General Biofuels Inc. , and its subsidiary VIASPACE Green Energy Inc. announced that VIASPACE and General Biofuels have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that is expected to become an exclusive agreement to develop a large Giant King Grass Plantation and a 250,000 to 400,000 tonne per year biomass pellet plant in the Dominican Republic.
VIASPACE and General Biofuels have been in discussions for nine months. VIASPACE and General Biofuels have discussed the project with large potential customers in Europe during meetings in February. One potential customer has already tested Giant King Grass.
General Biofuels, headquartered in the Bay Area of California, will act as the lead developer and operator; procure land, obtain debt and equity financing, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, and credit enhancements. VIASPACE will provide source material, and nursery and plantation development for the Giant King Grass.
General Biofuels Chairman Ruby Sahiwal stated, "We believe that our joint venture with VIASPACE will lead to the lowest cost energy pellets in the industry. With the high yield of Giant King Grass, we can deliver sustainably grown energy pellets at the same or lower price than current wood waste pellets. We are beginning our partnership with VIASPACE in the Dominican Republic, but looking to expand in other areas of the globe."
The current market price for wood pellets is $170 per ton delivered to Rotterdam, Netherlands.
The Times of India of February 18, 2011 reported in an interview with General Biofuels Chief Agriculture Officer Mr. Amrik Singh Gill — "Indians are now looking for investment opportunities in the cultivation of Giant King Grass (GKG), a non-food dedicated energy crop that can be grown on marginal lands which are not used for growing food crops. Crops like maize, sugarcane etc. were used for producing green energy, but due to worldwide protests against a possible food scarcity following use of food crops for producing energy, people were now looking for investment opportunities in growing Giant King Grass especially in the countries with highly tropical conditions . . . He informed that GKG was viewed as the fastest growing crop which provided large volume of biomass. 'One hectare of land produces 350 tons of green biomass which is an important source of renewable energy' . . . Amrik Singh said that his company's pilot project was also on and they would start producing green energy in next two years time."
VIASPACE CEO Dr. Carl Kukkonen will visit India in April to meet potential customers, and will present Giant King Grass test results at the World Renewable Energy Technology Congress to be held April 21-23, 2011 in New Delhi.
Giant King Grass has been shown to be a high-energy, low carbon fuel for electricity generating power plants, and an excellent feedstock for production of clean biomethane and liquid biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol, butanol and green gasoline.
About General Biofuels
General Biofuels, S.A. is an international project developer of biofuels production facilities. The company is currently active in Canada, Southeastern U.S., Liberia, Colombia and the Dominican Republic on a broad range of projects involving Giant King Grass, wood fiber, and a range of other fuel sources. www.generalbiofuels.com. General Biofuels' mission is to create the fuels to reduce greenhouse gases globally. General Biofuels uses non-food sources, from non-food-producing, sustainably managed lands to produce biofuels. These fuels will supply a full range of demand, including electric power generation (wood pellets and biomass), heat generation (wood and biomass pellets), and transportation (biodiesel).
About VIASPACE
VIASPACE is a clean energy company providing products and technology for renewable and alternative energy that reduce or eliminate dependence on fossil and high-pollutant energy sources. Through its majority-owned subsidiary VIASPACE Green Energy Inc., the Company grows Giant King Grass as a low-carbon fuel for electricity generating power plants, as a feedstock for bio methane production and cellulosic biofuels, and for other low-carbon, renewable energy products. For more information, please go to www.viaspace.com or www.viaspacegreenenergy.com, or contact Dr. Jan Vandersande, Director of Communications, at 800-517-8050 or IR@VIASPACE.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Information in this news release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Such factors include, without limitation, risks outlined in our periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, as well as general economic and business conditions; the ability to acquire and develop specific products and technologies; changes in consumer and business demand for the Company's products; competition from larger companies; changes in demand for alternative and clean energy; risks associated with international transactions; risks related to technological change; and other factors over which VIASPACE has little or no control.
