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Oregon is becoming an attractive location for biomass plants thanks to a recent extension of tax credits.

Oregon extended its biomass tax credit until 2018, which has made planning for commercial facilities easier.

鈥淚t gives our industry and partners the confidence we need that Oregon will support biomass and biochemical production,鈥� said Carrie Atiyeh, public affairs director for ZeaChem Inc., which is building a biorefinery in Boardman. 鈥淚t’s much more effective than having credits that are only extended by one or two years.鈥�

Construction is 70 percent complete on ZeaChem’s demonstration-scale plant in Boardman. The plant will produce biofuel and biobased chemicals aimed to replace petroleum-based products. Tree farm firm Greenwood Resources is under a long-term contract to provide poplar trees that will be the main feedstock.

The plant is being built in an existing industrial facility at the Port of Morrow, and 75 construction workers are on the job. ZeaChem has an engineering, procurement, and overseeing contract with Kansas City-based Burns & McDonnel. Subcontractors on the project are coming from eastern Oregon, as well as the Tri-Cities area in Washington and a few firms from Portland, Atiyeh said.

ZeaChem is planning a commercial facility across the street from the demo plant that will come online in about three years. The demo plant will have a 250,000-gallon-per-year capacity; the commercial plant will produce up to 25 million gallons per year 鈥� scaling up production by 100 times.

The larger plant will bring 275 construction jobs and 65 full-time operations jobs to the Boardman area. ZeaChem has not yet announced any contracts for that project, although Atiyeh said it recently signed contracts that will account for 100 percent of the commercial feedstock.

ZeaChem has completed second-round financing that has raised $40 million, including investments from Valero, one of the largest petroleum refiners in the U.S. The demo facility is supported by a $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.聽 ZeaChem is also pre-certified to collect a . Despite the program’s recent scale back, Atiyeh said ZeaChem will almost certainly receive that money as well.

Two electricity-generating biomass facilities are also under consideration. In Klamath Falls, a plant that will produce up to 35 megawatts of electrical power is proposed. Its application for site certification is open for public comment until Aug. 15. Downtown Vancouver, Wash., might also host a biomass facility. Schneider Electric is currently researching the market for the proposed plant’s green electricity and looking into zoning options in Clark County.