published: Thursday, January 15, 2009

Second ethanol plant slated for county

By TREY CHRISTY

trey.christy@newssun.com

Early Thursday the Verenium Corporation officially announced its plans to build its first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility in Highlands County.

"I think that it's good news for Highlands County, not only the plant will be good for the economy, with good- paying jobs, but also the supporting agriculture," said Highlands County Board of County Commission Chairperson Barbara Stewart. "It will support diversification of our agriculture, which will help to sustain it into the future."

U.S. Envirofuels has already announced plans to start construction on an ethanol plant that will use sweet sorghum and sugar cane to create fuel near Venus sometime this year.

Verenium has entered into a long-term agreement with Lykes Bros. Inc. to provide the agricultural biomass for conversion to fuel.

The agreement includes a facility site option and a long-term farm lease, where Lykes will provide the necessary feedstock from approximately 20,000 acres adjacent to the site.

Verenium was awarded a $7 million grant as part of Florida's "Farm to Fuel" initiative, designed to stimulate the development of a renewable energy industry in Florida, and an additional incentive package from the state.

The plant will be the fist commercial facility in the state of Florida to use "next-generation cellulosic ethanol technology to convert renewable grasses to fuel rather than processing food crops," a press release said.

While other plants converted to ethanol fuel have been invasive and taken over the landscape of the communities they were planted, Stewart said that will not be the case in Highlands County.

"It's not an invasive type crop unlike others that have been researched," she said. "Other areas have looked at crops, they have been invasive. (It) does not appear to be like that at all."

The project was brought to the Board of County Commissioners within the past year and there was a workshop on biofuels attended by a member of the biofuels industry, Verenium, and county staff members.

"We looked at the different types of crops; it was a good, informative workshop," Stewart said.

Carlos Riva, Verenium's president and CEO, called the Highlands County project a "milestone" and a "blueprint for how we develop future projects."

Stewart said the experience Verenium has in the industry was reassuring.

They have been developing and testing a process to optimize production and lower the cost of making cellulosic ethanol in Louisiana, and have also announced a partnership with BP to speed the development of its cellulosic ethanol technology.

The company is moving rapidly to commercialize its technology for the production of ethanol from a wide array of feedstock, including sugarcane waste, dedicated energy crops, agricultural waste and wood products, according to the press release.