biofuels industry. A new plant proposed in central Georgia that will convert pine tree waste into automotive fuel represents an important step in that direction.
Rising gasoline prices, ongoing unrest in the Middle East and global warming linked to man-made tailpipe and smokestack emissions is galvanizing worldwide interest in alternative fuels that pose fewer environmental and economic risks.
So far, federal mandates intended to dramatically increase the nation's use of cleaner fuels have given the early advantage to corn-based ethanol. That policy shift has been a boon to Midwest corn farmers and corporate giants such as Archer Daniels Midland.
But diverting cornfields for fuel production is problematic; it's already causing food prices to spike and has raised questions about whether corn is commercially viable because it requires more energy to grow than it actually produces.
Fortunately, biofuels can also be made from a wide range of other agricultural products including sugar cane stalks, peanut hulls, chicken litter and "biogas" from cows. Dot-com billionaire Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, and others are banking on pine trees that grow prolifically in Georgia as an untapped source of cleaner energy.
Khosla is reportedly investing $225 million in a pine-tree processing plant in Soperton that will employ 70 people and is expected to begin construction in the next few months. Once completed, the plant is expected to eventually produce up to a billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol.
The plant, which could be subsidized by a $6 million state grant and local incentives from Treutlen County, dovetails with recent recommendations made by the Governor's Energy Policy Council, an advisory panel. The state's energy strategy calls on Georgia to invest aggressively in biofuels to address global warming while helping struggling rural communities tied to the timber industry.
While Khosla and others are jumping on the state's biofuel bandwagon, researchers at Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia have been working for years on renewable energy projects that also show great promise. Georgia has at least four plants in operation that manufacture biodiesel — which mostly differs from ethanol because it's oil-based, not alcohol-based.
Although the process of recycling timber waste and other agricultural byproducts into fuel is still in its infancy, it represents the type of innovative thinking that will be critical to addressing the nation's daunting energy challenges.
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