Potential Buyer Eyeing Smurfit-Stone Site

The largest USDA grant of all time (4o million dollars) was recently awarded to a group known as the Northwest Area Renewables Alliance. The Alliance is working on a project that would convert natural forest debris and scrap wood into aviation fuel. This week, the group met in Missoula to discuss locations for a multi-million dollar processing complex. One of the members at that meeting was Professor Peter Kolb, who explains how the technology works and why Missoula might be the perfect place for the plant.

Two Missoula companies, Blue Marble Biomaterials and Rivertop Renewables, are already in the business of converting wood products into market-ready materials. If NARA moves to town, it would make Missoula a center for this type of wood processing technology.