LS9 opens renewable products demo plant

LS9, a technology supplier specialising in renewable and sustainable products, officially opened its demonstration-scale plant in Okeechobee, Florida, on 12 June.

The plant's retrofit was completed in May, with large-scale production expected to begin in Q3 2012.

LS9 says the facility will help it improve its production process and enable it to generate large commercial volumes for testing. The samples could also be analysed by the company's key partners and its potential customers.

The facility features 3,800 and 135,00-litre fermenters; these will be used to produce an estimated 75,000 gallons a year of renewable products.

'The opening of our demonstration plant in Florida moves LS9 from a development company towards becoming a fully integrated commercial organisation,' says Ed Dineen, LS9 president and CEO.

Dineen says that the plant's location will enable it to 'source locally grown feedstocks for testing', which will be used to produce biofuels and bio-based chemicals. He adds that the plant was able to come to realisation because of 'support from Enterprise Florida, the Florida Opportunity Fund's (FOF) Clean Energy Investment Program and the community of Okeechobee'.

FOF's Clean Energy Investment Program invested $4.5 million (€3.6) that helped fund the facility's retrofit earlier this year.

According to Louis Laubscher, senior VP of Enterprise Florida and president of FOF: 'By directly investing in the development of renewable energy products, in manufacturers adapting new energy efficient technologies and in other clean-tech companies, the Florida Opportunity Fund can transform the state's energy profile and be a catalyst for attracting new capital to the state.'

LS9 says that its single-step fermentation technology enables it to switch between making biofuels to biochemicals easily. This flexibility will help LS9's customers take advantage of 'the most economical feedstocks available'.