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Broward County’s Port Everglades department recently accepted its first shipment of ethanol and, according to reports, three proposed ethanol plants and terminals could be under construction this year.
The following are among the plants and terminals that have been proposed:
• Gate Biofuels LLC, a subsidiary of Gate Petroleum Co., is in the early stages of developing a 55 million-gallon biofuels terminal in Jacksonville, Fla. The $90 million facility will be capable of receiving, blending and shipping ethanol and biodiesel via truck, barge or rail. It will also provide fuel storage for Gate Biofuels and third parties. Once the terminal is operational, Gate Petroleum will offer E10 at all of its retail gasoline locations in Jacksonville and the surrounding areas, the company said.
• Xethanol Corp., a New York-based firm, plans to build an ethanol plant at an existing, unspecified citrus facility in Florida. Company officials say it would take two years and $6 million to get the plant built.
• FPL Energy LLC, a division of FPL Group Inc., plans a plant on the grounds of Southern Gardens Citrus west of Clewiston. Citrus Energy LLC, a Boca Raton company, is partnering with FPL Energy on the plant, which could produce up to 4 million gallons of ethanol a year.
• U.S. Envirofuels LLC is poised to begin construction next year of an ethanol plant at the Port of Tampa. The project was delayed for a year by litigation from another port tenant, but court-ordered mediation to settle the case was completed on Nov. 27, Bradley Krohn, U.S. Envirofuels’ chief executive, told local reporters.
“The project is still alive and well,” Krohn said. “We are extremely optimistic that we will finance this project and break ground this coming year.”
U.S. EnviroFuels plans to use corn as its feedstock initially and will use reclaimed water, he said.
“The biggest thing in our favor is the federal energy bill,” Krohn said of the legislation signed into law at the end of last month.
“This new piece of legislation will revolutionize our country’s fuel supply,” he said. “It means sustained growth of the industry and continued investment in the industry.”
Krohn said the ethanol industry has been slowed by high corn prices, and the slowdown will probably continue for another year, though new plants will still be built.
Meanwhile, Broward County’s Port Everglades received its first 2.5 million gallon shipment of ethanol fuel that is already refined and ready for distribution.
“We applaud the petroleum terminal operators at Port Everglades for their foresight to have infrastructure in place to handle alternative fuels, which we believe will be in much higher demand in the near future,” said Port Everglades director Phillip C. Allen. “Port Everglades is prepared to further support the expansion of alternative fuels as part of its Green Ports initiatives.”
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