South Carolina economic developer Joseph James helped form the South Carolina Biomass Council and chairs the feedstock committee, which is looking at a variety of feedstocks for the Southeast.
James hopes to recruit farmers around South Carolina to plant Arundo this spring. With one eye on the invasive species concerns being raised, they intend to keep plantings on dryland fields with tilled borders to keep the planting contained, James says.
James sees great potential in Arundo crops for South Carolina farmers. He has sent samples to Iogen Corp., a Canadian ethanol producer, which has conducted preliminary tests and finds it promising for the company’s cellulosic ethanol program. The state’s paper industry is quite interested in using Arundo as a pulp source because the cane’s long fibers make particularly high quality paper, he says. A paper plant recently outbid a utility that wanted to cofire Arundo with coal using the limited Arundo supplies now available, he says. Another company is testing Arundo as a biomass source to complement wood in its production of fuel pellets for the European market.
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