News Article

UT Approves Building Switchgrass Plant In Vonore
By: UT Approves Building Switchgrass Plant in Vonore
Source: The Monroe County Advocate
09-21-2007  

UT approves building switchgrass plant in Vonore The final approval needed to begin making gas out of grass in Vonore was granted on Thursday. Construction of Mascoma Corporation’s cellulosic ethanol production plant is expected to begin in the Niles Ferry Industrial Park by the end of this year. It should be operational by 2009.

 The executive committee of the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees approved a business partnership with Mascoma Corporation in a meeting on Thursday. The school and the corporation will jointly build a cellulosic ethanol biorefinery in Vonore that will eventually produce five million gallons of ethanol a year.

 Cellulosic ethanol is fuel derived from plant material. Unlike traditional corn ethanol, cellulosic ethanol is made from switchgrass, woodchips and other non-food material.

 When operating at full capacity the Vonore plant will require 170 tons of switchgrass and other agricultural and forest biomass per day. An $8 million farmer incentive program is being developed to encourage switchgrass production. Participating farmers will receive payments to grow the switchgrass, seed, research and technical support related to switchgrass production.

 Part of the state’s Biofuels Initiative, researchers say eventually Tennessee could produce more than one billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year statewide, which could off-set one-third of the state’s petroleum usage.