Grants to Boost Cellulosic Ethanol

By Joseph Morton, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

Mar. 1–WASHINGTON — Up to $80 million in federal grant money will be used over the next few years to convert Broin Companies’ conventional ethanol facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa, into a biorefinery that will produce cellulosic ethanol, officials said Wednesday.

That money is part of as much as $385 million in grants the Energy Department will direct to developing six biorefinery projects around the country. Final project plans and funding levels are still under negotiation.

The funding is part of President Bush’s overall goal of making ethanol cost-competitive with gasoline by 2012 by using nontraditional materials, such as wood chips, switch grass and cornstalks, and reducing America’s gasoline consumption by 20 percent in 10 years.

The other facilities will be located in Kansas, Florida, California, Idaho and Georgia. Altogether, the six plants are expected to produce more than 130 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually.

The $200 million project in Emmetsburg will convert a conventional corn dry mill facility into a commercial scale refinery that will produce ethanol from corn fiber and corn cobs.

Supporters of cellulosic production of ethanol, which uses nonfood plant stocks, including agricultural waste and switch grass, tout it as a way to increase ethanol production without siphoning off corn supplies that also are needed to feed humans and livestock. Expanding the materials that can be used to produce ethanol also could advance it from a corn-belt phenomenon to a nationwide industry.

Iowa Sens. Chuck Grassley, a Republican, and Tom Harkin, a Democrat, both hailed Wednesday’s announcement.

Jeff Broin, president and CEO of the South Dakota-based Broin Companies said expansion of the Emmetsburg facility should take about 30 months with the facility ready to go in 2009. Without the federal money, he said, the project would take much longer to get off the ground.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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