Range Fuels Plans Mass Cellulosic Facility

Range Fuels announced a new strategic partnership with Emerson(EMR Quote) that aims to build America's first industrial-scale cellulosic biofuels plant.

Range will build the facility in Soperton, Ga., by 2010. The plant will ultimately have a production capacity of 100 million gallons of cellulosic biofuels per year.

The plant will produce ethanol and methanol from non-food biomass such as wood.

Range Fuels was recently awarded an $80 million loan guarantee by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build the plant. The loan was the first ever to be dedicated to a cellulosic biofuels program.

Range Fuels is a privately held company based in Broomfield, Colo. It is funded by a number of greentech venture capital firms, including Khosla Ventures.

If successful, the project will leapfrog the cellulosic project announced just last month by BP(BP Quote) and Verenium(VRNM Quote). That proposal calls for a 36 million gallon-per-year plant to be built by 2012.

Shares of Emerson were recently moving 6.2% lower at $24.78. BP was sliding 1.5% at $35.29, and Verenium was unchanged at 35 cents a share.