-
Apr 25, 2008 4:03 pm US/Eastern
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
Alternative Fuel Facility Coming To Area
(KDKA/AP)
Startup ethanol producer Coskata Inc. and its partner, General Motors Corp., plan to have a $25 million demonstration plant up and running in the area by early next year.
The $25 million demonstration plant is expected to be up and operating by this time in 2009 in Westmoreland County. Officials say it will produce 40,000 gallons of cellulosic fuel, or bio-fuel, to be tested in General Motors vehicles.
Governor Ed Rendell says the expansion of cellulosic facilities could create more than 25,000 jobs and 6.6 billion in Pa. revenue.
The plant will turn non-food-based waste, such as wood debris and corn stalks, into about 40,000 gallons of ethanol annually.
"What produces cellulosic ethanol is not corn, it's wood chips, wood fiber, agriculture waste, landfill waste and switch grass, and that's one of the things Pennsylvania has an abundance," said Rendell.
He also said that Pa. has a myriad of farms producing waste, and is the nation's capital when it comes to landfills, much of which can be converted to bio-fuel.
It takes $2 to produce a gallon of regular gas, and officials with Coskata say they believe their plant can produce cellulosic gas for $1.
The demonstration plant is set to pave the way for Coskata to build a full-blown ethanol plant by late 2011.
Officials say a full-scale plant would produce 50 million to 100 million gallons annually.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)