The FINANCIAL — Funding was awarded for the construction of a new facility at Kodak’s Eastman Business Park (EBP) to convert sugars made from renewable feedstocks into biochemicals, bioplastics and biofuels. New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the State will provide a $2 million Economic Development Award – a supplement to the $3 million previously committed – to support construction of this new 60,000-square foot facility at the Park, according to Eastman Business Park.
The State also announced Economic Development Awards to three tenants of Eastman Business Park:
Fairport-based LiDestri Foods will receive a grant of $468,300 for a high-pressure processing system which will be installed in the 625,000 square foot manufacturing facility the food processing company owns and operates at the Park. David Stoklosa, Vice President of Business Development for LiDestri, said the technology offers regional food retailers a proven method of preserving the high quality of fresh foods while eliminating any potentially harmful pathogens present in the food.
American Fuel Cell, a company created last year by three former General Motors Corp. executives and based at EBP, will receive $500,000 to further develop membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), a key component in the manufacture of hydrogen fuel cells.
Albany-based MICROrganic Technologies, Inc. will receive $100,000 to commercialize both its Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology — and advance the development of OEM production equipment to convert from chemical to electrical energy the organic waste processed at wastewater treatment facilities.
The EBP Bioscience Manufacturing Center will consist of fermentation tanks, sterilization tanks, pumps, separation equipment, seed tanks, product storage and air compressors, allowing for upstream sugar suppliers to convert their non-food plant materials into high value products such as biochemical and biodegradable plastics, according to Eastman Business Park.
“The Park is a perfect place to site the new Center. All the physical infrastructure, technology backbone and skilled workforce needed for the project can be found here – including access to three bio-refineries, specialty chemicals capabilities and thin film manufacturing along with a full suite of pilot and analytical tools – as well as wastewater treatment facilities, water and rail access,” Michael Alt, Director of EBP, said.
According to Alt, development of biomaterials and biofuels is a key technology focus area at EBP. Several initiatives involving two other clean technology sectors – battery/energy storage and functional films – are moving ahead as well due to the Park’s unique infrastructure and assets. They include the projects by American Fuel Cell and MICROrganic Technologies who were also named recipients of the Economic Development Awards.
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