The nation's first producer of ethanol from wood wastes has closed the doors of its Soperton, Ga. plant.
Colorado-based Range Fuels Inc., which broke ground in November 2007 and opened last August, has laid off an undisclosed number of workers and ceased operations, according to a report by the Washington Examiner.
Company spokesman Patrick Wright could not be reached immediately for comment.
Range Fuels' troubles represent another blow to an ethanol industry that is struggling mightily to get off the ground in Georgia. Just last week, First United Ethanol LLC, a corn ethanol plant in Camilla, Ga., filed for bankruptcy.
Cellulosic ethanol, generated from wood byproducts, has seemed to hold the most promise for Georgia, a state with millions of acres of privately held forests. But the Range Fuels plant ran into difficulty almost from the get-go.
The plant went into service about a year and a half behind its original schedule. Then, when it did begin operations, it produced methanol, a simpler form of alcohol than ethanol.
The federal government stepped up in a big way to support the plant, first with a $76 million grant from the Department and Energy and later an $80 million loan guarantee from the Department of Agriculture.
But efforts to commercialize cellulosic ethanol have proven difficult in Georgia and elsewhere, as researchers have been unable to develop an efficient process that would bring down the costs of production.
