Georgia’s First Wood-to-Ethanol Plant Opens
by Dave Williams (Atlanta Business Chronicle) The nation’s first commercial plant producing ethanol from wood wastes is open for business in the timber country of southeastern Georgia.
More than a year and a half behind its original schedule, Colorado-based Range Fuels Inc. began operations in early August near Soperton, Ga.
At first, the plant will operate with an annual capacity of 4 million gallons, down from an original goal of 10 million gallons.
…Jill Stuckey, director of the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, said the recession is making it more difficult for cellulosic ethanol researchers to get the funding they need to move beyond demonstration projects into commercial production.
“It’s pretty easy to make something at bench scale,” she said. “But it’s very hard to scale these technologies up.”
…Range Fuels’ initial run of the plant was short. After just a couple of weeks of operation, the plant has shut down until September.
Aldous said it will reopen after undergoing modifications aimed at eliminating bottlenecks in the process.
While the plant produced methanol during the brief startup, Aldous said it will start turning out ethanol in September. Methanol is a simpler form of alcohol than ethanol and, thus, is easier to produce, he said. READ MORE
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