Fuels research in overdrive
Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail
April 1, 2007
http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/Business/2007033119
By Joe Morris
Staff writer
Aside from its work on developing biodiesel technology, MATRIC is involved in cutting-edge research on other biofuels.
“Biofuels are going to be important with the price of oil continuing to rise,” said Keith Pauley, president and chief executive of the research center, formally known as the Mid-Atlantic Technology Research and Innovation Center.
Founded three years ago in the South Charleston Technology Park laboratory building left vacant by Dow Chemical Co., MATRIC is in the midst of about 10 biofuels-related research and commercial-development projects, Pauley said.
It now employs 55 people and has won about $15 million worth of competitive contracts. Among its biofuels-contract clients are the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, New Jersey Institute of Technology and federal Department of Energy.
One of MATRIC’s most promising projects, which it’s pursuing on its own, involves “pyrolysis” — using extreme heat to decompose agricultural manure and other agricultural waste such as nut shells. The process transforms the waste into soil additives for mine-scarred land and other land with depleted soil.
“This is the best near-term opportunity for large-scale biomass energy in West Virginia,” Pauley said.
To explore the potential for pyrolysis and other soil-remediation processes, MATRIC has formed the Land Restoration Center with West Virginia State University and the West Virginia Land and Mineral Owners Council.
Land restored after mining damage can yield up to $1,755 per acre in timber value when replanted with white pine species, compared with just $122 per acre for untreated soil, according to MATRIC research. More valuable wood yields even more. Land that can sustain white oak produces $8,425 per acre, compared with $1,120 for untreated land, MATRIC says.
While the University of Kentucky and Virginia Tech have launched similar efforts studying post-mine land reclamation, neither is researching West Virginia’s native forest species, MATRIC says.
MATRIC is also experimenting with “cellulosic” ethanol, a form of the alcohol-based gasoline additive that’s made from wood and switchgrass.
To contact staff writer Joe Morris, use e-mail or call 348-5179.