(January 26, 2023) Today, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) announced that they have secured a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help Nevada-based 'Comstock Inc.' produce biofuel.
Comstock has developed what Senator Cortez Masto's team describes as an innovative and cost-effective process that produces sustainable, renewable fuel from wood byproducts.
This project will create new jobs and help lower Nevada’s carbon footprint.
“Nevada is a hotspot for clean energy, and the federal funding I secured will help bring another innovative biofuel producer online in Northern Nevada,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “I’ll continue to work to support Nevada’s position as a leader in clean-energy industries that are creating good-paying jobs and growing our state’s economy.”
“As a renewable energy source, biofuels are a critical part of our efforts to grow and strengthen our clean energy economy,” said Senator Rosen. “I’m proud to have helped secure this funding to incentivize more biofuel manufacturing in our state, which will help lower prices, improve our environment, and create more jobs in Northern Nevada.”
Comstock has a proven biorefining process that exploits the divergent natural attributes of discrete lignocellulosic biomass components to form a mixture of water soluble, water insoluble hydrophilic, and hydrophobic derivatives, from which Comstock fractionates and produces two biointermediates.
Each biointermediate is isolated and free of the inhibitory and other contaminants that have frustrated prior attempts at broadly commercializing cellulosic fuels technologies.
Comstock proposes to build a pre-pilot scale system to demonstrate a unique new pathway to convert its biointermediates from forestry residues and other forms of lignocellulosic biomass into renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, gasoline, and marine fuel at dramatically improved yield, efficiency, and cost.
Comstock’s proposed pre-pilot scale system will validate best-in-class renewable fuel yields exceeding 80 gallons per dry ton (on a gasoline gallon equivalent basis), carbon efficiencies exceeding 40%, and a minimum fuel selling price of less than $2.65 per GGE, with lifecycle emissions reductions exceeding 80% over petroleum.
“We are grateful for the DOE’s recognition of our technology and winning this grant award,” said Corrado De Gasperis, Comstock’s Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “This is a remarkable opportunity to work with an extraordinary team of collaborators to demonstrate that the U.S. can strike and sustain an immensely profitable new net zero balance between the Earth’s living systems and domestic mobility emissions. I want to thank Senators Rosen and Cortez-Masto, as well as Congressman Amodei, for their strong support of our application and Nevada’s business community.”
