Louisiana wood-to-diesel project successfully completes CCS test-well program

Strategic Biofuels LLC announced that its multimillion-dollar carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) test-well program was successfully completed at the company’s Louisiana Green Fuels project in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, near Columbia. Louisiana Green Fuels intends to produce nearly 34 million gallons per year of synthetic diesel fuel from wood.

The goals of the test were to show that carbon dioxide from fuel production can be safely and securely stored deep underground, and that the reservoir has the capacity to store all the carbon dioxide the plant would generate over the lifetime of the processing facility.

According to the company, completing the test is a prerequisite to getting its permit for the EPA Class VI sequestration well.

“Successful completion of the test well is a major milestone that’s not been achieved by any other renewable diesel project,” said Paul Schubert, CEO of Strategic Biofuels. “These results enable us to move forward knowing that combining CCS with conversion of sustainable forestry waste to renewable diesel at our project site will enable us to achieve our deeply negative carbon footprint goal.”

Strategic Biofuels will now move into the design-engineering phase of the project and apply for necessary permits.

The company says it has a 20-year agreement with a feedstock supplier prepared to deliver sized woodchips to the plant. According to Strategic Biofuels, its synthetic diesel will be transported to California by rail for one of the largest truck-stop operators in the country through a 20-year offtake deal.

“It’s easy to get excited about what the success of this sequestration test well means to the economic development for Caldwell Parish and the State of Louisiana, but we still have a lot of work to do entering an aggressive capital raise,” said Bob Meredith, chief operating officer for Strategic Biofuels who designed and executed the test-well program with help from Geostock Sandia.

Strategic Biofuels expects Louisiana Green Fuels to be fully operational by late 2025.