By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 6 -- Range Fuels Inc. broke ground on what the Broomfield, Colo., company is calling the nation's first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant, which is being constructed in Treutlen County, Ga., near the town of Soperton.
Range Fuels will use wood and wood waste as its feedstock. First phase construction—a 20 million gal/year plant—is scheduled for completion in 2008. Plans call for the plant to produce more than 100 million gal/year in about 2011.
US Sec. of Energy Samuel W. Bodman and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue attended the groundbreaking. Range Fuels was one of six companies selected by the US Department of Energy for financial support in building a commercial cellulosic ethanol plant.
As part of its $76 million technology investment agreement with DOE, Range Fuels will receive $50 million based upon first-phase construction. The other $26 million will be provided for construction in the project's next phase.
Range Fuels uses a two-step, thermo-chemical conversion process to turn wood chips, municipal waste, paper pulp, olive pits, and other waste materials into ethanol.
The company is privately held and funded by Khosla Ventures LLC.
Mitch Mandich, Range Fuels chief executive officer, said the company's process for producing cellulosic ethanol will use 25% of the average amount of water required by corn-based ethanol plants.
Existing grain-based ethanol is produced through fermentation of sugars, distillation, and drying. Corn is low in sugar, but high in carbohydrate cellulose that must be turned into fermentable sugar (OGJ, Aug. 6, 2007, p. 20).
Researchers are working on methods to more efficiently convert cellulose to sugar. Many chemists see biobutanol as a potential game changer for biofuels because of its potential to integrate better than ethanol into the refining and gasoline distribution infrastructure.
