SynSel Energy to develop biofuels plant in Alton, Illinois

May 13, 2019

SynSel Energy, Inc. of Elk Grove Village, IL announced plans to develop a biorefinery in Alton, Illinois on the former site of the Laclede Steel and Smurfit Stone containerboard and pulp operations. SynSel will repurpose the same renewable wood feedstock formerly used by the Smurfit Stone operations to produce 90,000 gallons per day of environmentally responsible advanced “tank ready” synthetic biofuels. The site is owned by SynSel Co-Developer, Green Investment Group: http://www.greeninvgroup.com/projects/project-alton-illinois.html

SynSel CEO Tim Tawoda stated, “The Alton site offers ready access to available wood feedstock, and it has all the industrial and transportation infrastructure necessary for a SynSel plant. Wood feedstock will be shipped by river barge to minimize obtrusive truck traffic in the community. The SynSel plant will bring needed employment to the area across many sectors of the community.”

Regarding the environmental benefits of SynSel fuel, Tawoda explained, “While electric vehicles represent a 56% reduction in life-cycle greenhouse gas reductions compared to conventional vehicles, SynSel fuels represent life-cycle greenhouse gas reductions of over 90% using the same comparison.”