Battle of the Falling Timbers: Rapier gives Range Fuels the sword regarding cellulosic ethanol pioneer's cost, timelines, results
Aerial view of the Range Fuels plant in Soperton, Georgia, during construction
In Georgia, noted and widely respected energy writer Robert Rapier, writing in Forbes.com as well as in his R-Squared Blog and elsewhere on the web, filed a stinging critique of the Range Fuels cellulosic ethanol project, scheduled for opening in Soperton, Georgia in the second quarter of this year.
“So taxpayers funded a 40 MGY wood-based ethanol plant and they are instead getting a 4 MGY wood-based methanol plant,” Rapier writes. “The technology to produce methanol from synthesis gas (the output of Range’s gasifier) was invented in 1923, and is widely used in the petrochemical industry today. It appears that the wheel has been reinvented at taxpayer expense.”
“After investments that have been publicly announced at $320 million,” Rapier continues, ” the EPA announced that Range would initially produce 4 million gallons, and it would be methanol. Further, no ethanol is expected before mid-2012. In summary, when Range was looking for funding they said that it would take $150 million to build 100 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol capacity. Now that they have their money, they need more, and for $320 million they will have 4 million gallons of methanol capacity to show for it. This situation was largely avoidable. The decision to continue funding Range potentially drained funding away from others who were perhaps more deserving on the technical merits, but less vocal. We can’t afford to have our energy policy hijacked by those who make the boldest claims.”
Rapier’s intent is not simple sensationalism; his intent is a cautionary tale. “I want to make it clear that I am not criticizing failure. That is normal and expected. Failure is a part of what it takes to learn and move forward. But when you take taxpayer money to build your business, there needs to be a different level of accountability. Taxpayers will foot the bill, they will become cynical about biofuels as a result of the many broken promises, and ultimately funding will dry up for everyone in the sector.”
Having read the bombshell article, the Digest contacted Range Fuels for comment.
“The blog is disappointing to say the least and clearly misleading and inaccurate, Range CEO David Aldous responds.
“The capacity of the plant has not changed since I came to Range in late 2008. We will be mechanically complete with Phase 1 by mid March (two weeks) and will begin pre-commissioning activities. We do not intend to actually introduce wood into the unit until May, doing the capacity math that would mean we are at a maximum of around a half years production for 2010 if we were able to start up and run at capacity on day one. Anyone with experience in operating plants knows this is not reality and especially with first of a kind operations. So this production volume in partial year one should not be a surprise to people with experience.
“Our main reactor can run either methanol or mixed alcohol catalyst. Our proprietary catalyst is expensive to make and we have always planned to start up on the methanol catalyst as a way to let the inexpensive catalyst and more robust catalyst take any operational swings during our startup period. The methanol we will produce WILL be a qualifying fuel as we will put it into biodiesel. Our plan is to begin producing ethanol as well by late Q3 2010.
“We also intend to run our first year in campaign mode with several different tests and bringing the plant down between campaigns to analyze plant equipment and design for incorporation of learnings into future phases of the plant.
“On the financial side the money provided by the government under the DOE 932 grant and the USDA loan guarantee (not a loan) are for Phase 1 AND future phases of the plant so the blog is written in the absence of any kind of understanding of the terms or nature of the government agreements.”
According to Range’s submissions for the “50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy” rankings, “the Soperton, Georgia project will initially use wood from nearby timber operations and will transition to leftover wood residue over time. At full build-out capacity, the Soperton Plant is permitted to produce 100 million gallons of cellulosic biofuels each year and can use 2,625 dry tons of feedstock daily.”
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