Tennessee state lawmakers might pull the plug on a University of Tennessee effort to produce ethanol from switchgrass, according to The Tennessean in Nashville, after they say they were misled about the direction of the $70 million project two years after it started.

UT has changed business partners, scaled down production and now plans to start out using corncobs instead of switchgrass.

UT is partnering with Delaware-based DuPont Co. to build an experimental refinery and using the chemical giant's existing technology that produces ethanol from corncobs, not switchgrass.

The production capacity at the $36.7 million plant was slashed to 250,000 gallons of ethanol a year from 5 million gallons. This means the state would have to spend an additional $11 million through June 30, 2013, just to keep the project active.

"The state is subsidizing DuPont to do all this research. It's all they're doing," Rep. Curry Todd, R-Collierville told the Tennessean. "It's a sad commentary that we were led down this road by the governor, UT and whoever else was involved in it."

The plan also called for paying area farmers about $1.8 million to grow switchgrass.

(The Tennessean, Nov. 5, 2009)

(http://www.tennessean.com/…)

DTN: One thing Tennessee lawmakers might want to consider is that many cellulosic ethanol technology developers are working on systems to produce ethanol using a wide variety of feedstocks. What's more, many future cellulosic ethanol plants will need to be equipped to handle whatever feedstock might be available at a given time. Since it will take a very large volume of biomass to keep these plants running year-round, odds are that a plant designed to handle switchgrass won't have enough of it to run a plant all year. The use of corn stover, wheat straw, rice straw, sorghum and other materials will have to be a part of the feedstock supply chain. The idea that DuPont is using corn stover in the UT project shouldn't in any way indicate that they are moving away from switchgrass. (Todd Neeley)