“Using the Department of Energy’s Jobs and Economic Development Impact (JEDI) model, analysis results show that a cellulosic ethanol plant producing 50 million gallons per year would generate 390 full-time jobs for the duration of its three-year construction phase and $111 million in local economic activity. Operation of the plant would create 231 long-term jobs and a total of almost $22 million annually in direct and indirect economic impact, plus $1.24 million in annual property taxes. Ten ethanol plants of that size, an achievable goal for Montana (if dedicated energy crops and/or forest residues are used as feedstock in addition to crop residue), would produce 2,310 jobs, $219 million in annual economic activity, and $12.4 million in total local property taxes.”
Source: NRDC
Montana is rich in biomass (especially woody waste such as small diameter trees, barks, needles, branches and cones) on private lands and state and national forests, which has historically been piled and burned in place. Or burned in wildfires. Bioroot Energy seeks to monetize the state’s abundance of biomass harvested from sorely needed thinning and fuel reduction projects to create significant energy, economic and environmental value.
In addition, Montana’s population of nearly 1 million people generates a significant amount of municipal solid waste each day, and only about 15 percent of this waste is recycled. What isn’t recycled gets landfilled. Nearly all of this carbon-based waste can be converted to water soluble, biodegradable mixed alcohol fuel, which can then enter our in-state fuel supply as a strong competitor to corn ethanol.
Montana is also a coal-rich state. Gas-to-liquid fuel synthesis of ENVIROLENE® holds great promise to unlock the thus far elusive promise of “clean coal” and greatly reduce coal-fired emissions in a process which can even capture and recycle CO2 smokestack emissions into more ENVIROLENE.
In addition, Montana has substantial proven gas reserves (methane) which can be profitably converted to higher mixed alcohol fuel.
Montana has significant renewable biomass, solid and liquid wastes, and fossil-based resources such as coal and methane, and the opportunity to pioneer clean, profitable and sustainable waste to energy development:
- Millions of tons of woody waste biomass
- Millions of tons of solid and liquid municipal wastes
- Billions of tons of coal, as well as coal fines, petroleum coke and refinery bottoms
- Billions of cubic feet of stranded methane
- Nearly 1 million people to get the job done, right.
Relevant Document: An Assessment of Forest-based Woody Biomass Supply and Use in Montana
Ten Million People
