Plans move forward for study of ethanol plant

- Coahoma County moved one step closer to a future in ethanol production, a growing industry that could pump dollars into the local economy through added jobs and a new market for the area's agricultural commodities.

The Board of Supervisors recently approved a $35,000 contract with one of the country's leading renewable-fuel consulting firms to study the feasibility of building a corn-based ethanol-production plant here.

Memphis-based Frazier, Barnes and Associates will determine the county's ability to support such an operation by analyzing its corn-production, transportation, financial, technological and utility capabilities, according to the contract.

The group will also review the feasibility of installing a "biomass cogeneration facility" next to the proposed plant, the contract states. Pete Moss, the company's vice president of marketing, said the facility would use renewable resources to produce steam and electricity to run the ethanol plant.

"Many newer plants are going toward that trend," Moss said. "It take a lot of energy - more energy than the soybean-processing plant you used to have there - to run an ethanol-production plant, depending on the size of the facility."

The study - funded by a grant from the state's U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development office to the Delta Regional Authority and Coahoma County - should start Aug. 2 and wrap up toward the end of October. Moss said it's too early to predict whether Coahoma County can support the industry, but the study team will go in with an open mind, he said. County officials, meanwhile, are keeping their fingers crossed: District 1 Supervisor Paul Pearson called the study "the first step toward a promising, new future for our area."

In a region dominated by cotton production, few - if any - cotton farmers have voiced concerns about sharing space with a new cash crop, said Coahoma County Extension Agent Ann Ruscoe.

"I haven't heard anything from anyone against it," Ruscoe said. "As far as I know, it would really help the whole industry - corn is a great rotation crop - and it wouldn't be competitive to the existing industry."

Because ethanol contains a high concentration of oxygen, it helps vehicles cut down on fuel emissions, according to the American Coalition for Ethanol, which also stated that roughly 30 percent of all gasoline consumed in the United States will be blended with ethanol in 2004.

Ethanol is also heavily used in the personal-care industry - contained in products such as hairspray, mouthwash, aftershave, cologne and perfume - and in medicines and alcoholic beverages.