Biofuels opens opportunities for Highlands

SEBRING - In 2008, Highlands County, known more for its citrus and cattle, was hit by a wave of a new crop with a new use coming here.

Could farmers grow crops with foreign-sounding names like sweet sorghum and energy cane to be squeezed into ethanol by a technology mostly new to the United States?

Ethanol – the car fuel additive that comprises 10 percent of gasoline in the state – is mostly made from corn. That use diverts it from the food supply and makes the prices of staple grocery items skyrocket.

Highlands County's two proposed plants are hoping to unlock the ethanol from feedstock that doesn't end up on food plates, through green technology, also creating good-paying jobs and helping growers devastated by the vagaries of growing citrus find an alternative.

In theory it's a win-win situation but delays have beset both the Vericipa and Highlands EnviroFuels LLC projects, two of a dozen ethanol plants planned in Florida. So far, the only ethanol plant to break ground in the state is in Vero Beach.

The two local companies have constantly pushed back their groundbreaking although farmers are growing hundreds of acres of the experimental crops for ethanol use to see if they can thrive here.

All this doesn't bother Norman Stephens, South Florida Community College president, who has been watching the growth of the nascent biofuels industry in Highlands County and is optimistic about its future here.

The SFCC board recently approved submitting an application for a three-year-grant to start a biofuels training program at the community college in partnership with Vercipia.

If the National Science Foundation approves the grant, SFCC will get $300,000 every year for three years to train students on either how to grow and harvest the ethanol feedstock or how to process it.

Vercipia, which is owned by oil giant BP, will "tell us what skills the employees will need, and we will customize the training," Stephens added.

As far as Stephens is concerned, there is a need here and the college is trying to meet it.

"I have some faith the Vercipia project will come to fruition," he said. "Biofuels is a new industry but it's vital for the country that we are more energy-dependant."

If SFCC's program comes to fruition, it will be one of a handful of educational institutions actually offering training in the field.

Highlands County Extension Service's Commercial Horticulture Agent John Alleyne said there's no program in the United States that is focused on biofuels education.

"They are interdisciplinary," he said. "There are no specific programs in bioengineering or energy concepts. America is woefully lacking in biofuels education."

Bradley Krohn, principal and manager of Highlands EnviroFuels, agrees.

"There are no vocational or technical schools or universities that offer training for students for biofuels," he said.

When the ethanol plant goes operational, the company will have to train its employees.

Krohn said the company is still in the process of securing financing and acknowledged that getting investors, especially major U.S. banks, interested in this economy was the biggest obstacle they have faced so far.

Any financing the company receives will serve as matching money for a $7 million Farm to Fuel grant from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Highlands EnviroFuels has also received a $305,000 grant from the Florida Energy and Climate Commission.

The company is going to start drafting the permit application for the plant. It hopes to break ground in the fourth quarter of this year.

As far as Vercipia is concerned, Highlands County commissioners recently allowed an extension to a $1.64 million state grant to widen State Road 70, which is by the site of the proposed plant, according to an earlier Highlands Today report.

It appeared at the commission meeting that the project had been delayed since the plant was still going through the permitting process. Commissioners were told road construction would begin as late as June 30, and that the road would be finished as late as Nov. 30.

BP is being cautious because the plant is still being permitted, County Attorney Ross Macbeth explained to the commission at the February meeting.

"This grant money would have to be paid back even if the road is constructed, so they just have to have all the permits to do their project at the time they begin road construction," Macbeth said. "I don't have the details of what permits they have or don't have, but they are still getting the project permitted."

Ray Royce, executive director of Heartland Ag Coalition, told the commission he doesn't represent Vercipia or Lykes Brothers, which is growing their feedstock.

"They have permitting situations somewhat beyond their control at this stage - that they are still trying to fulfill before they actually make the investment," Royce said. "They are, from my understanding in talking to them, they are still very committed to coming here."

Even though there is a mandated need for ethanol in the United States, Alleyne acknowledged that other countries like Brazil have done a better job of embracing it than us but also understood the hesitation in the United States since ethanol from non-corn-based feedstock is a new concept here.

The state's gas stations are required to have 10 percent ethanol blended in the gasoline. Even the U.S. Navy is supposed to have 50 percent ethanol-blended fuel by 2015 as part of a "green fleet," Alleyne explained.

His solution: "educate, educate, educate."

Farmers need to be reassured that the new crops are beneficial to them even though their economies are not tested, he said, and average citizens need to understand that using ethanol is the way to go.

source: highlandstoday