Florida announces first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant

[theholycow]

"Florida’s agricultural industry can produce fuel crops on a major commercial scale without sacrificing food crops" -- Hooray!

http://www.greenbang.com/florida-ann...ethanol-plant/

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Verenium Company today announced plans to build its first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, to be located in south-central Florida’s Highlands County.

Set to begin operations in 2011, the proposed $250 million (US) to $300 million facility will get its biofuel feedstock from Lykes Bros. Inc., an agribusiness that farms about 20,000 acres of land adjacent to the Verenium plant site.

The project is being supported with a $7 million grant from the state of Florida’s “Farm to Fuel” program, which promotes biofuel projects that will use Florida-grown crops or biomass.

“The message today is that Florida’s agricultural industry can produce fuel crops on a major commercial scale without sacrificing food crops,” said Charles H. Bronson, commissioner of Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services. “This is a major step forward for our ‘Farm to Fuel’ program and hopefully will serve as a catalyst for additional investment by companies interested in producing renewable energy in Florida.”

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Verenium has tested its cellosic ethanol production process at pilot and demonstration plants in Jennings, Louisiana. The commercial facility planned for Florida is ultimately expected to produce up to 36 million gallons of ethanol each year.

Verenium’s planned site in the Sunshine State is fitting for more than its proximity to biomass-producing farmland: the company’s next-generation production process is based on technology first developed at the University of Florida.

[GasSavers_GasUser]

I am not a big fan of ethanol. I am not going to get into it. But Florida is the best place for an ethanol plant if you are going to build one due to all the farms and multiple growing seasons..

Just my opinion.

[bowtieguy]

Originally Posted by theholycow

...to be located in south-central Florida?s Highlands County.

...the company's next-generation production process is based on technology first developed at the University of Florida.

i deliver down there once a week. lots of land w/ trees and plants.

Go Gators!

[theholycow]

Another cellulosic ethanol plant plan, this one in Iowa:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=...ol-producer-to

Major ethanol producer to build cellulosic refinery in Iowa
Millions in government grants go to start the state's first commercial refinery for ethanol made from cobs and grasses

By Michael Burnham

The nation's largest grain ethanol producer, Poet LLC, will use state and federal grants to start work on the company's first commercial cellulosic refinery in Iowa.

The Sioux Falls, S.D.-based company is preparing to convert a 50-million-gallon-a-year grain ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa, into an integrated refinery that would produce fuels from both corn kernels and cobs.

"Project Liberty" would begin production in 2011 with a 125-million-gallon-a-year nameplate capacity, followed by several more dual-fuel plants throughout the state, company officials claim.

The Emmetsburg makeover will cost more than $200 million, but Poet has secured grants of up to $80 million from the U.S. Department of Energy and $14.75 million from Iowa. The 18-member Iowa Power Fund Board, which includes state agency directors and gubernatorial appointees, approved the funds yesterday.

Poet would pay back a portion of the state grant, depending on if and where the company replicates the cellulosic technology, said Brian Crowe, senior program planner with the Iowa Office of Energy Independence. For example, if Poet built a second commercial plant in Iowa, the company would pay the state $100,000; if Poet replicated the technology in another state, the company would pay Iowa $500,000.

If Poet licensed its technology to another company, and it built a refinery outside of Iowa, Poet would pay the Hawkeye State as much as $800,000, according to the contract.

"Obviously, our preference is to have the plant replicated in Iowa," Crowe said.

Poet plans to raise $2 billion of debt, equity and public financing and invest the money in six more dual-fuel refineries in Iowa, said Nathan Schock, a company spokesman. The makeovers would be modeled after a 20,000-gallon-a-year integrated refinery Poet opened in Scotland, S.D., late last year.

"We believe the quickest route to commercial cellulosic ethanol production in this country is this integrated model," added Schock, who said construction of the Emmetsburg plant could begin as soon late 2009.

Cellulosic ethanol is not produced and sold commercially in the United States, but Poet officials say they have been able to validate lab tests at the South Dakota pilot refinery. The privately held company is also working with the Danish biotechnology company Novozymes to develop enzymes that cost-effectively break down tough, cellulosic plant fiber found in corncobs.

Poet, which operates 26 grain corn ethanol refineries throughout the Midwest, has the capacity to produce about 1.5 billion gallons of the biofuel annually. But company CEO Jeff Broin contends that the United States could produce as much as 85 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually from corncobs, switchgrass, yard waste and other woody biomass.