Yosemite Seeks New Colorado Feedstock Study

Officials with Yosemite Clean Energy recently announced a $300,000 grant from the USDA Forest Service Wood Innovation Fund that will support a feedstock analysis and a pre-engineering study to develop a wood waste biomass-to-biofuel gasification plant in the San Luis Valley, Colorado.

The project will explore the most viable market in Colorado to produce carbon-negative hydrogen or alternative biofuels such as sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), methanol or renewable natural gas (RNG).

Yosemite is developing the biofuels project in collaboration with federal USFS managers, SEED (Sustainable Environmental Economic Development) Park International, and private lumber and timberland owners through a local business partnership model and working with local businesses and landowners. Yosemite uses proven Austrian-based gasification technology.

The Colorado plant will use up to 100,000 bone-dry tons of wood biomass within the San Juan, Rio Grande, and Gunnison National Forests region. It will support local and federal forest land managers in reducing the threat of catastrophic wildfires, which have threatened many Colorado communities.

The Colorado San Luis Valley site is the latest addition to Yosemite’s rapidly expanding list of projects, which includes several biomass-to-hydrogen facilities in California and the expansion and development of projects to co-produce RNG, hydrogen, SAF or other e-fuels. Yosemite’s bottom-up approach and community-led philosophy aim to span a portfolio of locally owned projects across the U.S.