Green Options

We must transition from fuel from food and haste to fuels from wood and waste. Although the economics do not yet favor major production, pilot plants are taking wood and paper waste and converting it to fuel. Other cellulosic material is even more promising. Some grasses , energy crops, and hybrid poplar trees promise zero-emission fuel sources. These plants absorb CO2 and sequester it in the soil with their deep root systems.

Utilities may soon be helping to bring biofuels to your gas tank in an unexpected way. Montreal-based Enerkem recently announced it has finished building what it’s calling its first commercial-scale plant, one that will make cellulosic ethanol, methanol and various biochemicals from discarded utility poles.

After 14 months of construction, the Westbury, Quebec, factory was “mechanically completed” in December, but it isn’t yet fully operational. The company is now working to get the gas part of the plant – the part that will convert the poles into what’s called “syngas,” a mixture that includes carbon monoxide and hydrogen, and will use it to make methanol — up and running now and expects it to be running constantly by early February, CEO Vincent Chornet says.

Range Fuels Inc. announced yesterday it has secured over $100 million in Series B funding, an investment that could make it the first company to seriously commercialize cellulosic ethanol. The first phase of construction will produce 20 million gallons of mixed alcohols per year by 2009, and has the potential to expand to up to 120 million gallons.

Range Fuels says their facility will break down any type of plant material (eg agricultural waste or wood chips) by a two-step thermochemical process. This differs from competing methods of producing cellulosic ethanol, which involve breakdown of plant material with heat and/or acid, and treating it with costly ($0.50/gallon) enzymes.