Called as Columbus II, the project will commence construction within 90 days of the company raising sufficient equity and debt capital for the project, and commissioned in 18 months.

Pending negotiation and execution of final documentation, Khosla Ventures and Vinod Khosla are likely to commit $50m for the Columbus II project, which will allow each Columbus facility to achieve greater yields, production capacity and feedstock flexibility.

Khosla Ventures and Vinod Khosla plan to invest the funds either as part of a broader debt and/or equity financing structure, in connection with a note that would convert at a premium to the current price of the company’s common stock, or on alternative terms on the company’s request.

KiOR president and CEO Fred Cannon said that the new facility marks an important step in the execution of the long-term business plan, including 92 gallons per bone dry ton of biomass.

"First, we believe that this project will enable us to achieve cash flow profitability in 2015 at a lower capital cost with decreased execution and start-up risk.

"Second, we expect that construction timing and cost are more certain for the Columbus II project, as it is essentially a duplicate of our existing Columbus facility that can be leveraged to reduce construction risk.

"Third, through the Columbus II project we plan to achieve significant operational and technological synergies between the two Columbus facilities, as we expect to incorporate our most recent technology developments into both the new Columbus II facility and retroactively to the existing Columbus facility, thereby improving facility economics for both Columbus I and II.

"Fourth, we expect a shorter startup period for the Columbus II facility as a result of sharing personnel, infrastructure and operational knowledge with the existing Columbus I facility. This expansion of Columbus has been partially enabled by significant improvements to our technology that we expect will facilitate our use of a wider range of less expensive feedstocks such as railroad ties," added Cannon.