Colusa Biomass looks to rice crop waste as fuel

Rice, not corn, is the crop from which to derive ethanol, says Colusa Biomass Inc, which relocated headquarters to Reno early this year.

The opportunity in rice that corn lacks, says Jim Holmes, chief financial officer, is that there's presently no market for the waste straw and hulls and farmers need to get rid of it.

"We make a commercial market for the straw," he says.

The company, which employs five at its office on Airmotive Way, expects to build a biorefinery in Arkansas next year, employing up to 50. That plant is estimated to cost upwards of $85 million, depending on the price of steel, says Holmes. And possibly in 2009, Colusa plans build a second rice waste refinery in northern California, a rice-growing region.

Colusa Biomass Inc. was formed when Colusa Biomass Energy Corp. founded in 2002, sold its assets to Pan Gen Global PLC, incorporated in the United Kingdom, becoming an independent subsidiary. The move provided $4 million in funding with a possible $40 million in future, says Tom Bowers, chief executive officer.

With the funding, Colusa will conduct testing by an independent engineering firm to validate the biomass technology for the conversion of waste rice straw and rice hulls into ethanol.