Range Fuels, Inc., a Colorado-based start-up funded by Khosla Ventures is breaking ground today on one of the nation’s first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant, located in Treutlen County, Georgia.
Range Fuels is one of six companies selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) for financial support in building a commercial cellulosic ethanol plant, and the first to break ground.
Range Fuels’ plant, near the town of Soperton, will use wood and wood waste from Georgia’s pine forests and mills as its feedstock and will have the capacity to produce over one hundred million gallons of ethanol per year. Construction of the first 20 million-gallon-per-year phase is expected to be completed in 2008.
As part of its $76 million Technology Investment Agreement with the DOE, Range Fuels will receive $50 million for the first 20-million-gallon-per-year phase. The remainder of the grant will be provided for construction of the next phase of the project.
Despite recent downturns in the U.S. ethanol market due, in part, to a supply glut, Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures isn’t worried about the future of the industry. "I believe it’s a short-term thing. There are worldwide markets for this [fuel]," he said in an interview with Forbes.com
Comparing Range Fuel’s cellulosic ethanol to corn ethanol he said, "This is ethanol that has 75% less carbon emissions, 75% less land use and 75% less water use."
Range Fuels selected Georgia for its first plant based upon the state’s robust wood products industry supported by Georgia’s vast forest lands. The state’s resources could allow it to support up to two billion gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol production through the application of Range Fuels’ technology, the company says.
"Range Fuel’s production of cellulosic ethanol from wood materials will make Georgia a national leader in innovative alternative energy production," said Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue. "This project, and others like it, will boost economic development in rural Georgia and reduce our state’s dependence on foreign oil."
"The state of Georgia has provided us with an excellent opportunity to locate our first plant using its abundant, renewable forest resources as feedstock. Our technology transforms the wood and wood waste from Georgia’s millions of acres of woodlands into ethanol, a key source of transportation fuel," said Mitch Mandich, CEO of Range Fuels. "Range Fuels’ focus on green, renewable energy will ultimately reduce greenhouse gases, promote energy independence, and create new biomass jobs."
Range Fuels’ technology uses the same feedstock to make ethanol as it does to operate its plant, minimizing its reliance on fossil fuels and the consequent production of greenhouse gases. Through Range Fuels’ process for producing cellulosic ethanol, the Soperton Plant will use a quarter of the average water required by corn-based ethanol plants, the company says.
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