Video of Ben Chandler comments

Armed with a recently announced $3.6 million federal contract with the Defense Logistics Agency, the Center for Renewable and Alternative Fuel Technologies (CRAFT) at Eastern Kentucky University is ramping up its efforts to boost biofuels production in central Kentucky.

Sixth District Congressman Ben Chandler, who was instrumental in securing the contract, was on the Richmond campus on Monday, Sept. 28, joining University officials and state leaders in providing an update on the initiative, which has already garnered considerable international attention for EKU.

Working with corporate partner General Atomics, Clark County and Winchester governments, Green Earth BioFuel in Estill County and Lextran, CRAFT will use algae techniques to process cellulosic materials that are readily available in the Commonwealth, offering a framework for sustainable fuel production and a boost for Kentucky agriculture.

“This is going to help our farmers, and it is going to produce jobs in this region,” Chandler said. “We can do it in such a way that we can employ people in good-paying jobs that can’t be exported.

“I’m tremendously proud to be associated with this fine university and these fine people. This university is well on its way to great things.”

The Defense Logistics Agency contract calls for specific areas of research that will ultimately lead to a demonstration pilot plant in Clark County to produce the biofuels. The EKU concept is unique in that the research will target locally grown biomass products to derive simple sugars that will be fed to algae to produce an oil that can be refined into fuels and other co-products such as plastics and pharmaceuticals.

Multi-disciplinary research teams are being established and initial investigative crop plantings are planned at EKU’s Meadowbrook Farm and with partner the Clark County Industrial Authority, so that by Spring 2010 crops will be under study. The research phase will focus on agricultural and economic data, including identification of optimal crops, land availability and transportation.

Types of biomass might include such sources as agricultural residues (corn stover), forestry wastes (such as saw dust, tree thinning, or pulp-mill residues), and purpose-grown crops for either marginal land (switch grass) or cropland (sorghum).

Chandler recalled a time in the 1970s when “there was a great rush to do something” about energy costs. “But (before) too long, gas prices went down, the lines (at service stations) went away and we didn’t do what ought to have been done.” After $4-plus gas prices of a year ago, “we now understand again how important it is to be independent.”

EKU President Doug Whitlock said the biofuels initiative “undergirds our instructional mission. We are first and foremost a teaching institution (and) an exciting part is how this has already touched our students and faculty.”

In addition to the recent federal grant, CRAFT has received $350,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission, $270,000 from the Kentucky Ag Development Board, and $27,000 from the Carl D. Perkins Fund.

Three other sizable federal grant requests are pending with the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.

“We are 100 percent dedicated to demonstrating that we will be wonderful stewards (of federal, state and other funding) and that the outcomes will be significant,” Whitlock said. “We’re fortunate to have a governor and Sixth District congressman who both see this as an opportunity for Kentucky to be in the forefront of something.”

The project also illustrates the University’s commitment to regional stewardship, which Whitlock has said on many occasions would be a cornerstone of his administration.

Dr. Bruce Pratt, chair of EKU’s Department of Agriculture and director of CRAFT, said the “field-to-fuel” concept, while initially focused on central Kentucky, could be replicated in other regions around the Commonwealth and the U.S. “This has national implications.”

Just as CRAFT already has attracted several national and regional partners, it also incorporates several academic disciplines at EKU, including chemistry, economics, agriculture and biology, Pratt emphasized.

Harry Moberly, executive vice president for administration at EKU and 81st District state representative, lauded Chandler’s support of CRAFT as well as the University’s New Science Building, now under construction.

“By far, the federal official who has helped this university the most and partnered with us on some exciting projects, particularly CRAFT, is Congressman Chandler,” he said.

Another speaker, Dr. Len Peters, secretary of Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet, said that the initiative represents a “potential $1.7 billion industry in direct dollars and another $2 billion in ancillary dollars. All Kentucky should be very proud of the work being done here.”

General Atomics, headquartered in San Diego, Calif., was founded in 1955 and specializes in diversified research, development and manufacturing in defense, energy and other advanced technologies. Affiliated manufacturing and commercial service companies include General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., which produces the Predator® family of UAVs.

PHOTO: Congressman Ben Chandler, left, and CRAFT Director Dr. Bruce Pratt chat following a campus news conference.