by Steve Raabe (Denver Post) A Colorado ethanol producer is set to employ a landmark technology that could help resolve the food vs. fuel controversy swirling around corn-based ethanol.
Front Range Energy in Windsor successfully has tested a new process to make ethanol from waste wood. The facility plans to begin commercial production next year.
Front Range is the second ethanol producer in the nation to use a newly-patented technology for making fuel from biomass, in place of corn.
…Ethanol is widely used as an additive to gasoline for increasing octane and reducing emissions. Most Colorado gas contains 10 percent ethanol. Almost all of it is made from corn.
…Front Range Energy recently signed a 15-year, $100 million deal with Sweetwater Energy to use Sweetwater’s process for converting biomass to sugars, which in turn are distilled into ethanol.
…Rochester, N.Y.-based Sweetwater plans to acquire waste wood primarily from lumber mills. Some may originate from beetle-killed pine — a source that is plentiful in Colorado. It also can use crop residues and other plant matter. READ MORE