California-based BlueFire Ethanol received approval from the Department of Energy (DOE) recently to locate its second planned cellulosic ethanol biorefinery in Fulton, Mississippi.

The company was awarded a $40 million dollar grant from DOE for a second facility in 2007 that was originally to be located in California. However, development and licensing concerns, coupled with the challenging business climate in California caused company officials to petition the DOE for a site change to Mississippi. “We determined the Fulton site located in north eastern Mississippi was best suited to fulfill our requirements for our second biorefinery plant after studying various locations in several states over the past year,” said BlueFire President and CEO Arnold Klann.

The Mississippi project will allow BlueFire to utilize green and wood wastes available in the region as feedstock for the ethanol plant that will be designed to produce approximately 18 million gallons of ethanol per year. BlueFire is currently awaiting the final financing needed to break ground on its first ethanol biorefinery in Lancaster, CA. The Lancaster facility will use post-sorted cellulosic wastes diverted from Southern California’s landfills to produce approximately 3.9 million gallons of fuel-grade ethanol per year