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Posted on 05/13/2008 6:00:32 AM PDT by Kevin J waldroup
Broomfield, Colo.-based cellulosic ethanol producer Range Fuels Inc. announced it has expanded its previously announced Series B funding from $100 million to $166 million after Advanced Equity Inc. and Morgan Stanley joined the financing.
As reported previously by Ethanol Producer Magazine, Range Fuels completed its private funding round worth more than $130 million, which will be used towards the first phase of construction on its 100 MMgy commercial cellulosic ethanol plant near Soperton, Ga., which is scheduled for completion in 2009.
Range Fuels hasn’t publicly commented on the exact figure but when contacted, said it is comfortable divulging that it has raised over $100 million, adding “this funding will be used predominantly for operations at our company and to build the first phase of our cellulosic plant in Georgia.”
The finance round was led by Passport Capital of San Francisco. Other investors included BlueMountain, Khosla Ventures, Leaf Clean Energy Co. which was advised by EEA Fund Management Ltd. and Shaw Capital, and Pacific Capital Group, with participation by California Employee Retirement System. Advanced Equity Inc. and Morgan Stanley were the placement agents.
(Excerpt) Read more at ethanolproducer.com ...
Ethanol ping.
Is this the process that converts “junk” plant material into ethenol? (That is, it doesn’t take useful food mass out of the normal supply path, and relies on previously useless plant materials?)
Go directly to Thermal Depolymerization. Take all this cellulosic waste, chop it up finely, mix it into a water slurry, and put in in a sealed retort. Heat the retort to about 600 to 900 degrees F., maintaining a pressure of between two and five atmospheres, for about two hours.
Products will include a substance called kerogen and slightly saline water. In nature, this is EXACTLY how petroleum is formed, even though it may have been trapped in a resevoir for millions of years.
Depending on the conditions of temperature and pressure, plus the organic material put into the slurry, different grades of kerogen are produced. This process can be extended to a wide variety of organic materials, including many that are considered problematic sources of pollution.
If Ethanol is going to be pushed by the government, then we should be pursuing alternatives to using corn/food to make said fuel.
But that won’t sit well with ADM and the ag industry who are happy with the direction corn and other farm products are heading.
Renewable Energy PING?
oh please where is the no food for oil crowd — oh wait we need the no weeds for oil crowd
Read an article in the April Motor Trend magazine yesterday that had the bio conversion of carbon based materials in EtOH. The proprietary process heated the biomass to make producer gas (CO + H2) which the bugs turned into EtOH. BTW, coke (from coal) and steam can also make producer gas. Author said EtOH could be made this way for about $1/gal.
Yes, it can be used to turn what is usually considered junk plant material from farm crops into ethanol. It could be used to make ethanol from the corn stalks, not just the sugars from the kernels.
It could also work on other crops such as sawgrass.
It might mean that what were waste products are used.
It may just make using corn for ethanol more efficient, or replace corn with a different crop that makes more efficient use of the land and water resources.
I cannot wait for the day some farmer comes up with a cheap, realiable, safe way for folks to easily make their own fuel ready for use in vehicles. I will go out into the street, fire my guns in the air, screaming: “Skandor Akbar” (rasslin’ fans will get it) in celebration of the fall of the House of Saud.....
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Yes and what about saw grass?
“I cannot wait for the day some farmer comes up with a cheap, realiable, safe way for folks to easily make their own fuel ready for use in vehicles”
It’s called a horse. Been making them for years :)
Won’t be near as much corn planted this year. Cost of fertilizer has changed planting to favor soybeans. Plus it has rained in the midwest heavily and repeatedly delaying planting and field work.
For corn to make a full potential yield, it needs to be planted before June 1st. Even if it quit raining around here today for the rest of the month, not much corn would be planted. With rain tonite and again on thursday, it will take a week for the ground to dry enough for any field work.
ADM has a small part in the ethanol business. it is because of companies like ADM taking advantage of farmers for the past few decades that farmers are forming their own ethanol plants and pocketing the value added proceeds that ADM has previously been pocketing.
Don’t bash the farmers for finally making a profitable enterprise. There were plenty of starving people long before ethanol.
You mean like corn COBS and corn STALKS?
We can’t switch to horses! That would be like using food for fuel! We’d all starve!
We don’t need a 300 horsepower car when one horsepower will get us there.
When there were horses and buggies, people weren’t concerned about the price of gas.
My post was sarcasm.
But seriously, switching to horses would be a really stupid idea. A horse can’t do a 50 mile commute in under an hour. In the big city, horses would starve if everyone had them. Do you realize a city of one million people would suddenly need at least one million horses? There are currenly only about 5 million horses in the entire U.S. How much new acreage do you think would be required to feed a hundred times the current number of horses? And that’s just for individual personal transportation. If you add to that the horses required for agriculture and trasporting goods, the number could be twice that.
That’s a BILLION horses. Just for americans. It wouldn’t work. Our economy couldn’t bear it, not to mention our land. It would probably actually be more practical for everyone to have their own nuclear powered george jetson flying car.
I don’t know about where you are, but if it were not for the flooding of the past month, the season was looking to be another record year for acreage planted in corn around here (the “Grand Prairie of Arkansas). Even with a late start due to record rainfall this Spring, many who have shunned corn for a long time are jumping on the bandwagon.
And as far as farmers “finally making a profitable enterprise” - I keep hearing that phrase or similar, but that completely ignores the fact that farmer’s costs are skkyrocketing. Farm diesel (dyed for off-highway use only - does not have road tax applied) is up to over $3.70 per gallon. Fertilizer prices are, as you hinted at, are insane.
And yes, soybeans are looking better this year price-wise as well, with some early bookings at over $10 per bushel. Rice is looking pretty good too with the manufactured “shortage” in the world.
Corn is very expensive to raise anyway - but with fuel and fertilizer costs so high, it will push the prospect for profit.
And ADM (and Riceland and...) has taken advantage of farmers for many years.
I would far prefer to see farmers get a healthy price for their crops, and have get rid of the ag-welfare subsidies.
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