KiOR, Inc. has announced the initial shipments of cellulosic diesel from its commercial scale facility in Columbus, Mississippi. The biorefinery uses pine wood chips and produces gasoline and diesel, the first renewable hydrocarbon fuels in the U.S. manufactured at commercial scale with no compatibility issues. KiOR’s renewable gasoline is also the first renewable cellulosic gasoline ever registered by the Environmental Protection Agency for sale in the U.S.

“This is a major step forward for KiOR, the biofuels industry and the entire renewable fuels sector,” said Fred Cannon, KiOR’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “With first production at Columbus, KiOR has technology with the potential to resurrect each and every shut down paper mill in the country and to replace imported oil on a cost effective basis while creating American jobs.”

Cannon continued, “This facility demonstrates the efficacy of KiOR’s proprietary catalytic biomass-to-fuel process with the potential to deliver cellulosic gasoline and diesel to the U.S. We are proud to be making history in Mississippi. The technology is simply scalable and we believe sufficient excess feedstock exists in the Southeast alone to build almost fifty KiOR commercial scale facilities.”

Haley Barbour, former Governor of Mississippi, was instrumental in attracting KiOR to Mississippi. He said of the event, “The shipment of this first fuel from KiOR’s Columbus, Mississippi, facility is the culmination of a vision to establish Mississippi as the birthplace of the wood-to-fuels production technology. This progress highlights our highly skilled labor force, abundant natural resources and supportive government climate for innovative companies like KiOR seeking a home to expand their businesses.”