[Rhodes22-list] Tennessee now in the ethanol business (political)

[Michael D. Weisner]

Brad,

In addition to VW it seems that the governor left the door open for the ethanol folks:

http://tinyurl.com/5ny7pd

or the original USA Today link:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2008-07-23-ethanol-cellulosic_N.htm?csp=DailyBriefing

Mike
s/v Shanghai'd Summer ('81)
Nissequogue River, NY

Cellulosic ethanol plants planned in Tennessee

DuPont (DD) and Genencor, a unit of Denmark's Danisco, said Wednesday that they will break ground this fall on a 250,000 gallon cellulosic ethanol pilot plant in Tennessee.
Ethanol should be available from the pilot plant by December 2009, with commercial-scale production by 2012, the companies said.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said Wednesday he thought "the nicest thing you can possibly say" about corn-based ethanol is that it is "transitional" technology.

"It really is much more about political eye wash ... trying to do something about the energy crisis. It has very little to recommend it over the long term," Bredesen said. "I think that cellulosic ethanol in contrast has a great deal to recommend it over the long term. That is where I am trying to emphasize us putting our weight and our money."

The companies said the pilot plant will initially process western Tennessee corn cobs into ethanol but plans to shift to switchgrass for conversion to ethanol, working with Tennessee farmers as dedicated switchgrass suppliers. The university has also invested state research dollars toward the development of switchgrass.

"The high cellulosic content of switchgrass makes it an optimal feedstock for ethanol production," said DuPont Danisco Technology Leader John Pierce in a statement. "Its yields today make it more than competitive with other biomass sources, and it has the potential to produce over 1,000 gallons of ethanol per acre in the future."

There are about 1.5 million acres in Tennessee seen as unsuitable for growing food crops but good for switchgrass, officials said.

The cost of producing cellulosic ethanol is still much higher than making corn-based ethanol, and several U.S. companies are in a race to drive down the costs making the fuel for what is estimated to be a $75 billion global market opportunity.

DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol will link DuPont's cellulosic pre-treatment and fermentation technologies with Genencor's enzymes to develop the ethanol production process. 

The project will make use of about $40 million in Tennessee state funding. The companies said they planned an initial three-year investment of $140 million.

Cellulosic ethanol has the same properties as corn-based ethanol but can be derived from the nonedible parts of a corn plant, rather than the corn kernels. Sugar cane bagasse, wood shavings, switchgrass and other such materials can also be harnessed to produce ethanol.

DuPont's Pierce said Wednesday in a news conference that corn ethanol had paved the way for rapid growth of cellulosic ethanol.

"It (corn ethanol) has formed the basis for investment and a whole infrastructure that we are going to move into with cellulosic based ethanol," Pierce said.