Range Fuels Inc, a cellulosic ethanol company, has announced it will build an ethanol plant in Treutlen County GA. The plant is expected to produce over one billion gallons of ethanol per year. The first plant will create over 70 new jobs for the area.
Wood waste from the state's indigenous Georgia pine will be the main source of biomass for the ethanol production. The process will transform products such as wood chips, agricultural wastes, grasses, and cornstalks as well as hog manure, municipal garbage, sawdust and paper pulp into ethanol through a thermo-chemical conversion process. The company's system, K2, uses a two step process to convert biomass to a synthetic gas and from there, convert the gas to ethanol.