Frontline BioEnergy Announces New Investment and Management Team

Ames, Iowa – Frontline BioEnergy, a provider of biomass energy solutions to the biofuels and power industries, announces the completion of a Series A equity transaction with founding partner, Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company (CVEC). The undisclosed equity investment increases CVEC’s ownership and governance position in the biomass technology firm and further validates the ethanol cooperative’s confidence in the potential of Frontline’s technology.

In a parallel move, CVEC General Manager, William A. Lee has accepted the post of Frontline CEO. As a co-founder and board member of Frontline BioEnergy, Lee brings to the new role a deep understanding of Frontline’s technology and its applications. “I am tremendously excited to be working directly with the Frontline team to develop the many potentials of this clean, renewable technology.” CEO Lee said.

In another management change, Dr. Thomas J. Paskach has been promoted to Manager of Business Development for Frontline. Paskach will provide leadership to the company’s sales and marketing efforts and will work with CEO Lee and founders, John Reardon and Jerod Smeenk, to shape Frontline’s strategic direction.

Frontline’s gasification technology converts biomass such as wood chips or corn cobs to replace fossil energy inputs used in biofuels production. Using this approach, corn and cellulosic biofuel processors can mitigate the cost volatility of energy inputs while improving their position relative to evolving carbon intensity metrics required by the federal Renewable Fuel Standard legislation (RFS 2) and various Low Carbon Fuel Standard proposals.

For the electric power industry, Frontline’s technology provides a scalable, fuel-flexible and capital effective solution for re-powering existing coal-fired plants. The US power industry is increasingly recognizing biomass power generation as a highly available and effective means of addressing new Renewable Electrical Standard requirements, especially in regions with marginal wind and solar resources.

Frontline and CVEC are collaborating on a commercial gasification system at the CVEC ethanol facility in Benson, Minnesota. The partners have advanced their understanding of system dynamics and feedstock processing through thousands of operating hours on this 75 ton per day unit since its start-up in April 2008. Frontline also operates a pilot gasification facility in Ames, Iowa, where the company is developing advanced gas cleaning technologies.