USDA - Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program
Administered by US Department of Agriculture
This program provides loan guarantees for developing or retrofitting commercial-scale biorefineries that produce advanced biofuels and biobased products from eligible feedstocks like waste materials, crop residues, or renewable biomass. You must contribute at least 20% of project financing yourself and submit an independent feasibility study and technical assessment with your application, which the USDA accepts year-round with financial decisions made twice annually.
You can help clients develop biorefinery projects by identifying opportunities to use eligible feedstocks (cellulosic fuels, sugar/starch-based biofuels, waste-derived fuels, or biogas) and ensuring projects meet the requirement that the majority of production be advanced biofuels. Eligible project costs cover equipment, construction, retrofitting, permits, working capital, and land acquisition, and your client must secure at least 20% of financing independently.
USDA Rural Development guarantees loans for commercial-scale biorefinery development and retrofitting across diverse borrower types—individuals, tribes, governments, cooperatives, institutions, and consortia. The program requires borrowers to finance at least 20% of eligible project costs and submit independent feasibility and technical assessments; applications are accepted continuously with funding decisions made twice yearly, covering equipment, construction, permitting, and working capital for projects producing advanced biofuels from cellulosic, sugar, waste, or renewable biomass feedstocks.
Program details
- Program ID
- 5313
- Last updated
- 5/16/2025
Eligibility
- Sectors
- commercial construction industrial investor-owned utility local government municipal utilities cooperative utilities state government federal government tribal government agricultural institutional
- Technologies
- biomass municipal solid waste landfill gas
Program summary
Note: Applications are accepted year round. Financial investment decisions are made twice a year. See program website to learn more about the current status.
USDA Rural Development is offering loan guarantees for the development, construction, and retrofitting of commercial-scale biorefineries. Eligible borrowers include individuals, entities, Indian tribes, state or local governments, corporations, farm cooperatives or farm cooperative organizations, associations of agricultural producers, National Laboratories, institutions of higher education, rural electric cooperatives, public power entities, and consortium of any of these types of entities. Financed entities must provide at least 20% of the financing for eligible project costs, and applications for funding must include an independent feasibility study and technical assessment. Eligible project costs include the purchase and installation of equipment, construction or retrofitting costs, permit and licensing fees, working capital, land acquisition, and the costs of financing.
The project must meet the following requirements:
- Must be for the development and construction or the retrofitting of a commercial-scale biorefinery using an eligible technology
- Must use an eligible feedstock for the production of advanced biofuels and biobased products
- The majority of the production must be an advanced biofuels
Eligible advanced biofuels include:
- Biofuel derived from cellulose, hemicellulose, or lignin, or other fuels derived from cellulose
- Biofuel derived from sugar, starch, excluding ethanol derived from from corn kernel starch
- Biofuel derived from waste material, including crop residue, vegetative waste material, animal waste, food waste, and yard waste
- Diesel fuel derived from renewable biomass, including vegetable oil and animal fat
- Biogas, including landfill gas and sewage waste treatment gas, produced through the conversion of organic matter from renewable biomass
In 2014, "renewable chemicals" and "biofuels" were added to this program under the name of Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program to provide guaranteed loans for the development and construction of commercial-scale biorefineries or for the retrofitting of existing facilities using eligible technology for the development of advanced biofuels.
Contact & resources
- Contact email
- james.campbell3@usda.gov
- Additional resources
Please verify current program details with the administering agency before making any financial decisions.
