The Western Colorado Carbon Neutral Bioenergy Consortium (WCCNBC)
ACRE Grant to Support First Stage of Agronomic Research
In December 2009, Flux Farm Foundation received $50,000 from the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Advancing Colorado’s Renewable Energy (ACRE) program to conduct the groups first study - “Evaluation of Perennial Plant Species and Production Inputs for Sustainable Biomass and Bioenergy Production in Western Colorado”. Along with an additional $25,000 in contributions, this phase of research will focus on the capacity of the region to grow low-input, hi-biomass, cellulosic perennial bioenergy crops, and will occur at three locations (Carbondale, Rifle, and Fruita, Colorado) beginning April 2010. Biomass crops will be converted to ethanol and butanol at Colorado Mountain College's West Garfield Campus in Rifle, representing one of the state’s first bioenergy processing facilities housed at a community college.
