Construction starts on Primus Green Energy’s demo plant

New Jersey-based alternative fuel producer Primus Green Energy has started building its new $7 million (€5.6 million) demonstration plant.

It is slated for completion in late 2012 and is designed to produce 33 litres of petrol per hour. The facility will serve as the proving ground for the company’s first commercial plant, which it hopes to break ground on next year.

Primus is making a drop-in replacement for petrol, as opposed to alternative fuels that require costly engine modifications or fuel delivery infrastructure overhauls.

Although the plant will initially use natural gas as a feedstock, it will later be adapted to use biomass in the form of wood pellets or energy crops. The end products will include a high quality petrol that is virtually identical to fuel produced from petroleum, and jet fuel.

Primus Green Energy has been funded since its inception by a single investor, IC Green Energy, which is the alternative energy investment arm of Israel Corp., Israel’s largest publicly traded corporation. The commitment of IC Green Energy, which was lauded by the speakers in their remarks, has allowed the company to progress steadily from concept to the brink of commercialisation.