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What
Dadeville and Tallapoosa County have done is to strike one of the first
real blows for American fuel independence by building a plant to produce
50 million gallons of fuel grade ethanol each year.
In
order to do that, 18 million bushels of corn will be needed to produce
the required ethanol.
Final
details are being worked out and ground is expected to be broken later
this year on the $135 million plant that should be finished by late 2008
or early 2009.
Executives
of the Alabama Renewable Energy Alliance (AREA) have worked hard to
bring the ethanol plan to fruition.
Co-generation
facilities also will be included at the ethanol plant which will be
located in the William Thweatt Industrial Park—located just south of
Dadeville off U.S. 280.
AREA
Project Manager Jeff Hill said the co-generation facility will produce
steam for the ethanol plant "and have a generator to produce
electricity for sale on the electrical grid and use at the plant itself.
"The
primary fuel for the co-generation facility will be waste wood with
natural gas backup," said Hill. "This will be the first
ethanol facility in the United States to use waste wood for the steam
source in the production of ethanol."
Hill
stated the plant, once it goes on line, will be the result of using
"two separately proven technologies and combining them to provide a
very efficient alternative fuel production operation."
Another
advantage of the new facility, Hill said, is the byproduct it will
provide.
"After
we use the corn for the production of ethanol, 33 percent will still be
available for use as animal feed," he said. "It only takes 33
percent of the corn we use to remove the starches from it in the
production process."
Hill
doesn’t see a down side to the project, preferring to focus on all the
good things he and other AREA officials expect will happen.
"The
more corn we use the more that will be available to local farmers for
cattle, chicken or some other type of animal feed," Hill said.
"The remaining 33 percent of the corn used for fermentation is
turned into carbon dioxide which will be recovered and sold for the
production of dry ice and other uses."
The
corn "mash" byproduct may sound a bit like a scene
from "Thunder Road" that helped make actor Robert
Mitchum a star, but its use these days will be on helping fuel
production and environmentalists, not moonshiners.
In
the center of it all is this east Alabama county which has seen its
major industry take a nose-dive during the past decade.
At
one time, Russell Corp. employees produced athletic apparel worn around
the world. Today, much of that work is being done overseas where cheap
labor has cost about 5,000 jobs in Tallapoosa and surrounding counties.
As
the area sank deeper into economic depression, foreign car manufacturers
helped lift local spirits by building supplier plants in the county and
area.
Now,
the ethanol facility comes along and the future looks much brighter than
it did only a few years ago.
One
advantage of Tallapoosa County’s selection was the influence of Jerry
Brooks, who grew up in the county and is a major investor in the ethanol
plant.
"We
were approached about the project last year and have been working on it
since that time," said former Alexander City Mayor Don McClellan,
who now directs the Lake Martin Area Economic Development Alliance.
"We are all very excited about what it will mean for this
area."
Alexander
City Mayor Barbara Young, who succeeded McClellan, is a major supporter
of the project, but cautions that some things will have to be taken care
of before ground is broken.
"Dadeville
will have to make some adjustments to its waste water operation, but we’re
all confident that will happen," Young said. "A group of
county leaders visited an ethanol plant earlier this year and came back
very impressed."
One
of those leaders is Tallapoosa County Commissioner Charles Shaw, who
returned home from Illinois with a much better impression of just what
an ethanol facility is.
"This
will be a major asset for Dadeville and Tallapoosa County," he
said. "It will provide jobs and should grow in size to add even
more people."
Shaw
said air, water or other environmental concerns will be addressed and
handled in the coming weeks. He also realizes that Alabama will
need to approach states in the Midwest where all that corn is grown.
"We
might be able to use some corn grown in Alabama or in Georgia, but we’re
going to have to rely mostly on corn grown in the Midwest," Shaw
said. "We just don’t have the amount of farm land needed in our
area to grow all the corn that will be needed for the plant."
The
majority of ethanol is made from corn, but can also be made from many
other crops including wheat, barley, sorghum and sugar cane.
Technological advances may one day produce ethanol from feed stocks such
as wood chips, straw or switchgrass.
Ethanol
is produced by taking the starch or sugar portion of corn and fermenting
it, then distilling the alcohol from the brew. The resultant byproduct
is highly nutritional animal feed that contains all the remaining fats,
oils and proteins after the starch is removed and converted to ethanol.
According
to the American Coalition for Ethanol and AREA, ethanol has a
"pleasant aroma" and smells somewhat like baking bread with a
yeasty sensation that dissipates within 100 yards of the plant,
depending on which way the wind is blowing.
Those
who support the plant say none of the smell emanating from the ethanol
will seem like the "aroma" from paper plants that dot Alabama.
The
term "E85" is becoming known around the country since it
represents 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline for use in
flexible fuel vehicles. That means cars and trucks that can run on
either all gasoline or ethanol. More and more auto manufacturing plants
are producing vehicles that can accommodate either.
The
town of Hoover in Jefferson County has become a leader in the state in
the use of "E85" fuel. All of the city’s public safety
vehicles are powered by it.
The
amount of corn used in ethanol production is staggering. In 2005, the
last reporting period, 1.6 billion bushels of corn went into ethanol
production. That came to 14 percent of America’s total corn crop.
According
to the American Coalition for Ethanol and AREA, no ethanol producers
receive a "huge government subsidy."
"This
is a myth," said the two groups in a position paper. "Ethanol’s
subsidy is a federal tax credit that goes to oil companies as an
incentive to blend ethanol with gasoline."
The
real bottom line is the new plant and what it will do for an
economy that’s taken more than its share of hits of late.
Instead
of having to drive long distances to find work after losing their jobs
at Russell, some will now be able to apply for jobs at the ethanol
plant. Initial employment won’t be very high, but expansion is always
a possibility.
That,
in itself, has put a happy smile on the faces of a lot of folks in not
only Tallapoosa County, but throughout east Alabama.
Alvin
Benn is a freelance writer from Selma. |
