March 3, 2008
My Other Car Runs On Old-Growth
Washington lumber giant Weyerhaeuser and California's Chevron Oil and Gas Company have announced a partnership to develop a new bio-fuel. The planned fuel would be created out of wood fiber--something we imagine Weyerhaeuser has plenty of.
The 50-50 partnership was announced on Friday afternoon in a joint statement. The venture has been named "Catchlight Energy." The new company will use staff and resources from Weyerhaeuser's Federal Way office and a number of Chevron's plants. First on the new project's checklist? Creating and demonstrating the technology which could convert the wood fibers into a viable fuel. This seems to imply such a thing has yet to be done. (We might have waited on the announcement until that little tid-bit was smoothed out.)
Seattlest wonders what the logic is of creating an alternative fuel from another finite and precious resource. What do you think about Weyerhaeuser and Chevron's new partnership and plan?
"Porcupine Tree" by our very own mvbseattle from the Seattlest Flickr Pool
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I always was a fan of steam power... that is, until they started using coal. Coal is so dirty.
"Seattlest wonders what the logic is of creating an alternative fuel from another finite and precious resource."
Are you saying that wood fiber is a "finite and precious" resource?
I mean it's not as super renewable as corn or George Bush's beloved switch grass, but wood and trees are pretty renewable resources...
BigGreen beat me to it. I think wood is a wonderfully renewable resource if harvested responsibly.
Especially if what they would be using is logging debris. Certainly beats burning it, or letting it sit around until it DOES become kindling.
Now all we need is to figure out a cost-effective way to generate cellulosic ethanol!
I, for one, welcome our cellulosic ethanol creating, gasificating and combined hydrolyzing & fermentating Clostridium bacterium overlords.