Range Fuels Gets Go Ahead from Georgia

The state of Georgia has permitted start-up Range Fuels to begin construction on a cellulostic ethanol plant capable of up to 100 million gallons per year. The plant should be up and running in 2008 (excluding the almost certain delays).

The plant (really Phase 1 in a larger development process) will initially be capable of 20 million gallons. The primary stock will be wood waste from Georgia's pine forests, but conversion is not limited to wood. Range claims it can gasify biomass waste from other sources as well, including agricultural wastes, grasses, cornstalks, hog manure, municipal garbage, sawdust and paper pulp. Catalysts then convert the resulting syngas to ethanol.

Certainly, creating a viable ethanol product from a diverse source pool of is more compelling than the typical corn-based approach. It provides a certain level of immunity to the vagaries of a corn harvest, specifically the inevitable boom-bust cycles that will wreak havoc on ethanol prices. A diversified source supply allows the Range product to covert the most cost-effective supply of materials.

Range is a bit of darling in the ethanol space (earlier post), and this development certainly won't hurt. Range is backed primarily by Khosla Ventures, which has placed big bets in ethanol. Add in $76 million from the Dept of Energy to build this pilot plant, and things look fairly rosy.