[Terrapreta] range fuels

[Kelpie Wilson]

Have folks seen this one?
Anyone know what this "thermal conversion process" is?

Range Says Will Make Wood Cellulosic Fuel in 2008
US: November 8, 2007

NEW YORK - Private US company Range Fuels broke ground on Tuesday on 
a biorefinery that will be the first plant to make commercial levels 
of cellulosic ethanol starting next year, its CEO said.

Range Fuels is one of six companies that will receive a total of 
about US$385 million in grants from the US Department of Energy for 
making cellulosic fuel.
The biorefinery is being built in Georgia, home to large swaths of 
private forest land. It will initially make 20 million gallons per 
year of ethanol from sawdust, pine trees and wood bits left over from 
cutting down lumber. It is slated to eventually grow to 100 million 
gpy of production.

Mitch Manditch, the CEO of Range Fuels, said ideally the plant would 
use mostly wood waste as a feedstock.

"That's our preference, just to keep costs down, because no one else 
wants that wood," he said in a telephone interview.

Making cellulosic ethanol currently costs about twice as much as US 
traditional ethanol made mostly from corn. But industry experts 
estimate that costs will fall enough to let cellulosic become a 
commercial fuel in several years, one that will emit less greenhouse 
gases and won't use up prime farm land like corn-based ethanol does.


ETHANOL GLUT

US ethanol refining capacity has shot up 30 percent since Jan 1. to 7 
billion gpy as the Bush administration offers companies incentives to 
make a domestic source of fuel. Record oil prices near US$100 a 
barrel and concerns about greenhouse gases have also fueled a rise to 
cellulosic ethanol.

But the boom has helped lead to low ethanol prices and high corn 
prices that have crushed margins for making the fuel. Since wood 
waste is far cheaper as a feedstock, Range hopes the plant would 
eventually be more profitable than corn biorefineries.

Cellulosic ethanol is made from breaking down the woody bits of 
plants. A whole new range of crops that grow on marginal lands, such 
as switchgrass, can be used.

When the final Range plant is completed, it will cost several hundred 
million dollars, Manditch said. The plant will receive up to US$76 
million from the DOE.

Range is funded in part by venture capitalists including Vinod 
Khosla, a top Silicon Valley investor who is also helping to fund US 
biofuels company Cilion and other alternative energy companies.

Manditch said Range will use a thermal conversion process to make the 
fuel, unlike most other companies that are planning to make it with 
enzymes to break down the tough feedstocks. He said Range Fuel 
ethanol will emit about 75 to 80 percent less greenhouse gas than 
ethanol made from corn. Part of the emissions are saved because the 
plant will not ferment the feedstock, a process used in corn ethanol, he said.

The thermal process can also break down other feedstocks, such as 
switchgrass, Manditch said.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Editing by Marguerita Choy)



Story by Timothy Gardner



Kelpie Wilson
PO Box 1444
Cave Junction, OR 97523

home office phone: 541-592-3083
cell (used only when traveling) 213-925-1517

For an archive of my writing and reviews of my novel Primal Tears, 
visit www.kelpiewilson.com

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