Local farmers last week heard about a subject that could be of interest to them -- the production of ethanol from corn.

Dr. Bruce Wolf, a retired surgeon who also has a small farm in Greenville, spoke to the Mercer County Crop Management Association (CMA) during its annual meeting at Hoss's Steak & Sea House, Springfield Township.

"I'm here to let people know more about ethanol and bring interest to generate a plant here," he said. "I've become a firm believer (in ethanol) the past four or five months."

That's when Wolf began his research of ethanol.

A board member of the Mercer County Farm Bureau, he learned that ethanol has a high oxygen content, which can be used as an additive in gasoline for combustion.

Already, 15 states have banned MTBE, a petroleum-based additive used in gasoline, that is hazardous to the environment. The state House of Representatives approved a ban on MTBE in Pennsylvania. It awaits action in the Senate.

Ethanol burns cleaner than MTBE and is replenishable resource produced from corn that can be grown in the U.S., lessening the dependency on foreign oil.

Ethanol can be produced from wood chips, garbage and other organic items, although current technology favors extraction from corn.

Water and enzymes are added to corn, which is heated in order to separate the protein, fat and fiber from the starch in the vegetable.

The protein, fat and fiber can be recycled for livestock feed, Wolf said. Yeast is added to the starch for fermentation, which leads to a process that generates ethanol.

Several states in the Midwest have been quite successful in operating ethanol production plants, Wolf said.

"Nine-hundred-thousand farmers in the Midwest are members of cooperatives for ethanol production," Wolf said.

Profits can be made from ethanol, and tax incentives for producers run until 2007, he said.

"Can we do it?" Wolf asked the CMA members and supporters at the Wednesday night meeting.

He believes so, whether by a local effort or a regional one. Several counties surrounding Mercer County have also become interested in ethanol production.

Locally, the Greenville and Reynolds area would be a good location for a plant, Wolf said. For one, it has a good railway for importing corn.

Other perks to the Greenville-Reynolds area is it has a good utility system, is plentiful in water and is near Interstate 80, Wolf said.

He made up a 10-point plan, which would initially include a steering committee and research for an ethanol production plant in the area.

For now, though, private sources are paying for a consultant from West Virginia to see just how feasible it would be to have a local plant.

South Bend, Ind., is the closest ethanol production plant to the area, which makes corn exports unproductive. There have been talks of ethanol production plants being built in York, Pa., and Ashtabula County, Ohio.

The first plant was created in the late 1970s, Wolf said, and Henry Ford designed the Model-T to run on ethanol.

A few car manufacturers are beginning to make ethanol-run vehicles, called E-85s, he said. They use 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gas.

The use of corn for ethanol production plants in the Midwest began cropping up in the mid 1980s.

Prospects for this area seem promising -- or at least interesting -- to many attending the CMA meeting.

"With the price of corn being so low the last five years," said CMA board member Chuck Sump, "we're looking for another way (to sell it)."