From home building to alternative energy, entrepreneurs in the "green" job sector hope to turn environmentally friendly products into commercial successes.

The green sector employs few workers in the Shoals, but several companies are trying to turn that around.

Green jobs are expected to become a greater part of the economy after President Barack Obama hired author and advocate Van Jones as the green jobs czar.

The $787 billion federal stimulus bill includes $70 billion slated mostly for a national switch to green energy.

Plus, legislation is pending in the Senate that would give incentives for energy efficiency, grants for the green job sector and renewable requirements for utilities. The bill also includes controversial carbon cap-and-trade language and passed the House by a narrow margin of 219-212.

Green sector jobs include windmill design and production in Iuka, Miss., energy production from plant matter in Florence and solar panel production, architects and consultants in Huntsville.

One veteran of the green business movement is Hoot Haddock, who owns ThermaSAVE, a company that makes construction materials.

Haddock placed on a conference table a large brick that resembled a s'more: white polystyrene foam sandwiched between two thin layers of fiber cement board.

"It doesn't burn, rot or mildew and the termites hate it," he said of the sample that can be used as walls, foundation and roofing material. The material can withstand earthquakes, water and hurricane-force winds, plus it saves 75 percent on energy bills, Haddock said.

In the early 1980s, Haddock was a project manager in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, "looking for ways to get out of there."

He and his collaborators noticed that at 50 degrees below zero, their building, which consisted of a wooden frame, vinyl and dry wall, would be so cold frost appeared on the inside. Not so with a shed made of metal walls with foam in between.

That got Haddock to thinking, and for the next 17 years he worked in Alaska on buildings that would have walls, roofs and foundations that could withstand 200 mph winds and snow loads up to 160 pounds per square inch. If the modular building's interiors flooded, they could be washed down and dried.

An independent economic analysis by Paul Sharp, of the Home Builders Network in Maryland, showed that using ThermaSAVE could save home builders 33 to 44 percent over more conventional construction.

"Part of the issue is the consumer is not being educated enough to ask for what products are going to be best for them," said Bud Ward, a small business consultant who works with Haddock.

One church in Tennessee estimated it saved enough energy compared with a similar metal building in one year to pay for the $116,000 in panels used in construction.

"If you're going to be a builder, you are not going to reap the rewards, but if you are living in it, you will," Ward said.

Haddock first used the material in 1984 in Wasilla, Alaska, to build a 2,400-square-foot house where his daughter still lives.

Since the housing market collapse, green building initiatives may be difficult to sustain. At one time, ThermaSAVE employed 20 workers. Now, the company is getting involved in large-scale developments and commercial properties. Though the factory is empty of workers, Haddock is moving toward constructing the factories to build ThermaSAVE so contractors on location can make the s'more-like material themselves.

"Then the green movement came along and it did more for us than anything," he said.

Phil Badger, owner of Renewable Oil International, put on a table his own innovation: a Mason jar filled with a thin black fluid called "bio-crude."

The unrefined fuel source comes from a chemical process, called pyrolysis, which starts from biomass - anything from wood chips to grass clippings, crab shells, even shredded paper. The material is superheated up to 1,000 degrees in one second and the resultant vapors are condensed in two seconds - all done in the absence of air.

The reaction results in charcoal, bio-crude and flammable gas. The charcoal can be used as a soil amendment. Researchers are examining how to further refine the bio-crude to chemically resemble petroleum-fuel and the gas could be used as an energy source for the chemical reaction.

However, "if you're really getting energy from biomass, you're going to have to grow crops," Badger said. "Biomass is the only renewable source of renewable liquid fuels."

Renewable Oil International is working with researchers at the University of Massachusetts to develop biorefineries to try to refine the fuel to become indistinguishable from regular diesel. The company has four full-time employees and one part-timer.

Renewable Oil International will be put to the test in the next 18 months to produce four liters of jet fuel that captures a minimum of 30 percent of energy from plant material.

The project, an initiative from the Department of Defense, will require Renewable Oil International to make that benchmark before being invited back to improve the process.

The company had a pilot project at a chicken farm in Russellville, using chicken waste products as a fuel source. The chicken litter, however, which resembles black sand, didn't hold as much energy as plant material.

For Badger, almost any organic material could be used to make fuel, including waste products such as shells from crab processors.

"It's a problem for how to dispose of these waste products," Badger said. "We can convert from a negative to a positive instead of companies paying to get rid of it."

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5728 or trevor.stokes@TimesDaily.com.