Update On UF Renewable Fuels Center
One of the nation’s largest farm shows is the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, GA. I’ve been attending thanks to the support of Growth Energy and covering the show on our AgWired website. I did find a couple of stories I thought I’d share with you here including this one from the University of Florida exhibit.
One of my stops in their building included the Florida Center for Renewable Chemicals & Fuels. On hand to tell their story and give us an update on their activities was Sheilachu P. Gomez, Assistant Director, pictured here. She says the Center is primarily for the development of the technology to convert biomass to ethanol and organic acids. They have two patents that have been purchased by two companies already (an ethanol patent to Verenium and organic acids patent to Myriant). They have a pilot plant for cellulosic ethanol production to optimize biomass conversion at the campus and have a planned plant to be located in Perry, FL. The last is a partnership with Myriant and Buckeye. In the future Sheila says they’re looking more into the value added products of the production process.
You can listen to my interview with Sheila below:
Feel free to browse my photos from the show: Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album. I will have another story on switchgrass posted soon.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.8MB)
1 Comment »
Chip Daigle
As soon as I hear “pilot plant” I think there goes my taxpayer money. I am so mad at these people for not producing any Ethanol I think we should remove the tariff on foriegn Ethanol made with Sugarcane and Jatropha. I makes absolutely no sense that we tax Clean Ethanol and not Dirty Oil and Gas from Terrorist Countries who hate us. It should be the other way around. I think we need a credit of $1 – 2 per Gallon for CE85 (Clean Ethanol.) This way Ethanol is cheaper than Oil which put an incentive to buy FFV’s and use E85! We also need a President with the courage to stand up to Dumb, Dumb and Dumber in Detroit and tell them that all new vehicles should be 100% FFV next year. If the President wont do I think the Governors of all the Southern States should tell Detroit that all new cars in the South shall be FFV 100. California has their standard; we should have our own that reflects our values. The Credit for E85 at the pump might also stimulate Louisiana farmers to make Ethanol from Sugarcane.
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