Monday, September 11, 2006

FT LAUDERDALE, FL— Losonoco Ltd., a company that builds and operates refineries to recycle agricultural and commercial waste into a low emission petrol substitute, wants to wants to build four plants in Florida where so-called cellulosic ethanol can be produced.

The company, which transferred its headquarters from London to Fort Lauderdale in June, seeks to one day produce 300 million gallons of ethanol per year from agricultural and yard waste. Most of that waste, along with the felled trees and palm leaves the scatter the ground after two hurricane seasons, now ends up in landfills.

The privately held Losonoco has nine projects under development in the United States, several of which are in Palm Beach County. The rest are in the Pacific Northwest and the mid-Atlantic.

Alan Banks, CEO of Losonoc Ltd., said he thinks it makes more sense to use existing castoff material for ethanol production rather than food crops such as corn and sugar cane. Using yard waste as the ethanol source also solves the problem of their disposal, he said. Palm Beach County collects 250,000 tons of yard waste a year, for instance, and that is replicated all over Florida.

"Let's use human ingenuity to try and solve the problem. The alternative is to go back to a medieval society with no mobility and localized groups," said Banks.

In the U.S., Banks estimates it will begin production 30 months after the sites and permits are in hand. Each plant would cost about $150 million and be able to produce 30 million gallons of ethanol a year.