Door to ethanol plant appears open for Libby

A 2007 federal mandate requires the annual production of 16 billion gallons of ethanol from wood by 2022.

In 2008, the United States produced zero.

With the vision of Kootenai River Development Council’s Executive Director Paul Rumelhart, Libby could become one of the first commercial cellulosic ethanol plants operational in the nation.

In a meeting of the minds on Feb. 11 at the U.S. Forest Service office in Libby, Rumelhart sat down with government and private-sector timber industry representatives to discuss the feasibility of establishing long-term harvest supply contracts for an ethanol plant. 

“Flexibility has to be built into the plan,” Rumelhart said, “otherwise it will fail.”

Rumelhart added that when developing a plan, he believes it must meet four basic tenants:

• Is it economically viable?

• Is it environmentally sound?

• Does it contribute to sustainable community development?

• Does it not take anything away from future generations.

“This project meets those tenants,” he said.

Kootenai National Forest Supervisor Paul Bradford and Natural Resources Staff Officer Quinn Carver showed concern over timber harvest litigation and the people power to get the studies and paperwork done to even move on a project.

“We are starting to lose our people power on the (KNF),” Carver said. “There is a big percentage of forest experience walking out the door the next couple of years and that is what we are up against.”

Bradford said he is willing to continue working on feasibility figures to assist the biofuels project.

Logger Paul Tisher said the lumber market has endured vast fluxuations the past couple years and what was a viable product last year could not be next year. 

Tisher said one advantage to getting feedstock to the proposed ethanol plant might be lower transportation costs. However, he said if the facility was competing with other mills for larger timber, the price would drive the market.

“What you are going to pay will determine the availability,” Tisher said, adding that a long-term contract with a fixed cost is appealing.

Tisher said transportation costs for moving lumber are “somewhat stable” at the time, but getting the small diameter lumber required by the ethanol plant could drive up logging costs.

Lincoln County Forester Ed Levert said something should be done with the land so it does not stagnate and lay seed for fire or insect pandemics.

Levert believes the ethanol plant could be the catalyst for a long-term stewardship contract as well as benefiting the wildland-urban interface to remove potential hazards from homes and communities.

Levert estimates that on a 50 million board feet sale, which is the annual allotment on the KNF, there are 86,000 tons of non-saw logs. The ethanol facility proposal is currently for 5 million gallons, which equals 230,000 tons of material, or an additional 38 mbf.

Mike Hancock with E-squared Consulting was hired by the Kootenai River Development Council to perform the feasibility study.

Hancock said there are enormous subsidies from federal and state government, adding that with the mandate for cellulosic ethanol there is a guaranteed market.

“This is a unique movement in the biofuels arena and it will take a lot of collaboration between a lot of folks to get this started,” Hancock said. “The idea here is to go to a commercial plant. We need to find a supply and then structure the plant size and productivity accordingly.”