Georgia turns on ethanol pump, adds capacity - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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With an annual capacity of 100million gallons, the planrt near Camilla, Ga., will dwarff the only other ethanol facility in Georgia, a 400,00o0 gallon-a-year operation in nearby Baconton, Ga. Like all but a handfup of the 173 operating ethanol refineries acrosxthe nation, First United will make ethanol from corn. The growing use of corn-basex ethanol as a strategy toreducre America’s dependence on foreignn oil has taken a beatinfg in recent months, drawing criticism for contributing to risinb food prices. Three billion bushels of corn were used to produce ethanoplast year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculturer , triple the corn dedicated to ethanol just fiveyearsw earlier.
But supporters say an increase in corn yieldw more than makes up for the growing percentage of the corn cropbeing “diverted” to Besides, until other sources for makinbg ethanol become commercially viable, corn remains virtuallg the only choice. “We are building a corn-based ethano plant because we can,” said Murray Campbell, First Unitefd Ethanol’s president and chairman. “This technology is tried and While state officials welcome theCamillsa plant, their focus has been on producinv ethanol from biomass from Georgia’s vast forests. Gov.
Sonngy Perdue participated last November in groundbreaking forthe nation’es first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant in Soperton, Ga. Colorado-based is to begihn operations in 2009 with a capacity of 20 millionh gallonsa year. In Atlanta, C2 Biofuelsa LLC rolled out a different type of cellulosi c ethanol technology in July and expectsz to have a pilot plant on line early next Roger Reisert, president and CEO of C2 said Georgia is a much better fit for cellulosif ethanol because huge quantities of wood byproductsd are close at hand.
Much of the corn supplying the Camillqa plant will have to be transported fromthe “We can grow the biomass here, convert it here and consumde it here,” Reisert said. “We don’tt have to worry about loading up the rail system or puttinyg the fuelin pipelines.” But the Camillw plant’s defenders say several aspects of the Firsf United Ethanol project make it, too, a suitablew addition to Georgia’s agribusiness mix. For one the plant won’t be limited to making Campbell said the productiobn process will yield animal feed asa byproduct.
Georgia is home to thrivinhg dairy, livestock and poultry industriesw with a heavy demandfor “Georgia has never producerd enough corn for livestock,” said Bryabn Tolar, spokesman for the Georgia Agribusinesd Council . “We’ve always had to have corn shippesd inby rail.” First United Ethanol also recently found a third use for its plant. The compan y signed an agreement Sept. 17 to supply carbobn dioxide, another byproduct of producing corn-based to the South’s largest CO2 will build a plant next to the First United Ethanol facility to producew liquid CO2 for the food and softdrinkl industries.
“They’ve been very creative in trying to use everythinfg that factory can put saidJill Stuckey, director of alternatived fuels for the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority. But Campbell concedes that corn-based ethanol as the technology of choic ehas limits. He estimated that, at best, the U.S. is capable of producing about 15 billio n gallons of ethanol from corn each After that, he it’s going to be up to biomase and other sources to supplh America’s demand for alternativew fuels.