The projects under development by Maine BioProducts will use (primarily) forest biomass to produce levulinic acid for use in levulinate fuels. Formic acid and furfural products will be sold as commodity chemicals (under offtake contracts), and the carbonaceous char will be burned on site to generate steam and power for the core process.

   Construction of this first high volume biorefinery will require a bulk output contract for levulinic acid for use in transportation fuels.  These early projects must be built for the only primary market with pent-up demand and for which a contract is currently under negotiation.  Leveraging the advantages of the levulinic acid platform will require a gradual process of market acceptance.  Levulinate biofuels, however, are easily and directly substituted for existing products.

   First-of-a-kind facilities represent a unique financing challenge.  We have focused our development strategy on minimizing both capital cost and technical risk.