of Scottsdale, Arizona, has planted Giant King Grass in Arizona. VIASPACE harvested the Giant King Grass from its propagation nursery in California, and it was planted in southern Arizona on October 1, 2013. This is the first step in the planned initial 4,500 acre Giant King Grass plantation to produce Giant King Grass hay for cattle feed in Arizona. Two additional 4,500 acre phases are also planned. Maricopa Bio Crops will grow and market the Giant King Grass under VIASPACE direction, and both companies will share the profits.
Mr. Patrick Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Maricopa Bio Crops and Syn Tawa Energy, LLC stated, "We are moving very quickly on this project. I was at the VIASPACE nursery for the harvest and VIASPACE CEO, Dr. Carl Kukkonen, oversaw the planting in Arizona. We used mechanical planting to improve efficiency and reduce planting costs. Our land is irrigated from the Colorado River. We will initially use the Giant King Grass as animal feed and later as an energy crop for our biorefinery project. Our measured crude protein content of 15.63% shows that Giant King Grass is very nutritious, and our digestibility study showed great results. Giant King Grass hay and silage can provide a reliable and consistent source of quality forage feed for our customers at an attractive price. Arizona has 900,000 cattle and 130,000 dairy cows and this represents a very large market for us. We plan to be feeding cattle in 2014."
"It is a pleasure to be working with Maricopa Bio Crops," states CEO, Dr. Carl Kukkonen. "They are very professional and their plan is very aggressive. We will fully support the project. I personally supervised the harvesting and preparation of the propagating material from our nursery in California, and I went to Arizona for the planting. The Maricopa Bio Crops project is our first animal feed plantation and we expect more to follow. There is a large domestic market for animal feed and also an export market to countries like Korea, Japan, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Animal feed projects can move forward very quickly and require less capital investment compared to energy projects. We will be pursuing both types of projects in parallel, and many energy projects will also produce animal feed."
VIASPACE Board Chairman, Dr. Kevin Schewe, commented, "Our Arizona animal feed partnership contract with Maricopa Bio Crops was signed on September 13, 2013. We announced the details of our new partnership in a press release dated September 24, 2013. Today we are have announced that the VIASPACE Giant King Grass seedlings from our California nursery were planted in Arizona on October 1, 2013 under the joint supervision of VIASPACE and Maricopa Bio Crops, LLC. This first VIASPACE animal feed plantation partnership illustrates how nimble and quickly we can actually move to develop animal feed projects and our new animal feed business line. The current demand for animal feed represents a sales equivalent of U.S. $300 billion worldwide and is expected to double by 2050. We are now busy working with new clients to address that huge demand while simultaneously pursuing projects that use Giant King Grass as the world's highest-yielding, continually renewable, carbon-neutral, dedicated bioenergy platform crop for: bioelectricity, biomass pellets to co-fire with coal, biomass to liquid biofuels, biochemicals and bioplastics. We are diligently executing our business plan and rapidly expanding our footprint both here in the U.S. and abroad. There has never been a more exciting time for VIASPACE and its shareholders."
Pictures of the Giant King Grass in California and the planting in Arizona are available on the VIASPACE Facebook page www.facebook.com/viaspaceinc.
About Syn Tawa Energy, LLC and Maricopa Bio Crops, LLC
Syn Tawa Energy, LLC develops second generation Renewable Energy Refinery plants that combine a new, patented state-of-the-art, commercial scale, low emission cellulosic biomass gasifier with a highly efficient patented gas-to-diesel conversion system that generates premium sulfur free ASTM D-975 diesel fuel at a cost that is below first generation biodiesel and petroleum based diesel fuels. For more information go to www.syntawaenergy.com or contact Patrick Sweeney at 949-887-6111.
Maricopa Bio Crops, LLC grows renewable bio crops for animal feed and as a feedstock for biomass to liquid fuels production.
About VIASPACE Inc.
VIASPACE grows renewable Giant King™ Grass as a low-carbon fuel for clean electricity generation; for environmentally friendly energy pellets; and as a feedstock for bio-methane production and for green cellulosic biofuels, biochemicals and biomaterials. Giant King Grass is a proprietary, high yield, dedicated biomass clean energy crop. Giant King Grass when it is cut frequently at 4 to 5 feet tall is also excellent animal feed. For more information, please go to www.VIASPACE.com or contact Dr. Jan Vandersande, Director of Communications, at 800-517-8050 or [email protected].
Safe Harbor Statement
Information in this news release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Such factors include, without limitation, risks outlined in our periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012, and other factors over which VIASPACE has little or no control.
SOURCE VIASPACE Inc.
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