The Department of Environmental Protection this week announced the award of over $3.7 million in Alternative Fuel Incentive Grants to support alternative and clean fuel projects.

The grants went to 22 projects and will leverage more than $16 million in private funds.

The largest grant-- $2 million-- went to Seneca Landfill, Inc., Butler County to construct a facility to produce liquefied natural gas from landfill methane gas and an LNG refueling facility. Seneca will also convert 10 waste-hauling trucks to LNG engines and purchase five new LNG vehicles.

Penn State University was awarded grants for two projects-- $550,556 to continue the demonstration of hydrogen and compressed natural gas blends in the Centre Area Transit Authority buses and Penn State Vans and $119,277 to help University students design and build a vehicle to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition.

Other grants included—

· Renewergy Cooperative Corp. -- $105,925 to produce biodiesel from oil extracted from algae that is also part of the effluent treatment process at the Erie Wastewater Treatment Plant. The grant funds installation of a bioreactor to grow the algae.

· York County Transportation Authority, York, York County -- $381,600 to phase in the use of biodiesel for its entire fleet of 20 buses and 33 vans.

· City of York, York County -- $17,035 to phase in the use of biodiesel in 40 city-owned vehicles over period of 16 months.

· Walt Whitman Truck Stop, Philadelphia -- $137,864 to purchase and install electrified idle-reduction systems so truckers can power heating and cooling units and small appliances without running their engines.

A complete list of funded projects is available online.

Since its inception in 1992, DEP has awarded $28.7 million for 984 projects in 50 counties. AFIG funds have leveraged more than $78 million from public and private fleet operators, fuel providers and the federal government.

For more information, visit the Alternative Fuel Incentive Grants Program webpage.

2/17/2006