Utilities wants state biofuel’s grant for plasma project

Failing to capture $2.5 million in state money during the 2008 legislative session has stopped the promoter of a plasma gasification energy test project from seeking Minnesota money for it.

Minneapolis-based Phoenix Solutions has proposed working with Hutchinson Utilities Commission to use a plasma reactor burning various biofuels to create a synthetic gas to generate electricity.

Utilities plans to apply for a grant for between $250,000 to $500,000 from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development to help get the project off the ground. The board of the city-owned power company approved putting together a grant application when it met two weeks ago.

Phoenix Solutions, which has a test facility in Hutchinson, just a few hundred yards northeast of Utilities’ industrial park plant and headquarters, approached the commission in December. The idea was to put together a $5 million demonstration project that would burn biofuels such as corn stover.

Read more about the idea in the Leader’s June 19 print edition.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)