A terme 100 millions de gallons par an, soit environ 300000 à 400000 m3 d' éthanol par an.
Ils disent qu' ils vont utiliser les restes des exploitation forestiére comme les branches et les cimes des arbres.
Le projet est aidé par le Energy Departement des USA à hauteur de .... 76 millions de Dollars. Souvenez vous de ce qu' avait dit G.Bush à propos de l' éthanol.
Amis Anglicistes, plongez vous dans le texte en VO :
The New New Fuel
Turning wood chips into fuel isn't quite like turning water into wine, but it's still a pretty impressive feat. On Tuesday, a company backed by Vinod Khosla, one of Silicon Valley's most successful venture capitalists, will break ground on a plant that will do just that.
Range Fuels, a Colorado-based start-up funded by Khosla Ventures, is building the first commercial-scale plant in the U.S. (and very likely in the world) that will produce the next generation of ethanol--called cellulosic ethanol--in the small town of Soperton, Ga., about three hours south of Atlanta. So far ethanol in the U.S. has been produced almost exclusively from corn. In Brazil, ethanol is produced from sugar cane.
"This plant establishes the fact that the technology for next-generation ethanol is here," Vinod Khosla said, in an interview with Forbes.com. "This is ethanol that has 75% less carbon emissions, 75% less land use and 75% less water use" than ethanol produced from corn. The carbon emissions and use of natural resources are common criticisms of the corn-ethanol industry.
These are not the best of times for ethanol producers. A supply glut has put a hold on construction of a number of ethanol plants in the U.S., including a plant in Iowa planned by VeraSun Energy (nyse: VSE - news - people ). Ethanol futures prices have fallen from slightly more than $4 a gallon in mid-2006 to below $2 a gallon currently.
But Khosla isn't at all dismayed by the current rough patch for ethanol. "I believe it's a short-term thing. There are worldwide markets for this [fuel]. We happen to be talking about a market [the U.S.] that is protected. Range intends to be a global provider," he says. The U.S. imposes a 51-cent-per-gallon tariff on ethanol imported from other countries. Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association, says the tariff on imported ethanol offsets a tax incentive given to the petroleum industry to entice those producers to blend ethanol into gasoline.
Construction of a plant capable of churning out 20 million gallons of ethanol a year is slated to be complete by the end of 2008. Assuming production begins in 2009, Range Fuels is then expected to ramp production in 20-million-gallon-capacity increments, until the plant reaches a maximum permitted output of 100 million gallons.
Range executives chose to build the plant in Georgia because of the extensive local timber industry. "They have great stewardship of the land there," says Range Fuels Chief Executive Mitch Mandich. "The industry is treated like a sustainable crop. Two trees are planted for every one taken out of the ground." Mandich was formerly head of worldwide sales and support at Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ).
One advantage for Range Fuels, Mandich suggests, is that the cost of its feedstock should be dramatically lower than corn, which has skyrocketed from $2 to $3.50 a bushel over the last few years. (He declines to speculate on precisely what the feedstock might cost.)
Mandict expects that Range Fuels will initially buy timber from local logging companies and arrange for the timber companies to provide tree tops and branches, which are typically not sold. Over time, Mandich aims to develop a system that will enable the company to collect and use mostly wood scraps.
Range Fuels will use a thermo-chemical process to turn wood chips, wood waste and branches into ethanol. First the wood chip mixture is put under heat and pressure and steam for 15 minutes, which turns it into syngas. Then the syngas is mixed with a proprietary catalyst that turns it into ethanol.
Mandich won't disclose how much Khosla Ventures has invested or whether there are other investors in Range Fuels. The company did receive a $76 million grant from the Department of Energy, part of a government strategy that aims to make cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive with gasoline by 2012.
Khosla Ventures has invested in a number of other biofuels companies, including Mascoma, a cellulosic ethanol company that is pursuing a different technology. What unites them all, says Khosla, is the potential ability to produce ethanol relatively cheaply. "Any company that can produce ethanol for $1.25 a gallon has a virtually unlimited market," he says. "All the companies we've invested in have that as a goal."
source Forbes : http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/1 ... fuels.html
