Biomass gasification plant set for Massachusetts
MASSACHUSETTS - GreatPoint Energy announced plans to build a plant to produce natural gas from biomass, coal and petroleum coke in its home state of Massachusetts.
The facility, which is expected to be finished in one year, will be located in Brayton Point at the research and development center of energy utility Dominion.
Massachusetts Gov. Duval Patrick announced the $25 million investment at a recent ceremony, which is benefiting from a state research grant.
GreatPoint has developed a technique for converting different feedstocks into methane, or natural gas, through a catalyst-based gasification process. It says it can create natural gas that costs less than current market prices.
It has attracted the attention of top-flight venture capitalists and other industrial companies. Last month, it announced an additional $100 million investment led by Dow Chemical, Suncor Energy, AES, and Citi division Sustainable Development Investments.
The plant in Massachusetts will use wood chips, corn stover, and switchgrass as a feedstock to make natural gas as well as coal and petroleum coke.
With its other plant projects, GreatPoint intends to place facilities near coal mines to make natural gas and sequester carbon dioxide generated during the gasification process underground.
The company also intends to build a gasification plant in Alberta, Canada, using petroleum coke, which is a byproduct of oil drilling in the tar sands there.
Related News
Why subsidies for electric cars are a bad idea for Canada
TORONTO - Bad ideas sometimes look better, and sell better, than good ones. Not always, or else Canada wouldn’t be the mostly well-run place that it is. But sometimes politicians embrace a less-than-best policy – because its attractive appearance may make it more likely to win the popularity contest, right now, even though it will fail in the long run.
The most seasoned political advisers know it. Pollsters too. Voters, in contrast, don’t know what they don’t know, which is why bad policy often triumphs. At first glance, the wrong sometimes looks like it must be right, while better and…
