Vonore and Monroe County are officially on the map when it comes to new and innovative green energy and technology.
A grand opening for the 74,000-square-foot plant cellulosic ethanol demonstration in the Niles Ferry Industrial Park was held Friday.

Winter weather kept Gov. Phil Bredesen from making the trip from Nashville to speak at the event.
But the governor's absence and the threat of winter weather did not dampen the enthusiasm among the hundreds of people there.

Many state and local leaders were on hand despite weather concerns Friday to learn about the plant often called the "switchgrass" plant by local residents due to the crop that some area farmers are supplying for the operation.
"Genuis resides here," said University of Tennessee Interim President  Dr. Jan Simek, referring to Sequoyah, who was born near modern-day Vonore and created a syllabary for the Cherokee. "It's deep in the ground."

Simek and other officials paid tribute to the many local farmers growing the feedstock that puts Monroe County on the cutting edge of renewable energy technology.
Many of the speakers paid tribute to soft-spoken Dr. Kelly Tiller, president and CEO of Genera Energy and a main driving force in making the dream of having such a plant in Vonore come true.
Despite the praise, Tiller, who is from Greenback, did not speak long.

"It's really an amazing partnership," she said, looking around the room at farmers dressed in blue jeans and national, state and local leaders in suits.
DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC (DDCE) and University of Tennessee/Genera Energy LLC founded and are operating the facility.

The partners organized the grand opening celebration for the plant, which is one of the nation's first cellulosic ethanol demonstration plants, and the only one dedicated to converting both agricultural residue and bioenergy crops to fuel ethanol.

The facility has initiated start-up and commissioning and has begun producing ethanol.
The facility has the capacity to produce 250,000 gallons of ethanol from corncobs and switchgrass and is preparing DDCE's innovative integrated technology for commercial production by 2012, plant officials said.

The cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in Vonore, applies innovative integrated technology to convert agricultural residues and dedicated bioenergy crops to ethanol for fuel.

The facility is focused on process and data validation to achieve commercial scale production by 2012. DDCE was established in 2008 to integrate the state-of-the art technologies and engineering expertise of DuPont and Danisco, and today is accelerating commercialization of cellulosic ethanol.
In Tennessee, DDCE has partnered with Genera Energy, which is wholly owned by the University of Tennessee Research Foundation and focuses on developing integrated biomass supply chain solutions and strategic partnerships to support the bioenergy industry in Tennessee.

Genera Energy was formed in 2008 as a vehicle to carry out the cellulosic biorefinery activities and capital projects of the UT Biofuels Initiative, a farm-to-fuel business model funded with support from the Tennessee General Assembly to create a renewable energy industry in the state. Genera Energy was specifically created to provide the commercial flexibility needed to develop collaborations and partnerships with private entities with technology or other resources to contribute to the UTBI. Genera Energy has recently expanded its outreach to support the University's interests in other renewable energy technologies.

tommy.millsaps@advocateanddemocrat.com | 337-7101