Ineos JV plans Florida ethanol plant
A joint venture between Californian development company New Planet Energy and Illinois chemical manufacturer Ineos Bio aims to build Florida’s first ethanol plant.
Ineos New Planet BioEnergy will review and estimate the costs of setting up at a proposed Oslo area location still under negotiation. The company has been discussing buying and converting Ocean Spray Cranberries’ 71-acre former grapefruit-processing plant.
The demonstration ethanol processing plant, expected to convert vegetation waste into 8 million gallons a year of fuel-grade ethanol, could provide 150 construction jobs during the next two years and 40 to 50 full-time jobs.
The US Department of Energy (DoE) in December awarded a $50 million (€67.6 million) grant to Ineos New Planet to help build the plant.
‘If the demonstration is a good one, we’ll be on our own to grow the business without government help,’ Tex Carter, VP and chairman of Ineos New Planet BioEnergy, says.
The company chose Florida because the area leads the nation in producing tree clippings and other yard waste. And it is yard waste that will be the plant’s first feedstock.
Currently the ethanol in petrol at Florida fuel stations comes from the Midwest. Making it in Florida would lower the costs.
‘This is a market for our product where there’s no competition,’ Carter adds. ‘There’s no domestic ethanol production in Florida, so we would have the ability to establish the manufacturing of clean ethanol.’
Ineos New Planet BioEnergy will review and estimate the costs of setting up at a proposed Oslo area location still under negotiation. The company has been discussing buying and converting Ocean Spray Cranberries’ 71-acre former grapefruit-processing plant.
The demonstration ethanol processing plant, expected to convert vegetation waste into 8 million gallons a year of fuel-grade ethanol, could provide 150 construction jobs during the next two years and 40 to 50 full-time jobs.
The US Department of Energy (DoE) in December awarded a $50 million (€67.6 million) grant to Ineos New Planet to help build the plant.
‘If the demonstration is a good one, we’ll be on our own to grow the business without government help,’ Tex Carter, VP and chairman of Ineos New Planet BioEnergy, says.
The company chose Florida because the area leads the nation in producing tree clippings and other yard waste. And it is yard waste that will be the plant’s first feedstock.
Currently the ethanol in petrol at Florida fuel stations comes from the Midwest. Making it in Florida would lower the costs.
‘This is a market for our product where there’s no competition,’ Carter adds. ‘There’s no domestic ethanol production in Florida, so we would have the ability to establish the manufacturing of clean ethanol.’
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