There isn't much else that has garnered attention in Crawford County quite like Ernst Biomass and the startup's effort to process and manufacture switchgrass into biofuel at a new plant. The Meadville company earned a nearly $900,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority in 2009 to build a 12,000 square foot pelletization mill that will process 30,000 tons of biomass a year, generated from 3,500 acres of switchgrass (mostly in Crawford County). It also received $125,000 in early 2010 from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern PA to help with planning, development and operation of the biomass densification facility.

The company was formed in 2008 as an offshoot of Ernst Conservation Seeds, a more than 40 year-old company that is one of the largest switchgrass seed producers in the country. With interest in using switchgrass and other warm season grasses as a feedstock for alternative fuels growing, so did the demand for switchgrass pellets. Enter Ernst Biomass.

The company's new facility is set to begin processing and production by the fall of 2010, positioning the company as a source for switchgrass pellets in volumes not previously available for the incrasing number of appliances that utilize switchgrass pellet fuel. Meanwhile, the company continues to partner with academic researchers to identify seed strain cultivars with high biomass potential.