Keep in mind the total financing requires the remainder the DOE original grant amount, part of which was stopped over a year ago. While we think the DOE will reverse that last decision, it hasn't happened yet, and I don't think the Chinese deals will begin until Arnie's appeal to the DOE has actually been approved.
This change of mind can be a big advantage for the DOE's reputation, now that BFRE is otherwise ready to begin multiple plant construction, all of which should eliminate a lot of the negatives suffered by the DOE after financing several renewable energy projects that went bust! I believe the DOE recognizes this too, and that it is in their best interest to reverse their decision to cut the grant amount.
The above argument assumes the BFRE process and management will be successful, which I for one believe will happen, as a Chemical Engineer from the petrochemical industry, who has studied the concentrated acid hydrolysis process for extracting sucrose from cellulosic raw materials. ( ethanol and a number of other products are easily converted from the sucrose using well-establish down-stream processes).
