MEDIA

Florida's renewable energy industry received a boost Tuesday as the state gave $25 million in grants to 12 projects that hope to convert plants and plant waste into energy.

One grant of $7 million went to U.S. EnviroFuels LLC to help build a $47 million sorghum-to-ethanol plant in the Highlands County town of Venus. Another $7 million went to Gulf Coast Energy of Walton LLC, which is building a $62 million ethanol and biodiesel plant at Mossy Head in the Panhandle.

Other grants ranged from $158,270 to $4 million. The entities chosen plan to invest close to $157 million of their own funding into the projects.

"We believe that awards such as these are critical in triggering the development of a renewable energy industry in Florida," Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said in a statement. "With the backing of and an investment from the state, we're hopeful that these projects will yield positive results and serve as a catalyst for major commercial investment."

The grants, funded by the legislature last spring, are part of Bronson's "Farm to Fuel" initiative, which proposes that Florida agriculture produce 25 percent of the state's energy needs by 2025.

A year ago, the state awarded eight energy grants totaling $15 million.

Southeast Biofuels LLC, which received a $500,000 award, plans to construct a $6.4 million commercial demonstration and pilot plant in Auburndale, using citrus peel waste to make ethanol.

Tom Endres, a managing member of Southeast Biofuels and chief operating officer of New York-based Xethanol Corp., Southeast's parent company, said ethanol is being made from citrus wastes at the U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory in Winter Haven. Southeast Biofuels owns the rights to the cooperative research and development agreement with the USDA.

"We have done the science and put it together," Endres said Tuesday, adding that the plant should be completed within the next 12 months.

The alternative-fuel projects also include plans to derive fuels from sources other than fruit peels or sugar.

The Florida Institute of Technology received a grant of $415,520 for its work on producing biodiesel from microalgae.

"The current biofuel is mostly from crops such as corn or soybeans. It takes months to grow them," said Junda Lin, director of FIT's Vero Beach Marine Laboratory. "With microalgae, the generation time is hours or tens of hours."

The $922,000 microalgae project is being conducted with Aurora BioFuels Inc. of Alameda, Calif., Lin said.

Grants totaling $4 million went to Liberty Industries for a $38 million project to produce ethanol and electricity from forestry, agricultural and municipal wastes in Hosford, which is in Liberty County west of Tallahassee, and to Agri-Source Fuels LLC for a $21 million project to produce biodiesel from either vegetable oil or animal fat in Pensacola.

Other recipients include Sigarca Inc., awarded $499,500 for a project in Ocala to process horse waste into renewable energy, and Neptune Industries in Florida City, which was awarded $158,270 for research into converting algae into biodiesel.