Vermeer named in Department of energy grant award

August 14, 2013, Pella, Iowa – Vermeer Corporation is
announcing its involvement in a nearly $6 million grant award by the U.S.
Department of Energy. The Department is
making the investment to reduce costs associated with harvesting, handling and
pre-processing biomass feedstocks.

"This commitment gives Vermeer the opportunity to pull
product development forward,” said Jay Van Roekel, Strategic Business Unit
Manager at Vermeer. “It gives focus to a developing product line, which will
get the right solutions to a new market much faster,” he said.

The investment will focus on getting high impact, high
quality feedstocks– such as corn stover and switchgrass– from field to
biorefinery more efficiently and effectively. In total, it will build efforts to create more advanced harvesting and
collection equipment in the field, and improved biomass handling and processing
equipment for biorefineries.

The 16-member team named in the project represents industry,
national laboratories, OEMs and consulting companies who have established
international reputations in the field of bioenergy and biomass
production. Participants named along
with Vermeer include Poet, ADM, Clariant USA, Monsanto, Pellet Technology USA, FDC
Enterprises (project lead), Antares Group, Idaho National Lab, Virginia Tech,
MacDon, Kelderman Manufacturing, Feedstox, Analytical Spectral Devices and B.
Hames Consulting.  A broader group of
collaborators will also participate in the project’s activities.

By the completion of the three-year project timeframe, the
team’s overarching goal is to develop a blue print for achieving the Department
of Energy’s vision for second generation biomass supply systems while also
opening additional opportunities in other biomass markets.