___________________________________________________________________________________ Frontline
BioEnergy
POWERING THE
FUTURE
FUTURE
Frontline BioEnergy shares its innovation investment for leading energy renewal
Frontline BioEnergy ( Frontline ) was founded in 2005 with the aim of building a commercialscale biomass gasification plant in Minnesota . The plant produced boiler fuel from wood chips and corn cobs for an ethanol manufacturer . Since its inception , the business has been building on its technology , focusing on reliability , efficiency , and the ability to integrate with downstream technologies like catalytic synthesis . “ At our founding ,” begins Frontline ’ s CTO , TJ Paskach , “ we only knew how to do airblown gasification that produced a low- Btu fuel gas . Now , we gasify with oxygen and steam , and we do it at a high pressure . We make a synthesis gas that is suitable for upgrading catalytically to products like methane and methanol . Back in 2018 , we began to get into project development , with a goal to be a project owner and operator .”
Energy potential
Since we last spoke with Frontline in 2022 , the operation has been working on a front-end engineering design package for its current project , San Joaquin Renewables ( SJR ), for which TJ also serves as the President . Frontline founded SJR as a special project entity back in 2018 . The facility will be built in the San Joaquin Valley of California to convert agricultural waste biomass into renewable natural gas . “ We initially accepted investment from local growers and processors , as well as other local individuals , and even our own friends and family . Developing a project like this is a heavy lift and requires a significant amount of capital ,” says TJ .
Back then the project was smaller , envisioned as producing only 500 tons a day . “ We raised that initial capital , and did a lot of development contracting for feedstock , site , and offtake , and getting
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