9head

By Tommy McGraw
Publisher/Editor
Editor’s note: This is a third in a series about a Gulf Coast Energy, Inc.’s (GCE) new ethanol
and bio-desiel plant that is in Livingston.
monstration 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.
The future of the United State’s fuel dilemma may be butanol?
According to Scott Hazen, Executive Vice President of Engineering and Construction of Gulf
Coast Energy, the U.S. Department of Energy is looking into the feasibility study to allow
production of butanol as a direct replacement of gasoline that is used in today’s automobiles.
Gulf Coast Energy, a new ethanol and bio-diesel plant schedule to produce its frist gallon any
day now will have the capability to produce butanol, ethanol, biodiesel and meathol at the
Livingston Plant.
Hazen said,” That [butanol] is the way there are headed. You don’t need special pumps; you
don’t have the mileage issues with ethanol. The reason it hasn’t been used today is that it cost
about $3.50 a gallon to make butanol, but we (GCE) can make it for a lot less than $3.50 per
gallon.”
Sean Fit-Gerald, Sean Fitz-Gerald, investor and Law Partner of Pruitt and Pruitt said,“It will
basically replace the infrastructure of gasoline one day. We think in 5-10 years butanol it will
replace gasoline and we will be still putting in the same feedstock in the same machines that
produces ethanol and bio-diesel.”

Other companies are also looking to cash in on the move to Butanol but it will not solve the
immediate gas and diesel full crises of high cost. Today’s gasoline is selling at an average
above $3.50 per gallon and diesel fuel is well over $4.00 per gallon.
Ethanol vs. Butanol
Ethanol is the current alternative fuel of choice and Gulf Coast Energy already has a buyer for
every gallon they produce. GCE are looking even more closely at the steped up production of
bio-diesel, because that cost of regular diesel has skyrocketed in recent days.
Alternative fuels such as ethanol could help reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and decrease oil
imports, but so far these bio-fuels only make up a small fraction of fuel use. Distribution is one
of the biggest challenges to ramping up ethanol use. Ethanol can not be transported in the
same pipelines used to distribute gasoline. Another draw back of ethanol it is not as energy
efficient as butanol and delivers far less energy than gasoline does on a gallon-for-gallon basis.
Butanol, like ethanol, can be made from corn or other food products and also cellulose like Gulf
Coast Energy will be using as a feedstock.
Butanol’s properties are a lot more like gasoline than ethanol, which means it can be shipped in
the existing gasoline pipelines. And it contains more energy than ethanol does, which will
improve mileage per gallon.
Butanol overcomes many of the drawbacks associated with ethanol, but the demand, legislation
or the copacity to produce it in mass quabtities is not in place.
Butanol will not be a competitor to ethanol. Ethanol plants can evolve into a butanol plants as
Hazen states. Ethanol and butanol can even be mixed together, and it can actually help the
consumption of ethanol.
Butanol is better in that it has a higher energy density usually in the high eighties, whereas
ethanol is around about two-thirds the energy density of gasoline.
Butanol is also less volatile than ethanol and it is not as corrosive. The fuel does not tend to
have issues with it at higher concentrations beginning to deteriate aluminum or polymer
components in fuel systems and dispensing systems. Butanol is not as hydroscopic or it doesn't
pick up water, which what happens with ethanol if put in relatively low concentrations. This
means butanol can be transported through pipelines.
Fit-Gerald gave an example of using E-85 gasoline, which is a mix of gasoline and ethanol. “I
can run E-85 in my Tahoe and it runs a lot better than on gasoline. The good thing is, I pay
about thirty cents less than gasoline but I get about three miles per gallon less which equals it
back out to the cost of gasoline.

According to Gulf Coast Energy’s website, www.gulfcoastenergy.net, “Gulf Coast Energy, Inc
was founded with the intention and mission to "change the world,"Through the manufacturing of
alternative, renewable fuels.
We have developed a unique approach to the manufacture of alternative fuels that takes
advantage of the latest state-of-the-art modular process technologies for bio-diesel and ethanol
and the inherent synergies related to their production.
State-of-the-art modular bio-diesel technology allows for the input of less expensive high free
fatty acid (FFA) material to reduce feedstock cost and modular ethanol biomass gasification
technology allows for the use of less expensive cellulose raw material. In both cases, the
modular technologies allow for continuous, as opposed to batch operations, dramatically smaller
footprints for a given level of output and substantially reduced up-front capital costs.
Furthermore, the two processes are synergistic in that the ethanol process generates methanol,
which is required in bio-diesel production, and the bio-diesel process generates glycerin, which
is consumed in the ethanol process.

Funding is a challenge
While the advantages of Gulf Coast Energy’s processes are clear from a business perspective,
domestic funding has nevertheless been a challenge. “Its new technology, and we have to
convince people that it really works,” Hazen says.
In the next several months the company plans to open a plant at a Greenfield site in Mossy
Head, Fla., and a plant at an abandoned ethanol production facility in Jasper, Tenn.
Unlike many producers, Gulf Coast Energy will combine the production of bio-diesel and ethanol
in a single facility.
“We want to take advantage of the synergies of bio-diesel and ethanol production,” Hazen says.
“During the production of bio-diesel Gulf Coast Energy uses chicken fat and soybean oil as
feedstock, glycerin is a normal byproduct; this can also be converted to ethanol using the
gasification technology, and in turn, a methanol stream may be produced during the production
of ethanol to make bio-diesel, thus reducing production costs in both cases.
To make both bio-diesel and ethanol, Gulf Coast Energy will use a continuous production
process rather than a batch process. Making alternative fuels in batches requires more time
and space than a continuous process, Mark Warner says, and if there’s a problem, an entire
batch has to be discarded. “To make ten million gallons of bio-diesel in a continuous process
requires a building that is only 50 ft. by 100 ft.,” Warner explains. The same capacity in a batch
plant would require one-half acre.
The first phase of the company’s business plan calls for producing ten million gallons of bio-
diesel and 35 million gallons of ethanol annually at each plant.
Hazen estimates that 50 people will be hired at each plant for that phase. Gulf Coast Energy
has a deal to sell all of its initial production to a single distributor. “As we grow, we’ll look at other
avenues,” Hazen says. “It’s important to show that, on the financing side, all of our production is
sold.”
The company has also been making progress in attracting funding. In January, the state of
Florida awarded Gulf Coast Energy a “Farm to Fuel” grants of $7 million. That money will defray
the cost of preparing the Mossy Head site. Once the three initial plants hit phase one-
production targets, Warner envisions expanding throughout the southeast and internationally.
Currently, the company is looking for a plant site in the area of Raleigh, N.C. As for revenues,
Warner says that Gulf Coast Energy has ambitious goals; while he wouldn’t get specific, he did
say that the volumes of bio-diesel and ethanol that the company is aiming to produce in its first
phase of production can ring up $100 million in revenues at each plant. The first phase of
production should be completed at the company’s three plants by the end of 2009, and Gulf
Coast has no plans for
Whitehouse invatation
Gulf Coast Energy representatives were invited to attend an invitation only event at the White
House as President George W. Bush signed historic legislation directed at the ethanol and bio-
diesel production.
Gulf Coast Energy President and CEO Mark L. Warner and Chairman of the Board, I Drayton
Pruitt attended the presidential signing of H.R. 6 the "Energy Independence and Security Act of
2007" into law on December 19, 2007.
This landmark act establishes new levels of alternative fuels mandates, elevating the
requirement from the previous mandate level by 450% to 56 billion gallons per year by 2022.
President Bush's signing ceremony was and invitation only event and Mr. Warner and Mr. Pruitt
were surprised and honored when the invitation arrived directly from the White House. With
only a day’s notice, it was a real scramble to make travel arrangements. Pruitt and Warner had
to catch a last minute flight out of Tuscaloosa’s airport. Danny Smith and Dixie Air of Tuscaloosa
provided a jet on short notice. Congressional VIP's positioned themselves around the signing
table while President Bush and Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman both gave very
motivational speeches. President Bush then signed on the dotted line to a flurry of camera
flashes and clicks,” according to a statement oin the GCE website.
With the recent passage of the Energy Bill, the high price of gasoline and the capacity
constraints of refineries, there is increased demand for ethanol as a fuel extender and clean air
additive. Blenders and retailers have started to introduce it in increasing numbers, as
mandated by federal and state legislation.
Robert Rogers and Eric Yonkers

First in a series about Livingston’s new ethanol/bio-diesel plant
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 35 million gallons of ethanol in their first year
and 100 million gallons when in full production from wood 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 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.
Why 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?

Second in a series about Livingston’s new ethanol/bio-diesel plant
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, the 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
other 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.