The new owners of a shuttered ethanol facility in South Georgia say they will succeed where Range Fuels failed. Chicago-based Lanza Tech also plans to create hundreds of jobs in Soperton.

Range Fuels planned to take wood waste and turn it into ethanol using a thermal process. The company shut down after making one batch of fuel after spending nearly $100 million dollars in state and federal dollars. Lanza Tech bought the facility at foreclosure for $5 million dollars.

The company’s Laurel Harmon says they will burn wood waste, create carbon monoxide, and make ethanol. And they’re already doing it at plants in New Zealand and China.

“In the same way that a yeast consumes sugar to make alcohols, our bacteria consume carbon monoxide and produce alcohols or other products.”

Harmon says right now they are in the process of evaluating the equipment and not sure when they will start production.

Tags: Range Fuels, Lanza Tech, Freedom Pines, Georgia ethanol industry, biorefinery