Cleveland, Tennessee Based Kudzu Ethanol Preparing For Production

Could an annoying plant hold the key to reducing our dependence on foreign oil?

A Cleveland, Tennessee man who knows how to make ethanol out of kudzu may soon bring his refining process to market.

This time next year, the gas you fill-up with in Chattanooga may be cheaper than other parts of the country.  Tom Monahan with Agro*Gas says Chattanooga will be number one and then it will spread out from there.

In the basement of a Cleveland, Tennessee home, Doug Mizell's experiment in energy appears to be taking off.  He's found a way to turn kudzu into fuel.  Mizell says "if it blows a good blue flame like that, that means there's purity there."

Mizell's spent the last decade perfecting a process to refine kudzu into commercially viable ethanol.  Monahan says "cellulosic which is the way we're going, is from plant refuge, we basically can use anything that grew and convert it into ethanol."

And since this ethanol isn't corn or soy based, it won't impact food prices.  It takes 10 to 15 pounds of plant material to make a gallon of fuel, at a cost of about $1.30.

Next step, producing this product for market.  Monahan says "we're looking for funding to build our first small plant, what you'd call a demonstration plant to help prove to our major investors that it works."

Monahan says a major fuel distributor wants to purchase two-thirds of their first year's production to cut into gas sold throughout the Tennessee Valley.  "The distributor we're talking to just wants to get it out there at 10% in all gas.

Mizell "wants that savings reflected at the pump too so that the consumer gets the benefit of that."

He says if that initial refinery plant proves successful, he'll build additional plants across the southeast every six-months.  "My goal is to make East TN the cellulosic valley of the entire industry."