Florida Biofuels Boost

Cindy Zimmerman

FL Farm to FuelNew proposed motor fuel rules for Florida could be just the ticket to boost ethanol blends in the country’s third largest gasoline market.

Reuters reports that the proposed rules are the result of a hearing held in October at the urging of the ethanol industry and several oil companies to relax the state rules that had discouraged refiners from adding ethanol to gasoline sold in the region.

South Dakota-based POET, the largest U.S. ethanol producer, expects to supply the Florida market from five biorefineries it is building in Ohio and Indiana. It hopes to send the fuel by train down to the Southeast.

The Miami Herald reports that five ethanol plants are planned for Florida, “one that would use feed corn but others that would get the fuel from citrus peels or other plant waste.”

The state has 11 waste-to-energy plants that burn trash to produce electricity, and two power companies have announced plans to build power plants that get their energy from wood waste and a special variety of grass.

There are at least 25 million acres of commercial land or forest that are ripe for making fuel, and the state has the longest growing season in the nation.

Energy, Ethanol, News