LONGMONT - Biofuel company Sundrop Fuels Inc. has purchased 1,213 acres of land in Louisiana where it plans to build a $500 million biofuel refinery, the company said Friday.

Financial terms of the deal with seller Ballina Farms Inc. were not disclosed.

Longmont-based Sundrop Fuels is expected to make an announcement about ground-breaking plans for the production and demonstration plant in the next several weeks.

Sundrop Fuels Louisiana LLC, the operating entity for Sundrop Fuels Inc., bought land next to Interstate 49 northwest of Alexandria in Boyce, Louisiana, according to a company press statement.

Workers at the plant will make "green gasoline" for consumer use and could employ 150 people, Sundrop Fuels said previously. This first plant will be followed by "the second, mass-scale biofuels production plant centered on that technology in 2017," spokesman Steven Silvers said in an email response to questions.

Sundrop raised $56.3 million in third quarter 2012 to build and run a biofuel plant, according to a report compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. Funding came from Oak Investment Partners and an undisclosed investment firm, according to the report. Oak has offices in Connecticut, Minnesota and California.

Sundrop also is backed by strategic partner, Chesapeake Energy Corp. and by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, which has offices in California and China.

In July 2011, Chesapeake NG Ventures Corp. took a 50 percent equity stake in Sundrop after investing $155 million. Chesapeake is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK), which is based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and is the nation's second-largest natural gas producer.

Sundrop built but has since dismantled a research and development facility in Broomfield, a location that included mirrors, solar panels and a reactor to create synthesis gas.