PASADENA, TX -- KiOR Inc., a renewable energy company that converts wood and other biomass materials into crude oil, has signed a ground fuel supply agreement with FedEx Corporate Services Inc.
Under the agreement, KiOR may supply its Re-Crude renewable diesel blendstocks for purchase by affiliates of FedEx from KiORâs first commercial production facility in Columbus, MS.
"We are excited to be working with a premier transportation company like FedEx,â said Fred Cannon, KiORâs President and CEO. âThis agreement with the services company of direct end users is another step toward delivering our fuel blendstocks to the market.â
The Columbus plant, scheduled to begin production in the second half of 2012, employs a proprietary technology to create blendstocks from a variety of biomass, including wood and agricultural waste. KiOR said the plant is being designed to process approximately 500 bone dry tons of wood per day and produce 11 million gallons of renewable fuel blendstocks annually. These fuel blendstocks can be mixed with conventional fossil fuel blendstocks and used in vehicles on the road today.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the Columbus plant was held last Thursday and attended by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and other state and local dignitaries. It is the first of five biofuel production facilities that KiOR said it plans to erect in Mississippi, representing a total investment of $500 million. In February the company received a term sheet for a loan guarantee supporting a more than $1 billion biofuels project from the U.S. Department of Energyâs (DOEâs) Loan Guarantee Program.
"Starting right here in Columbus, KiOR will use our state's abundant timber resources to help meet our countryâs energy needs and create thousands of jobs for Mississippians," Barbour said.
In addition to FedEx, KiOR has announced offtake agreements with Hunt Refining Company, and Catchlight Energy LLC, a 50-50 joint venture between subsidiaries of Chevron Corporation and Weyerhaeuser Company, to purchase fuel blendstocks from the Columbus plant.
KiOR has also announced plans to locate a facility in Newton, MS, and one in southwest Mississippi. The specific sites of the other two facilities have not yet been determined.
KiOR was founded in 2007 and maintains a demonstration and pilot plant, along with a research and development facility, in Pasadena, TX.
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