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bakersfield.com
California plant will use rice waste to fuel cars
Filed: August 20, 1999
By JOHN HOWARD
Associated Press Writer
OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) — California's first attempt to turn rice stubble and
tree trimmings into ethanol resembles a scene from "Back to the Future,"
when trash is dumped into Mr. Fusion at one end and pure energy comes
out the other.
The proposed "bio-refinery" will convert thousands of tons of rice straw,
orchard prunings and other agricultural waste into ethanol, a sort of
200-proof moonshine that state air-pollution fighters hope will soon
replace the unpopular additive MTBE in California gasoline.
"We see it as an efficient waste-based ethanol plant that takes advantage
of low-cost and no-cost materials," said Stephen J. Gatto, head of
Boston-based BC International Corp., which plans to start construction
next year south of Oroville, 60 miles north of Sacramento.
Rice farmers see it as a match made in heaven.
Blocked by state air regulators from burning their stubble, the growers disc
the hardy straw back into the ground. That costs $30 an acre, about a
fourth of the growers' profits.
About 500,000 acres of rice are grown in the Sacramento Valley,
producing about 1.5 million tons of of rice straw.
Rice growers have hunted for ways to use rice straw since new air-quality
rules took effect in 1993. House insulation, woven furniture and scaffolding
were among the uses tried. None worked out.
Growers believe they've found the answer in ethanol.
"We can get this stuff off the field and at least break even. That's all we
really want to do with the rice stubble — break even," said Ken Collins,
who farms 1,600 acres of rice near Biggs and plans to ship his rice straw
to the new plant.
The Oroville factory will convert about 75,000 tons of rice straw, 125,000
tons of orchard slash and 40,000 tons of other agricultural waste into
ethanol each year.
"You're looking at about 900 tons there," Collins said, as his workers
tended to a two-story-high mound of bailed rice straw culled from his
fields. Collins is among a group of growers who have formed a cooperative
to feed the new plant.
Ethanol is a familiar product in the Midwest, where factories convert corn
starch into about 1.6 billion gallons annually.
Illinois, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota are
among states with ethanol factories, providing a market for the states' corn
growers and a cleaner mix of fuel for states facing EPA air
pollution-fighting mandates.
A bushel of corn produces about 2.5 gallons of ethanol.
"We're making corn whiskey, is what it amounts to. But ethanol is very
clean. It clearly is a benefit to air quality, and it does add octane," said
Trevor Guthmiller, executive director of the South Dakota-based American
Coalition for Ethanol.
Midwestern ethanol growers see California — and its more than 20 million
licensed drivers — as a huge new market. BCI's factory, expected to open
by 2001, won't produce enough ethanol to replace all 540 million gallons
of MTBE burned annually in the state.
Environmentalists generally supported Gov. Gray Davis' March decision to
phase out MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, noting that MTBE
contamination had been reported in lakes and groundwater across the
state.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner said
last month the EPA would seek to reduce the use of MTBE, citing a threat
to drinking water.
The Oxygenated Fuels Association, an Arlington, Va.-based trade
association representing MTBE producers, said the compound protects air
quality and will prove costly to replace.
"It is the most cost-effective and cleanest source of octane," said Terry
Wigglesworth, the group's executive director. "Replace that with something
else that's not proven, and you're going to have all kinds of problems."
Ethanol backers say the cost to motorists would be about the same in
California as with MTBE. In the Midwest, ethanol has had little effect on
pump prices, Guthmiller said. California's gasoline prices already are
among the highest in the nation, with unleaded regular averaging about
$1.50 a gallon recently.
Gatto said ethanol has uses beyond gasoline, including mouthwash,
aftershave, perfume and solvents.
The Midwestern plants derive sugar from corn starch to make the ethanol,
a relatively simple process. In Brazil, ethanol is made using cane sugar.
BCI's plant, expected to open by 2001, will use new technology to
separate cellulose from the "biomass" — wood, straw, leaves, fruit pits and
other items — and use that sugar to make the ethanol.
The California Energy Commission is studying the use of ethanol and
other compounds as fuel additives.
"Clearly, the technology is there and it's not that difficult to produce
ethanol through the conversion process," commission spokeswoman
Claudia Chandler said. "The question is, 'Is it economical and is there a
market for it?"'
The BCI operation will produce about 22 million gallons of ethanol a year,
or roughly 70 to 100 gallons per ton of biomass.
Collins and others believe it's just a start.
"We could use all our rice straw and all our orchard prunings, and we'd still
hardly sustain the demand," Collins said.
A similar biomass ethanol plant, also run by BCI, has begun operation in
Jennings, La. It produces about 22 million gallons annually. That plant cost
about $90 million, and the Oroville facility is expected to cost about the
same, Gatto said. |
