Now, will California catch up to Florida?
FPL Energy has signed a letter of intent with Citrus Energy, of Boca Raton, FL, to develop the first ever commercial scale citrus peel to ethanol plant. The cellulosic ethanol plant will be owned and operated by FPL Energy and is expected to produce four million gallons of ethanol per year. It will be located on the grounds of a local Florida citrus processor.
FPL Energy said that ethanol from citrus peel could result in a new Florida industry producing over 60 million gallons of fuel per year, which could replace about one percent of Florida’s annual gasoline consumption.
It’s an ecologist’s delight to see segments of the business world prepared to run straight past the naysayers in government and the economic establishment – and profit from what was considered “inevitable” waste.
As long as there are no governmental subsidies – – good to see cellulosic waste turned into a resource. Bravo. Hope the “other” organic sources would include yard waste and such?
Anybody know:
What was done with the citrus peels before? I assume they were turned into mulch.
What is the remaining waste after the peels have been processed? Again I assume multch?
Using orange peel for ethanol makes more sense than turning corn into ethanol.
Sorry to say that ethanol is not the salvation of our energy problems, in fact it may make things worse. The cost of grain is already going way up making food more expensive. Ethanol actually makes the air worse and it is not nearly as efficient a fuel as ordinary gas.
http://www.alternet.org/environment/56047/
2–Its worse than that. Would you agree that corn based ethanol is nothing more than a corporate ripoff/welfare scheme?
But you have cystralized for me the concept that diverting FOOD into gas really is a bad idea.
Dudes, realize you’re about as shortsighted as the corporate barons you complain about.
Yes, a percentage of agribiz operations will jump wholly into ethanol production because they see a short-term increase in profits over what they’ve been producing. Which drives up the prices – and opportunities – for the market items they dropped.
There are an expanded number of processes at work and sound enviros realize that multiple approaches to renewables are better than some magic bullet.
Cripes, can’t you see any further down the road than Super Bowl?
#4.
I agree multiple approaches are key, but corn is about the worst one. The only reason its being used is the huge handouts from the G.
Lawns in FL grow four inches a week. There must be millions of tons of cut grass available each week to manufacture ethanol from.
As long as Florida Plunder and Loot keeps making money, my family is happy.
#6
Chances are that privacy advocate groups will complain and claim that the goverment will use the lawn grass to detect illegal drugs.
Cellulosic ethanol is the holy grail of ethanol production. Theoretically, it would be much cheaper than gasoline without having to use up our food supply.
But they have been talking about this crap for years just like they have with shale oil. Sounds like a sucker’s play to me. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Can i point an interesting concept to you folks….
Any organic mater can be converted, to methane or ethanol…
Your lawn clippings, which are mostly grain plants…
The shavings from Potato processing…
why are they trying to Focus on 1 Plant…USe them ALL…
We could cut down on Garbage by about 60-80%…EASY..
Hmm… Does this mean we’ll see Chevron Brand orange juice?
#11, Angel
Can you picture
“Put a Twinkie in your tank”?
(Oh god, I kill myself sometimes)
oranges grow in California????????????