Clemson University on Thursday announced plans to build a biofuel research plant at its Restoration Institute on the former Charleston Naval Base in North Charleston that will use native plants such as switchgrass to make ethanol.

Nick Rigas, the institute’s director of renewable energy, said many other institutions across the nation are building pilot plants, but this plant will be different because it will focus on making alternative fuels from plants native to South Carolina’s coastal plain. Many plants now make ethanol from crops such as corn, he said, but the new plant won’t compete for crops grown for food.

Rigas said the plant, which will likely open in the summer of 2009, represents a collaborative effort between researchers at Clemson, South Carolina State University, the Savannah River National Laboratory and SC Bio. Private industry partners are also contributing to the project, including Fagen, one of the nation’s leaders in designing and building ethanol plants; Spinx, a biodiesel and ethanol gasoline dealer; and Dyadic International, a leader in the development of novel enzymes for breaking down cellulose.

The collaboration’s goal is to help the state and nation reduce dependence on fossil fuels and enhance the state’s alternative fuel industry.

Clemson is contributing $500,000 for the plant’s design, Rigas said, and private industry partners are contributing money and services to the project.

“This project will provide our state with unique facilities to scale up new biofuel technology being developed by the research institutions,” Rigas said in a news release. “Without such a facility, commercialization of this new technology is very difficult.”

Making ethanol using cellulosic biomass from regional plants such as grasses, trees and sorghum isn’t yet commercially viable, Rigas said. It’s more difficult and more expensive to break down the cell walls of those plants than it is to break down those in corn or sugar cane. The plants must be broken down to get to the sugars that then ferment to eventually make ethanol. “We must find more economical ways to break them down,” Rigas said.

He estimates that it will take researchers two to three years after the plant opens before they will find ways to make the process more commercially viable.

Larry Murdoch, the Southeast regional manager for Fagen, the company that will design the new plant, said, “We want to help in the development of this industry.”

The company, he said, is willing to donate its services to Clemson because it has a plant and office in Greenville and wants to contribute to the South Carolina community. The area also is appealing because it has a lot of resources for the biomass industry such as switchgrass and wood, he said.

He’s excited about the industry but knows progress must be made before it’s commercially viable.

“We’re positive and bullish but we have challenges ahead in the next few years,” Murdoch said.

Reach Diane Knich at 937-5491 or dknich@postandcourier.com.