14head

By Tommy McGraw
Publisher/Editor
Livingston may become center of a cutting edge technology that could alleviate the Country from
its dependence on foreign oil.
Gulf Coast Energy, Inc (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 waste.
Local Attorney Drayton Pruitt who is Chairman of the Board expects the plant in Livingston will be a
model nationwide that may even become portable to help the United States Armed forces in
military conflicts or humanitarian missions around the world.
Gulf Coast Energy is looking not only at Sumter and Alabama markets for their bio-diesel, ethanol
facility but has plans to have plants in two other states. They are looking to increase the number of
plants with projected capital from investors and energy grants.
Gulf Coast Energy’s method of producing cellulose waste products into usable energy efficient fuel
is nothing new. It’s just an old application used with a new twist.
Feed Stock
The beauty of the new bio-diesel ethanol plant is that, “The feed stock or what it takes to make the
ethanol is practically free,” said Sean Fitz-Gerald, an attorney with Pruitt and Pruitt in Livingston
and a partner in Gulf Coast.
Fitz-Gerald said, “All we need is carbon based products. And according to a study we have done
there is ample wood feed stock within a fifty miles radius of Livingston to keep the plant running.”
The feed stock can consist of any carbon based product such as wood, switch grass, corn stalks
even household garbage said Fitz-Gerald. “The abundance of wood in this area is so prevalent
that is why we will use the wood chips,” he said.
Scott Hazen, Executive Vice President of Engineering and Construction agreed. “We will basically
be using the waste left over from the timber business. The scraps such as wood chips, sawdust
even the bark or anything they don’t need to make a 2x4 will be hauled to Livingston and turned
into fuel.
“The entire infrastructure is there with the wood and paper mills and the trucking transportation. It
is already in place we won’t have to create a new transportation system or source of fuel.
“It is not a stretch to say we can make ethanol out of anything that is carbon based,” said Hazen.
Gulf Coast is in talks with Mississippi and Alabama wood product producers to set up sources of
feed stock from different operations for the new plant in Livingston.
Drayton Pruitt, Chairman of the Board said they will not be competing with the local pulp wood
producers or loggers for wood. “What we want is the left overs,” said Pruitt. “We can use the
sawdust, wood chips, and even debris from the field where the timber is cut and harvested.
“You see all those wind rows, (rows of discarded limbs and un-marketable timber) that is piled into
rows and burned by the land owner. The debris which has been burned in the past can now be
chipped and hauled to the Livingston plant and turned in to a fuel for trucks, cars and even gas to
supply plants like Big River Industries,” according to Pruitt.
What will be made from the cellulose based byproducts are ethanol, butanol, methanol, propanol,
ethanol and bio-diesel. Prior to these end products a synthetic gas (or syn gas) is produced that is
similar to natural gas. That gas can be made at the Livingston plant and piped next door to Big
Rivers Industries or other plants in Livingston to replace the huge amounts of natural gas the
companies use.
According to Hazen, “Our ethanol process utilizes gasification which we call reformation and
Fischer-Tropsch reaction to take any carbon-containing feedstock, convert it to a synthetic gas (or
syn gas), and then configure those molecules into the target fuel of choice. This is followed by
traditional distillation and condensation to purify and liquefy the compounds.
“Gasification is not new technology and has been used in the coal industry for decades.
Gasification combined with Fischer-Tropsch has also been utilized since the early 20th century,
notably by the Germans in World War II after the allies took out their access to petroleum.
“The South Africans have been using this process to make gasoline from coal since the 1960s.
Biomass gasification simply uses biological materials such as wood or switch grass, which have
extremely high carbon content instead of coal.
“In the process to make the fuel the syn gas is then transformed into the different ethanol fuels
and the bio-diesel.
To begin with, the company will use the left over wood products that they can get from local wood
manufacturing plants such as Mannington Wood Floors at Port Epes and Rock Ten Pulp and
Paper mill near Demopolis.
The company will rely on local trucking companies to transport the material to the Livingston site.
They will not have their on fleet of trucks according to Fitz-Gerald.
All the product is brought in and milled down or cut up to 3/16 of an inch in size. The product is put
through a hammer mill that basically chops the material in to 3/16 of an inch material that is then
feed into the machine that makes the ethanol.
The biggest obstacle is changing the hammer to accommodate the feed stock that is feed into it
according to Hazen. The Engineer gave an example such as going from hurricane debris to corn
stalks. The hammer or chipping machine would have to be altered to accept the material.
U.S. Congressman Artur Davis District Representative Daryl Perkins who was touring the plant on
Friday, April 4 said you could even deal with the U.S. Corps of Engineers when they are cleaning
up hurricane ravaged areas. All that could be used rather then going to a landfill,” said Perkins.
Hazen agreed, “Asplundh, the contractor for Alabama Power is currently paying $15.00 a load to
dump the waste from tress into landfills. We can take the limbs and debris from them and save
space in the landfills. By contract they cannot sell the waste but they can give it away. We just
have to make trucking arrangements to bring it from Tuscaloosa to Livingston.”
What’s Next
Editor’s Note: In next week’s edition the process is defined and what the GCE plans are for
expanding into other areas of the country.
Butenol fuel instead of Ethanol and why that is not being used today in your car instead of
gasoline. Also would residents in Sumter County be willing to be a test case for a product used in
their automobile that is less than gasoline?