By Tommy McGraw
Publisher/Editor

Editor's note: This is a second in a series about a Gulf Coast Energy, Inc.'s (GCE) new ethanol and bio-desiel plant that is in Livingston. Gulf Coast Industries will employ up to 150 people once they are in full production.

GCE of Livingston will go on line this month with a demonstration model that may change the world in how fuel production is derived. Located in Livingston's South Industrial Park, the company projects to produce 200,000 gallons of ethanol and 30,000 gallons of bio-diesel in their first year of operation from wood waste.

24/7

"Once the Plant is in full operation we will run seven days a week and 24 hours per day," according to Scott Hazen, Executive Vice President of Engineering and Construction . Drayton Pruitt, Chairman of the Board said the plant will employee 150 full time employees to man the three shifts per day. On site chemist will oversee the quality out put. Pruitt, pointing to two workers who were assembling
the model plant, said, "They will be moving to Livingston. That's what we need here is people moving to Sumter County."

According to the latest census figures in 2000, Sumter County lost, eight percent,  he largest percentage of population than any county in Alabama. Recent census data shows that trend is continuing. People are moving out of the county to seek jobs and better educational opportunities.

Pruitt and his company say they want to reverse that trend and bring people back into Sumter County to live and work.

 The process

Hazen described the gasification process. "Once we get the material and chop it down to the 3/16 inch size the material then goes into one of our proprietary black boxes components or a gasifier. Through high heat and high temperature and lack of oxygen, which doesn't allow the material to burn, the wood feed stock is turned into a syn gas or synthetic gas that resembles natural gas.  "The lack of oxygen is one of the big differences between our system and other systems in that no one else does. With the lack of oxygen, we have no emissions, like the other processes  ther companies may use."

Scott continued, "So with high heat and high temperature, in laymen's terms, we vaporize the feed stock. It goes from a solid to a gas or gaseous state and at that point it is called a syn gas, which is short for synthetic or synsuous gas. It is roughly similar to natural gas or a replacement for it. "Once a syngas, it then goes through some cleaning processes then to a second proprietary black box. The gas then goes through two reactors. The second reactor is named a "Fisher-Tropes" reactor, which is named for two German Scientists that perfected this method in World War II.

"In World War II, after we bombed all the German refineries, these two scientists made gas out of coal gasification to turn coal into gasoline. This is not a new technology. It is a reapplication or refinement of an old technology to satisfy our needs here. "The secret is the catalyst package that is used in the black box or "Fisher Tropes" reactor. The inventor wants to keep that a secret so we actually don't know what the catalysis are. There are various catalysts we can put in there and they are all patented. That is one of the big things the inventor keeps secret and we don't even know what they are." Hazen said.

The engineer continued, "From that stage it takes the syn gas that basically consists of carbon dioxide and hydrogen and rearranges it into an alcohol. We always make methanol first, then butanol and propenol, and we can make all forms of ethanol.

Current state

The demonstration plant that is currently being built will produce syn gas once a coil that is being made in Texas arrives according to Hazen. "Once we have the coil, we can make syn gas in about three weeks. After that we will produce ethanol in a couple of weeks.

"The demonstration model is a one ton per day demonstration plant. That means a ton of wood waste goes in the front end of the model which will produce about 215 gallons per ton. Essentially it is a 200 gallon per day plant. Compared to corn, which only produces 70 to 80 gallons per ton, it is more efficient."

Hazen said there are some fermentation plants that are using cellulose as a feed stock, but they are producing only a third of alcohol with a third of waste and a third of carbon dioxide.

Visiting U.S. Congressman Artur Davis representative, Daryl Perkins added, "What that means is two thirds is wasted and you are using some of your food supply as feed stock, which is not a good thing right now." Perkins was taken on a tour of the plant on Friday, April 4.

Gasification versus fermentation

Hazen then explained the difference of their gasification process to that of making ethanol from a fermentation process with corn. Fermentation process is the method is using enzymes and steam and breaking down the cellulose then you ferment it. That is how corn is used as a feed stock in making ethanol, but it effects the cost of food from corn chips to meat. Corn is the main food fed to animals such as beef, pork and chicken, which in turn makes their cost go up at the grocery store, he said.

"Fermentation is same thing that Jack Daniels uses in making whiskey. They distill the corn and set the product in a barrel for several years to age and then they sell the product for $75.00 gallon. We use chemistry instead of biology. GCE is classified as a chemical plant, we are not classified as fermentation plant or a refinery with Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM). "By using gasification, our yield of ethanol is nearly three times as much, because ethanol is the only thing
produced," Hazen said.

Getting through the permit process was also a challenge, according to Hazen. "When we first met with environmental people for permitting, they didn't know how to classify us, because we are not a fermentation plant. They put us into a chemical category of business because we were a new entity."

Editor's note: Part three will be published in a later
edition.


PICTURE CUTLINE INFO:
Officers and employees of Gulf Coast Energy stand in front of a "machine" that will produce the first gallon of ethanol for public use from cellulose in the country. The technology to produce the product will be on the cutting edge that may lower gasoline prices and rid the United States of its dependency on foreign oil. U.S. Congressman Artur Davis' District Director, Daryl Perkins, second from left, was taken on a tour of the plant Friday, April 4. "Exciting" was the word Perkins kept using during the tour and discussions of how the Congressman can help excellerate the ethanol, bio-diesel plant into full production. Others pictured are Sean Fitz-Gerald, investor and Law Partner of Pruitt and Pruitt, Perkins, Scott Hazen, Executive Vice President of Engineering and Construction, Drayton Pruitt, Chairman of the Board and Mark Warner, President and CEO.