Cellulosic ethanol: A fuel for the future?

In the pine forests of rural Georgia, Devon Dartnell sees a path into the global fuel economy.

As the biomass program manager for the Georgia Forestry Commission, Dartnell is impatiently waiting for construction to begin next month of a plant that will convert forestry wastes into ethanol, a car fuel.


The facility is an important test to see whether lumber and agricultural by-products, rather than corn or sugar cane, are an economically viable “feedstock” for ethanol production. Behind the plant is Range Fuels, a start-up headed by a former Apple executive and financed by famed Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.

Dartnell hopes this project, eligible for up to $76 million in U.S. Department of Energy grants, will lead to many more plants–and a new industry–in the state.

ZDNet