Washington – Kansas is about to welcome some 21st-century pioneers who, instead of plowing under prairie grass, want to turn it into fuel.
The state is one of six getting a cutting-edge technology that will make ethanol out of grass and crop residue typically left in the field. Construction of the new $300 million plant in Kansas should start next year and finish in 2010.
Other facilities will go to Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho and California.
The plants will produce cellulosic ethanol instead of the more common corn-based variety. Cellulose is the main ingredient in cell walls of vegetation.
“That’s the beauty of it,” said Steven Bantz, at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit group. “The environmental impact of some of these feedstocks is so much lower.”
Environmentalists are encouraged, because cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass and other plants is cleaner and more efficient than ethanol made from corn.
Though the Kansas plant will have only a 50 million-gallon output, the goal is to show that the product can be economically viable. That’s why Energy Department grants are so crucial, according to Matthew Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association.
“Part of the problem is breaking the material down,” he said. “It’s expensive. The capital costs are also four to five times the costs of (building) a traditional corn-based ethanol plant. It’s not a proven commercial technique, so lenders, creditors and investors are just a little bit hesitant.”
President Bush is not, pledging to cut gasoline use by 20 percent in 10 years. He also set a new mandatory standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels by then. The previous goal was 7.5 billion gallons by 2012.
Corn ethanol plants, which produced 4 billion gallons in 2005, can’t do all that alone, even if its popularity grows. The Indy Racing League just announced that during its 17-race season its cars will run on ethanol.
The 1.5 billion bushels diverted to fuel has put pressure on cereal and meat prices.
“There’s only so many gallons you can realistically produce without competing with other uses of the grain supply,” said Chris Standlee, at Abengoa Bio energy, the Spanish firm that will build the Kansas plant.
Abengoa, which has offices in St. Louis County, will get $76 million of the $385 million in grants announced last month by the Department of Energy.
Ray Hammarlund, at the Kansas Department of Commerce, projected that about 120 jobs and $45 million would be added to the local economy.
Switchgrass, corn stalks, wheat straw and milo stubble, even the state’s native prairie grass might work as an ethanol source, Hammarlund said.
