Biofuels plant produces first run of end product

The first production run at a new biofuels plant in Florida, US is being hailed as a ‘success’.

Officials at the LS9 facility in Okeechobee say the production run produced several tonnes of fatty alcohol with ‘excellent replication of technical metrics’.

‘We are pleased that our very first run at 135,000 litre scale went so well. It is a direct reflection of the strength of our technology team in South San Francisco and our operations team in Okeechobee,’ says LS9 CEO Ed Dineen.

LS9 will initially generate large commercial samples for testing and product qualification.

‘We plan to perform additional fatty alcohol runs to demonstrate the robustness of our technology platform and then switch to diesel fuel and ester chemical production,’ adds Dineen.

The Okeechobee plant opened earlier this year after a $4.5 million (€3.51 million) conversion funded by the Florida Opportunity Fund.