Biobased Maine’s Charlotte Mace, Steve Schley (Biobased Maine Director and Maine Forest Economy Growth Initiative Board Chair), and Ashley Pringle of Maine and Co. planting a tree at API’s Integrated Biorefinery in Thomaston, GA.

As you may have read recently in Biofuels Digest, Maine is becoming a hot spot for biobased manufacturing – we have an abundance of second generation feedstock, industrial infrastructure, and other assets ready to be re-purposed for making high-value, sustainable products from renewable resources. Biobased Maine is at the forefront of this, seeking out the most viable and commercially-relevant biobased technologies for Maine. Last week, a team from Maine travelled to Georgia to tour American Process Inc.’s (API) integrated biorefinery in Thomaston, Georgia.

With the tagline “Sugar is the new Crude,” API is a global leader in the development of technologies for the commercial production of sugar and ethanol from non-food based biomass such as woodchips. A few years ago, API helped launch the successful production of cellulosic sugars at the former Old Town Fuel & Fiber facility. Now, API has expanded its impressive array of proprietary technologies to make cellulosic ethanol and high-value biobased chemicals. Biobased Maine hopes to help bring API’s technology to Maine, where we have wood chips, idle industrial equipment to re-purpose, and community support for the manufacture of high-value sustainable materials.

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