It seems to me that a syngas to ethanol process is most likely to be successful. Quite a high profile person they've hired, and earlier we had LS9 hiring a former Big Oil refining exec. I have my doubts about overall market volumes, but perhaps some companies such as these will succeed in the biofuels market in the long term. Silver BBs. The recent IEA report leaked by the Financial Times reported a 9.1% decline rate in existing oil fields worldwide! That is nuts, I almost wonder if these guys are jumping ship.

It would be interesting if Range were to link up with Velocys, the world leader in microchannel process technology for the production of synthetic fuels.
Range has a modular gasification process which can be placed near the biomass location.
Velocys microchannel modular FT processors convert syngas to synthetic diesel.
Synfuel has energy density similar to gasoline or diesel and can be used in forestry vehicles onsite & for trucking.

From the earlier post:
"The company, founded by Khosla Ventures, estimates that this plant—combined with others to follow—will have the capacity to produce more than 1 billion gallons of ethanol per year.
Wood waste from Georgia’s millions of acres of indigenous Georgia Pine will be the main source of biomass for the ethanol production.
The Range system, which it calls K2, uses a two-step thermochemical conversion process. It first gasifies biomass waste such as wood chips, agricultural wastes, grasses, cornstalks, hog manure, municipal garbage, sawdust and paper pulp to create a syngas that it then converts catalytically to ethanol.
In addition to supporting a broad range of biomass for feedstock, the K2 system is also modular. Depending upon the quantity and availability of feedstock, the K2 system can scale from entry level systems to large configurations. This range of system performance will allow the K2 to be placed near the biomass location reducing transportation costs, and will allow the most economical size system to be deployed."

This appointment seems predictive of a broadening wave of energy expertise moving to alternative resource developers. Range shows particular promise as it is well-funded and has a viable process (K2) in pilot phase.

Velosys, a unit of defense giant Battele is not yet ready to warrant a JV with Range at this time. However Battele might consider licensing the Range technology for use with a portable synfuel project.

"(Velosys)The Plain City company, which develops technology for the energy and chemical industries, said the U.S. Department of Defense awarded a $100,000 contract for a collaboration with Gilbert, Ariz.-based Diversified Energy Corp. Velocys and Diversified Energy were one of four companies or teams awarded contracts for the first phase of the system's development, which entails conducting an engineering study on technology that could make up to 500 barrels of high-performance fuel daily out of waste materials at military installations."