THE NEW YORK TIMES

April 15, 2009
New York, New York

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Green, Inc.: Energy, the Environment and the Bottom Line

Ethanol from Wood Chips in Alabama
By Clifford Krauss

Car 54, where are you? Refueling with ethanol converted from wood scraps, perhaps, if the car belongs to the police department in Hoover, Ala.

The Birmingham News reported on Tuesday that Hoover is about to receive wood-based ethanol for fuel to gas up flex-fuel police and fire vehicles. The wood scraps come from Hoover and will be processed into ethanol at a demonstration plant in nearby Livingston.

According to The News, the city later this week will receive 100 gallons of E-85 fuel, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent conventional gasoline. “We wanted to get there and show everybody we can do this in this country,” said Mark Warner, the chief executive of Gulf Coast Energy, the plant operator.

Mr. Warner said he believed this will be the first time municipal wood waste has been transformed into a liquid fuel. Wood is expected to be one of the principal “cellulosic” sources of ethanol in the future, which together may one day supplant corn, currently the principal source of ethanol in the country by far.

Cellulosic ethanol — a reference to cellulose, an energy-rich molecule in plants that scientists say can be converted to fuel — has been made in laboratories and small demonstration projects, but so far it has not been proven to be commercially viable on a large scale.

LINK TO ARTICLE:
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/ethanol-from-wood-chips-in-alabama/