Two for the Sunshine State: LS9, Algenol biofuels projects greenlighted in Florida
The LS9 demonstration plant site in Okeechobee, Florida, on a 6-acre parcel at the Larsen Dairy, former home to BPT.
In Florida, algal ethanol and renewable drop-in fuels advanced suddenly in the Sunshine State with the approval of a $10 million Lee County incentive for Algenol that will bring the company’s research laboratory, new corporate headquarters and production facility to South Florida.
On the other side of the state, LS9 announced that they have selected an existing site in Okeechobee for a 100,000 gallon pilot plant opening this year, that could be expanded to 10 Mgy as soon as 2012.
The Algenol project
Algenol will now move into a 43,000 square foot facility near Fort Myers, that in addition to serving as company headquarters will serve as a pilot production plant, producing 300,000 gallons of ethanol per year, or three times the production at the pilot plant being built in Freeport, Texas in partnership with Dow (a project which recently was awarded a $25 million grant by the DOE as one of 19 integrated biorefinery pilot and demonstration projects). CEO Paul Woods told local media that the company will move into its new facility by May and will commence production of ethanol by August. The project will bring 100 new jobs to Florida, including 50 transferred from the company’s labs in Baltimore.
The 3-2 vote in favor of Algenol by county commissioners was described as a “nail biter” by Woods, owing to a controversy over whether the $25 million county reserves fund could be used to support capital investment projects, even those with a job creation element. “It’s a really powerful move forward and I’m proud to be part of it,” said Woods told the News-Press.
The LS9 project
LS9 announced the acquisition of the former Biomass Processing Technology production facility in Okeechobee, Florida. The facility will be retrofitted to accommodate LS9’s one-step fermentation process, and will initially support the production of 50,000-100,000 gallons of LS9s UltraClean Diesel branded fuel, by late-2010. LS9 CEO Bill Haywood, speaking to the Digest about the project, said that the Florida site, on a six-acre site at the Larsen Dairy, 70 miles west of West Palm Beach, was chosen because it met the project goals of being in “close proximity to feedstocks, keeping costs down, and allowing us to get this incredible technology into the market in the most efficient way.”
Haywood said that original cost to build the BPT plant was as high as $80 million, but that LS9 was able to purchase it out of bankruptcy for “around $2 million”, and that the extensive system of fermenters and other equipment meant that the company would need to do “minimal retrofitting” and would be in production in July at what he described as “the world’s largest demo plant for advanced renewable diesel.” Haywood confirmed that the site has the potential, because of the large-scale fermenters and other equipment on the property (which filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2008) to support 10 Mgy in production capacity, noting that the site has four 250,000 gallon fermenters already in place.
Haywood said that, although LS9 uses e.coli as a microorganism instead of yeast, the process of fermentation is not markedly different than the process of ethanol production, but confirmed that, in the long run, the LS9 process could support continuous production, instead of batch style production as is used in ethanol production, because the e.coli secrete diesel through the cell walls and the product is not toxic to the organism. “That’s for the future,” Haywood cautioned.
LS9 said that it expects to create 15-20 operations jobs throughout the demonstration period alone, and 30-50 construction jobs over the six month retrofit period. The company will also create local opportunities with feedstock providers, and has secured cane syrup for the demonstration period although the company said that discussions are still in progress regarding long-term contracts to supply feedstock for an expansion of the plant to 10 Mgy, which could be completed by the end of 2011. As far as off-take, Haywood said “we have at least three oil and gags companies who have told us, “let us known when you make it and we will come and take it off your hands.”
In addition to demonstration scale equipment, the new facility will house lab and pilot scale operations that LS9 will use to test and integrate cellulosic materials such as wood chips and agricultural waste into its production process. The use of cellulosic biomass will lead to even greater reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Florida as an advanced biofuels production center
“Why don’t we have more renewable energy here? We’re the Sunshine State,” Florida Governor Charlie Crist is known to say with an easy charm that has won a lot of votes over the years. The state has been quietly piling up a number of notable advanced biofuels pilots and, with these announcements, five of the top 30 companies in the “50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy” now have pilot projects in Florida.
Verenium is developing a commercial site near Lake Okeechobee, Petro Algae has its commercial sales center and demonstration farm in Fellsmere, and an unmarked set of raceways and paddle wheels on the north side of Vero Beach is an Aurora Biofuels pilot plant.
However, not every Florida advanced biofuel project has had success. A multi-million dollar 2007 DOE grant went to Alico for a cellulosic ethanol demonstration project, which was ultimately abandoned. Last year, when algae pioneer Algenol, based on the west coast in Naples, announced a possible move to Texas based on the importance of its Dow project in Freeport, the Lee County development officer, when contacted by the local paper for comment, said she had never heard of the company.
One thing is sure, Lee County has heard of Algenol now.
Two for the Sunshine State: LS9, Algenol biofuels projects greenlighted in Florida is a post from: Biofuels Digest
