USDA provides loan guarantee to Fulcrum BioEnergy

Fulcrum BioEnergy announced that it has received a conditional commitment for a $105m loan guarantee from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for its Sierra BioFuels Plant to be constructed in the US.

The USDA loan guarantee will help the company secure bank financing for the Sierra Biofuels Plant, ethanol producing facility, which will be built 20 miles east of Reno, in Storey County, Nevada.

Fulcrum president and chief executive officer E James Macias said the USDA loan guarantee provides a key piece of financing to move our Sierra BioFuels project forward.

"It allows us to secure private bank financing at reasonable prices and with favorable terms," Macias added.

"This is a real example of how USDA’s Rural Development Program helps bring new and innovative technologies and jobs to some of the areas hardest hit by the economic downturn."

The Sierra Biofuels Plant will process municipal solid waste like household garbage at the facility to produce about 10m gallons of ethanol every year, which will serve as an alternative fuel to oil, and gasoline.

The facility will also produce renewable energy that can be used to process the feedstock.

The company has already secured long-term contracts for the MSW feedstock and off-take contract for ethanol and is progressing on the final stages of the project’s engineering work.

Fulcrum will procure and start constructing the project once the loan guarantee is finalised and the required finance is secured.

US based Fulcrum BioEnergy is a developer of next-generation ethanol.