By Jim Shamp, North Carolina Biotechnology Center News & Publications Editor
OXFORD, N.C. – Laughter erupted from the crowd last Friday as North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler settled a “debt” he said was owed to Norris Tolson, president and CEO of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
Speaking at the grand opening of the Biofuels Center of North Carolina in Oxford, Troxler told the crowd that Tolson was “so thrilled” last year about securing the former tobacco research station for the state’s new Biofuels Center that Tolson paid spot cash – half the annual rental fee – as a down payment from personal funds. So Troxler presented Tolson with a ceremonial refund of the total outlay – 50 cents.
The merriment was as plentiful as the bluegrass and pig pickin’s as some 400 biofuel boosters converged on the new N.C. Biofuels Campus in Oxford for the official kickoff of the state’s commitment to replace 10 percent of its annual 5.6 billion gallons of imported liquid fuels with home-grown and -processed biofuels.
The commitment was sealed last year with the General Assembly’s decision to fund the Biofuels Center startup, giving North Carolina a quick turnaround in its previously lagging effort to deal with rising global fuel problems despite its reputation as “the Saudi Arabia of biomass” for its ethanol potential from its fertile land, sprawling forests, favorable climate and diverse agricultural base.
W. Steven Burke, senior vice president, corporate affairs with the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and moderator of the celebration, reminded the audience that this was the start of an entirely new business sector destined to bring jobs and an improved quality of life to residents of all 100 counties across the state.
“We begin this journey today fueled by a sense of shared purpose,” added Burke, who also serves as chairman of the Biofuels Center board and who also co-convened the group that wrote Fueling North Carolina’s Future: North Carolina’s Strategic Plan for Biofuels Leadership, available on the Internet at www.biofuelscenter.org.
Other key authors of that strategic plan include: Tolson; Billy Ray Hall, president of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center; Ghasem Shahbazi, Ph.D., professor and director of bioenvironmental engineering at North Carolina A&T State University; and Johnny Wynne, Ph.D., dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University.
Besides Troxler and Tolson, speakers joining Burke at the grand opening and ribbon cutting included Congressman G.K. Butterfield, State Rep. James Crawford and State Sens. Charles Albertson and Doug Berger. Several local municipal and county elected officials were also in the audience.
The celebrants also heard from Jack Carlisle, president of Clean Burn Fuels; from Lars Christian Hansen, president of Novozymes North America; and from John Ganzi, newly hired president of the non-profit Biofuels Center.
Carlisle’s Cary-based company is building North Carolina’s first ethanol plant, a $100 million facility started last December in Dundarrach, about three miles southeast of Raeford. The largest ethanol plant on the East Coast, it is expected to bring 100 jobs and millions of badly needed tax dollars to mostly rural Hoke county. The Biofuels Center staff also hopes to locate many smaller biofuel plants throughout the state, close to the farms and forests producing the various raw materials that do best in North Carolina’s geographical and agricultural diversity.
Carlisle noted that even though this facility will initially use corn as its ethanol source, it is being designed to accommodate cellulose such as wood chips and the other non-food resources being targeted by the Biofuels Center to fuel North Carolina’s future.
Hansen noted that Novozymes is dedicating a significant number of research scientists in North Carolina and elsewhere to develop enzymes that can efficiently convert cellulose into the sugars needed for ethanol. The company is a world leader in developing those kinds of enzymes.
Alternative-energy and biofuel displays and demonstrations lined the perimeter of the huge tent on the Biofuels Campus lawn, giving attendees a chance to learn about ethanol and biodiesel processing, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and other whiz-bang technologies.
A biodiesel-powered bus operated by Durham’s Greenway Transit carried some 20 employees from the Biotechnology Center to the Oxford event. Greenway Transit and Carolina Biodiesel manager Marc Dreyfors rode on the bus and described the benefits of non-petroleum fuels to passengers, stopping the bus at the non-profit fuel company’s headquarters en route to show off its capabilities.
“We take seriously the environment,” Burke said. “Moving to the coming years starts today.”