Strategic Biofuels receives air-permit approval to advance its Louisiana Green Fuels project

Image: Strategic Biofuels

Strategic Biofuels announced Sept. 21 that its Louisiana Green Fuels project has been issued an air permit from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

After a comprehensive technical review and public comment period, DEQ determined that the project, located in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, will not have an adverse impact on local air resources, signaling another milestone to advance the low-carbon liquid-fuel plant.

The facility will be classified as a “synthetic minor” and will be subject to all applicable state and federal regulations, including the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

“Securing the air permit for the integrated facility is a significant development for our project,” said Paul Oesterreich, Strategic Biofuels’ senior vice president of project development. “The permit application for our facility is the first of its kind in Louisiana to be reviewed by the DEQ. We greatly appreciate the design innovation brought by Hatch to drive down the emissions from the integrated facility and the diligence from Eagle Environmental Services our environmental consultant, in shepherding the application through the regulatory-review process.”

The LGF project integrates three key elements that, through engineering innovation led by Hatch, has the ability to reduce the total emissions by 70 percent below the allowable limit if each of the facilities were operated independently.

The three project components include a biorefinery converting forestry waste to renewable fuel; a biomass power plant for the entire facility; and a carbon-sequestration complex to permanently store the carbon dioxide captured from both.

“We are glad to be partners in advancing the LGF project to completion,” said Kerry McKenna, a director at Hatch. “When Strategic Biofuels entrusted us with tackling the challenge of cost-effectively minimizing the LGF project’s potential emissions, we knew we would be creating positive change together. Hatch’s involvement from the project’s inception enhanced our ability to achieve this goal and to bring a holistic approach to synergize the technologies across the integrated Strategic Biofuels complex.”

Barrett Kyle from Eagle Environmental Services added, “This is a first-of-its-kind air permit in Louisiana. The DEQ review process for this air permit was comprehensive and rigorous. We are proud to have had the opportunity to work with Strategic Biofuels and DEQ on clearing an essential regulatory hurdle. We look forward to working together as they continue to advance the project to full commercial operation.”

Securing the air permit builds on the significant recent advancement of the LGF project’s U.S. EPA Class VI well-permit application, which the EPA has deemed as “administratively complete” and includes the extensive data collected from the LGF Class V Stratigraphic Test Well, the thorough subsurface mapping of the region, and state-of-the-art reservoir, geomechanical, and plume-expansion modeling.

This is further enhanced by Strategic Biofuels’ announcement that it has entered into an agreement with SLB, a global technology company, to provide carbon-sequestration services for LGF.