US Sugar and Coskata in cellulosic talks
Agribusiness US Sugar has entered into an agreement with Illinois-based renewable energy company Coskata to explore building a 100 million gallon a year cellulosic ethanol facility in Clewiston, Florida.
The facility would be the world's largest second generation ethanol facility. It would convert left-over sugarcane material into ethanol, and would help Florida meet its aggressive second generation ethanol mandate set by Governor Charlie Crist.
The non-food based ethanol could reduce greenhouse gasses by as much as 96% versus conventional petrol. US Sugar plans to collect cane leaves from the field versus burning them, as well as use excess bagasse from the mill.
The Coskata technology, which is able to convert almost any renewable material, is expected to produce fuel ethanol with manufacturing costs of around $1 (€0.79) a gallon.
As the State of Florida takes some of the US Sugar lands out of production for the Everglades restoration project, the Coskata technology is flexible enough to also use fast growing energy crops and waste materials to make the environmentally superior fuel.
As part of the agreement, US Sugar will be submitting an application to the Florida Energy Office for a financial match to their contribution for early engineering on this project. In addition, US Sugar plans to work with the US Department of Agriculture to secure some of the loan guarantee monies that have been set aside specifically for the production of non-food based biofuels.
US Sugar is the country's largest producer of sugarcane and refined cane sugar and is one of Florida's major producers of oranges and orange juice products.
Coskata intends to use microorganisms and transformative bioreactor designs to produce ethanol.
The facility would be the world's largest second generation ethanol facility. It would convert left-over sugarcane material into ethanol, and would help Florida meet its aggressive second generation ethanol mandate set by Governor Charlie Crist.
The non-food based ethanol could reduce greenhouse gasses by as much as 96% versus conventional petrol. US Sugar plans to collect cane leaves from the field versus burning them, as well as use excess bagasse from the mill.
The Coskata technology, which is able to convert almost any renewable material, is expected to produce fuel ethanol with manufacturing costs of around $1 (€0.79) a gallon.
As the State of Florida takes some of the US Sugar lands out of production for the Everglades restoration project, the Coskata technology is flexible enough to also use fast growing energy crops and waste materials to make the environmentally superior fuel.
As part of the agreement, US Sugar will be submitting an application to the Florida Energy Office for a financial match to their contribution for early engineering on this project. In addition, US Sugar plans to work with the US Department of Agriculture to secure some of the loan guarantee monies that have been set aside specifically for the production of non-food based biofuels.
US Sugar is the country's largest producer of sugarcane and refined cane sugar and is one of Florida's major producers of oranges and orange juice products.
Coskata intends to use microorganisms and transformative bioreactor designs to produce ethanol.
Loading ...
