SUNY Unveils Wood-To-Ethanol Project

The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry unveiled a pilot project that's expected to create an economic boom in upstate New York. Seven years in the making, SUNY ESF is turning wood into ethanol. The project is so successful, an ethanol plant will break ground this spring. The wood is debarked, then chipped and cooked in a 65 cubic foot steel vessel at 180 degrees centigrade. Sugars are extracted from the wood then fermented in vats before being further condensed and diluted. The end product is a clear ethanol liquid, and much more environmentally friendly than petroleum.

Engineers from O’Brien and Gere in conjunction with Catalyst Renewables will break ground next spring on 30 million dollar wood to ethanol facility in Lyonsdale, New York, which will manufacture 130 thousand gallons of ethanol a year. Shrub willows, which take only 3 years to mature, will be the feed stock for the project.

WTVH Syracuse, Sept. 27, 2007

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