SOPERTON, GA—Range Fuels Inc., the Broomfield, Colorado company building the nation’s first cellulosic ethanol plant in Treulen County, GA, near Soperton, has signed a $76 million Technology Investment Agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy. The company breaks ground on the Georgia plant today (Nov. 6, 2007).
The event will feature federal, state, city and county officials, including the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Samuel W. Bodman, and the Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue.
Range Fuels’ Soperton Plant 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 based upon the project construction schedule for the first 20-million-gallon-per-year phase of its Soperton Plant. The remainder of the grant, $26 million, will be provided for construction of the next phase of the project.
Georgia selected for robust woodlands
Range Fuels selected Georgia for its first plant based upon the state’s robust wood products industry supported by Georgia’s vast sustainable and renewable forest lands.
The state’s environmental sensitivity and responsible stewardship of its forest lands have created resources that allow Georgia to support up to two billion gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol production through the application of Range Fuels’ technology.
“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.”
Range Fuels’ technology is self-sustaining and 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’ innovative process for producing cellulosic ethanol, the Soperton Plant will use a quarter of the average water required by corn-based ethanol plants.
Moving to the next generation of biofuels
“Range Fuels’ groundbreaking on its first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant presents an extraordinary opportunity to move the country into the next generation of biofuels that will help improve the environment and secure America’s energy independence,” said Brian Jennings, executive VP for the American Coalition for Ethanol.
“This groundbreaking clearly demonstrates that the next generation of biofuels are possible and reinforces that achieving the President’s goal of displacing 20 percent of the nation’s gasoline consumption with alternative fuels by 2017 can become a reality,” said Bob Dineen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association.
Range Fuels was one of six companies selected by the Department of Energy for financial support in building a commercial cellulosic ethanol plant. The company is privately held and funded by Khosla Ventures, LLC, arguably the top venture firm in the U.S. focusing on alternative, green energy systems.
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