Wisconsin Ag Connection - National/World News - Florida Firm to Build Ethanol Plants that Use Yard & Ag Waste

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Florida Firm to Build Ethanol Plants that Use Yard & Ag Waste
USAgNet - 01/17/2007

A Fort Lauderdale-based energy company is planning to build four plants in Florida to produce 300 million gallons of ethanol annually from agricultural and yard waste.

Losonoco Ltd. CEO Alan Banks said he thinks it makes more sense to use existing castoff material for ethanol production instead of food crops such as corn and sugar cane. Banks says using yard waste as a source for cellulosic ethanol also solves a disposal problem, citing the Palm Beach County's Solid Waste Authority collection of 250,000 tons of yard waste a year. He said that number can be replicated across the state, with tree limbs and palm fronds ending up in landfills.

The firm moved its headquarters from London, where it still has an office, to Fort Lauderdale in last year, and with Steve Percy, a former president and CEO of the North American division of oil giant BP PLC as its board chairman, has nine projects under development in the United States.

Banks says Losonoco's U.S. strategy is regional, with operations planned for the Pacific Northwest and the mid-Atlantic region, as well as Florida. The company also has two cellulosic ethanol commercial plant sites in the United Kingdom and Ireland and expects to begin producing ethanol in both places by the second half of 2008.

The CEO says the company expects to begin production in the United States 30 months after the sites and permits are in hand. Each plant would cost about $150 million and be able to produce 30 million gallons of ethanol a year. For more information, contact Banks at (954) 492 0031.