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Broomfield firm to build ethanol plant

Range Fuels will use forest waste in cellulose base

Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 3, 2007 at midnight

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An upstart Broomfield company is set to break ground in rural Georgia on what's billed as the world's first wood-based commercial ethanol plant.

Range Fuels' refinery will rely on Georgia pine trees and forest waste that would otherwise be burned or left to rot. Silicon Valley money and Uncle Sam are bankrolling the plant, to be located in Treutlen County, about 155 miles southeast of Atlanta.

A groundbreaking is set for Tuesday. The refinery will use pine trees, limbs, bark and needles as well as leftover waste from timber mills to produce a cellulose-based ethanol.

Unlike corn ethanol, cellulose-based fuel relies on wood, grass, hog manure and other organic matter.

"This could be the beginning of changing our reliance on fossil fuels for transportation energy," said Range Fuels CEO Mitch Mandich. "We're setting out to prove it can be done and be commercially viable."

When fully built, the plant is designed to produce more than 100 million gallons of ethanol a year using a proprietary technology. Mandich said it will cost "several hundred million" dollars.

The plant's first phase of construction is slated for completion at the end of 2008. The initial facility is engineered to produce 20 million gallons a year.

"It's great to see it coming out to the marketplace," said Jim McMillan, an engineer who helps manage biofuels research and development at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden.

Unlike corn ethanol, cellulose-based ethanol doesn't rely on a food source or farmland for its feedstock. Ethanol demand has sent corn prices skyrocketing, pushing up costs for meat suppliers and consumers.

"You're not competing directly in the food market," McMillan said.

He also noted that cellulose- based ethanol requires less fossil fuel inputs in the way of natural gas and coal.

Founded in 2006, Range -Fuels is backed by Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod -Khosla and federal dollars. In February, the company received $76 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Range Fuels was one of six cellulose-based ethanol companies to receive DOE funding totaling $385 million. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said at the time the companies' plants "will play a critical role in helping to bring cellulosic ethanol to market and teaching us how we can produce it in a more cost effective manner."

When fully operational, the Range Fuels refinery is expected to employ 60 to 70.

"We plan on building multiple plants and rolling out this technology swiftly," said Mandich, the CEO.

More than 6 billion gallons of ethanol were produced in the United States last year. Nearly all that fuel was derived from corn.

Experts say cellulose-based ethanol is more efficient than corn ethanol. They cite data showing that each unit of fossil fuel used to make corn ethanol produces about 1.3 to 1.4 units of ethanol-based fuel.

Mandich cited government data showing that in the case of cellulose-based ethanol, the ratio is one unit of fossil fuel input for every 10 units of ethanol output.

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