Range Fuels was a company that tried to develop technology for the conversion of biomass into

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a ...

without the use of enzymes. The technology employed was biomass gasification followed by syngas conversion over heterogeneous molybdenum-based catalysts to a mixture of aliphatic alcohols. The company began in 2006 as Kergy and changed its name to Range Fuels in 2007. The company broke ground on its first commercial-scale

cellulosic ethanol Cellulosic ethanol is ethanol (ethyl alcohol) produced from cellulose (the stringy fiber of a plant) rather than from the plant's seeds or fruit. It can be produced from grasses, wood, algae, or other plants. It is generally discussed for use as a ...

facility in November 2007. According to the ''Washington Examiner'', Range Fuels' Soperton, GA plant closed down in January 2011 after receiving a $76 million grant from the

US Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States. ...

, $6 million from the State of Georgia, and an $80 million loan guaranteed by the U.S. Biorefinery Assistance Program. Range Fuel officially closed down in late 2011 with a foreclosure sale of its plant held on 3 January 2012. The facility was sold to New Zealand-based start-up LanzaTech in 2012 for $5.4 million and renamed the Freedom Pines Biorefinery. Unlike Range Fuels, LanzaTech will use microbes to transform the gas into ethanol; a byproduct to their process is

butanediol Butanediol, also called butylene glycol, may refer to any one of four stable structural isomers: * 1,2-Butanediol * 1,3-Butanediol *1,4-Butanediol *2,3-Butanediol 2,3-Butanediol is the organic compound with the formula (CH3CHOH)2. It is classif ...

. Both products can be formulated into jet fuel with assistance from LanzaTech partner firms. Lanzatech is also a

Vinod Khosla Vinod Khosla (born 28 January 1955) is an Indian-American businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments in areas suc ...

-funded venture.

References

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External links

U.S. Dept. of Energy: Biomass topics
Alcohol fuel producers Defunct energy companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Colorado Companies based in Broomfield, Colorado Renewable resource companies established in 2006 Renewable resource companies disestablished in 2011 Privately held companies based in Colorado American companies established in 2006 American companies disestablished in 2011