A new plant that will convert garden, household and vegetative waste into cellulosic ethanol and renewable power has broken ground in Vero Beach, Florida.
Ineos New Planet BioEnergy began work on the $130million Indian River BioEnergy Centre earlier this week. The centre’s technology has been developed by Ineos Bio, the world’s fourth largest petrochemicals company and will be the first commercial scale project in the world using its patented technology.
At the centre of the technology is a patented anaerobic fermentation step that can produce ethanol and renewable energy from several feedstocks such as construction waste, agricultural waste and municipal solid waste.
Production is expected to start in the middle of 2012 with the aim of producing eight million gallons of bioethanol and six megawatts of renewable power which will be able to power around 1,400 homes.
The centre has received a $2.5million grant from the state of Florida and in late 2009 received a $50million grant from the US Department of Energy as part of its Section 932 Integrated Biorefinery programme.
