WALNUT, Calif., Oct. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- VIASPACE Inc.
(OTCQB: VSPC) today announced that its business partner, Maricopa
Bio Crops, LLC of Scottsdale,
Arizona, has planted Giant King Grass in Arizona. VIASPACE harvested the Giant King
Grass from its propagation nursery in California, and it was planted in southern
Arizona on October 1, 2013. This is the first step in the
planned initial 4,500 acre Giant King Grass plantation to produce
Giant King Grass hay for cattle feed in Arizona. Two additional 4,500 acre phases are
also planned. Maricopa Bio Crops will grow and market the
Giant King Grass under VIASPACE direction, and both companies will
share the profits.
Mr. Patrick Sweeney, Founder and
CEO of Maricopa Bio Crops and Syn Tawa Energy, LLC stated, "We are
moving very quickly on this project. I was at the VIASPACE nursery
for the harvest and VIASPACE CEO, Dr. Carl
Kukkonen, oversaw the planting in Arizona. We used mechanical planting to
improve efficiency and reduce planting costs. Our land is irrigated
from the Colorado River. We will initially use the Giant King
Grass as animal feed and later as an energy crop for our
biorefinery project. Our measured crude protein content of 15.63%
shows that Giant King Grass is very nutritious, and our
digestibility study showed great results. Giant King Grass hay and silage can provide a reliable
and consistent source of quality forage feed for our customers at
an attractive price. Arizona has
900,000 cattle and 130,000 dairy cows and this represents a very
large market for us. We plan to be feeding cattle in 2014."
"It is a pleasure to be working with Maricopa Bio Crops," states
CEO, Dr. Carl Kukkonen. "They are
very professional and their plan is very aggressive. We will
fully support the project. I personally supervised the harvesting
and preparation of the propagating material from our nursery in
California, and I went to
Arizona for the planting. The
Maricopa Bio Crops project is our first animal feed plantation and
we expect more to follow. There is a large domestic market for
animal feed and also an export market to countries like Korea,
Japan, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Animal feed projects can move
forward very quickly and require less capital investment compared
to energy projects. We will be pursuing both types of projects in
parallel, and many energy projects will also produce animal
feed."
VIASPACE Board Chairman, Dr. Kevin
Schewe, commented, "Our Arizona animal feed partnership
contract with Maricopa Bio Crops was signed on September 13, 2013. We announced the details of
our new partnership in a press release dated September 24, 2013. Today we are have announced
that the VIASPACE Giant King Grass seedlings from our California nursery were planted in
Arizona on October 1, 2013 under the joint supervision of
VIASPACE and Maricopa Bio Crops, LLC. This first VIASPACE animal
feed plantation partnership illustrates how nimble and quickly we
can actually move to develop animal feed projects and our new
animal feed business line. The current demand for animal feed
represents a sales equivalent of U.S. $300
billion worldwide and is expected to double by 2050. We are
now busy working with new clients to address that huge demand while
simultaneously pursuing projects that use Giant King Grass as the
world's highest-yielding, continually renewable, carbon-neutral,
dedicated bioenergy platform crop for: bioelectricity, biomass
pellets to co-fire with coal, biomass to liquid biofuels,
biochemicals and bioplastics. We are diligently executing our
business plan and rapidly expanding our footprint both here in the
U.S. and abroad. There has never been a more exciting time for
VIASPACE and its shareholders."
Pictures of the Giant King Grass in California and the planting in Arizona are available on the VIASPACE Facebook
page www.facebook.com/viaspaceinc.
About Syn Tawa Energy, LLC and Maricopa Bio Crops,
LLC
Syn Tawa Energy, LLC develops second generation
Renewable Energy Refinery plants that combine a new, patented
state-of-the-art, commercial scale, low emission cellulosic biomass
gasifier with a highly efficient patented gas-to-diesel conversion
system that generates premium sulfur free ASTM D-975 diesel fuel at
a cost that is below first generation biodiesel and petroleum based
diesel fuels. For more information go to
www.syntawaenergy.com or contact Patrick
Sweeney at 949-887-6111.
Maricopa Bio Crops, LLC grows renewable bio crops for animal
feed and as a feedstock for biomass to liquid fuels production.
About VIASPACE Inc.
VIASPACE grows renewable Giant
King™ Grass as a low-carbon fuel for clean electricity
generation; for environmentally friendly energy pellets; and as a
feedstock for bio-methane production and for green cellulosic
biofuels, biochemicals and biomaterials. Giant King Grass is a proprietary, high yield,
dedicated biomass clean energy crop. Giant King Grass when it is cut frequently at 4 to 5
feet tall is also excellent animal feed. For more information,
please go to www.VIASPACE.com or contact Dr. Jan Vandersande, Director of Communications, at
800-517-8050 or IR@VIASPACE.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Information in
this news release includes forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements relate to future events or future
performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and
other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of
activity, performance or achievements to be materially different
from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking
statements. Such factors include, without limitation, risks
outlined in our periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission, including Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2012, and
other factors over which VIASPACE has little or no
control.
SOURCE VIASPACE Inc.