ZeaChem’s cellulosic biorefinery is within sight. The company has announced two recent milestones in the process for their 250,000 gallons-per-year plant to go online in 2011. First, they secured full construction funding for their facility including a $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to be used toward the cost of constructing the front and back-end cellulosic process components. Once complete, the biorefinery will convert biomass to fuel (ethanol) and chemicals.

Second, ZeaChem has obtained a guarantee maximum price under the Engineering, Procurement and Construction agreements with engineering firm Burns & McDonnell, for construction of the core facility. The biorefinery will be located in Boardman, Oregon and is currently under construction with foundations already being poured.

“Since 1898 we have built a reputation of making our customers successful with practical technology advancements and predictable costs,” said John Nobles, President, Process & Industrial Group at Burns & McDonnell. “We look forward to helping ZeaChem deploy their technology.”

Jim Imbler, President and CEO of ZeaChem concluded, “ZeaChem has successfully completed the financial milestones to ensure that our biorefinery project can be completed on budget and on schedule. We look forward to beginning cellulosic ethanol production in 2011.”