Alabama plant to begin producing ethanol from waste wood

The Birmingham News

Alabama plant will use special process to turn useless sawdust and scrap timber into ethanol
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
THOMAS SPENCER News staff writer

LIVINGSTON - In a cavernous, abandoned lumber mill in the Black Belt, a small team of engineers and technicians is assembling a demonstration plant that, as early as this month, will start turning wood scraps into ethanol.

The plant would be one of the first in the country to use a technology called gasification on wood waste. Most ethanol and biodiesel plants use fermentation to turn soybeans or corn into fuel.

If the plant runs as advertised, the company - Gulf Coast Energy - plans to expand on the site with a $90 million commercial-scale plant, which it says will be capable of producing 45 million gallons of ethanol a year.

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