Even as last of BP oil spilled on the Gulf Coast dissipates, interest in Florida's biofuel industry piqued by the spill may linger, and even grow.
For the moment certainly, biofuels such as ethanol and algae-derived diesel are gaining traction in the minds of the public and energy producers.
Could the massive oil spill, with its lingering environmental impact, tip investors and entrepreneurs toward thinking more seriously about sustainable fuels?
"It's certainly created a buzz over the necessity to get renewable energy produced as quickly as possible," said Terence McElroy, spokesman for Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson. "Whether or not that's translated into commitments by agribusiness, I don't know."
The answer matters to Brevard County: The biofuel industry could help the Space Coast -- and Central Florida -- reconstruct its economy during the post-shuttle era, when many among some 8,000 laid-off space industry workers will be looking for work.
"We've got an aerospace work force that could segue to the alternative energy business," said Marshall Heard, a former manager at The Boeing Co. now serving as space adviser at the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast. "And it may be possible to take the information we've learned from the space business and transport it into the energy business."
The prospect of converting plant matter to ethanol and biodiesel has captured the attention of Bronson, who believes the industry could flourish in a state with abundant sunshine, ample rainfall and a year-round growing season.
"Florida has the greatest potential for biomass production in the country, and the technology exists to convert our natural resources to clean, renewable energy," Bronson said in a statement. He believes the state can produce 30 percent of its fuel needs through agriculture by 2025.
Beginning Wednesday, Bronson hosts the three-day Farm to Fuel Summit in Orlando.
"In 20 to 25 years, our agriculture industry could virtually double in size," McElroy said. "There's going to be a lot of ethanol production in the state."
With 16 million acres of forest and farmland in Florida, hundreds of thousands of jobs could be created, McElroy added. And vegetable and sugarcane farmers could grow energy crops in rotation with food crops during the same year.
The Gulf oil spill could inspire new ways of looking at old energy problems, suggested Clifford Bragdon, the vice president of strategic initiatives at Florida Tech.
"Out of crises come solutions," said Bragdon, who is coordinating a "green" research park at the Melbourne International Airport that could draw 30 companies and 600 to 800 jobs. "Out of a crisis, we should come to a new standard."
Ethanol and algae
Several ethanol plants in the state were delayed by the recession, which depressed fuel prices along with many spending plans, but those plants likely will be built even as research into other biofuels, such as those derived from algae, continues.
Among the leaders around here on the algae front is a Melbourne-based company called PetroAlgae, which operates a research farm in Fellsmere. The company, which has developed technology to produce green diesel, gasoline and jet fuel from algae that is functionally identical to petroleum-based fuels, has licensing agreements in China, Chile, Taiwan and Japan.
It recently signed an agreement with a South Korean firm to license up to 850,000 metric tons of biocrude over a three-year period, beginning in 2012.
At peak performance, PetroAlgae's farming techniques can produce 8 million to 10 million tons of algae and 5,000 gallons of fuel per acre yearly, the company has said. Officials declined to talk for this story.
Others in Brevard also are researching production of biofuels from algae and other plants.
"We're looking at all kinds of things that could be convertible to (biofuels)," Florida Tech's Bragdon said.
The university is conducting research on 500 kinds of algae at a 4-acre site in Martin County.
Operating since 2006, PetroAlgae has 115 employees. Job growth there has been measured, to be sure, but economic development leaders see the potential for a substantial work force tied to green energy, from plant biomass to wind and solar.
"Not only is this a growing industry in regards to potential and future demands, but it's international, too," Lynda Weatherman, president and CEO of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast, said. "Those are the ones that have the highest potential job curve."
The EDC has worked to pass space industry technology to PetroAlgae.
"We're excited about(PetroAlgae), as we are about all the opportunities that are tied to alternative energy use," Weatherman said.
The EDC's Heard said Brevard County offers three key ingredients to the alternative energy industry: a skilled technical work force, great infrastructure and a repository of intellectual property.
The challenge is coordinating the technical effort.
"How do we bring together people, infrastructure and intellectual property and make something good happen in regards to clean energy?" he said.
Farmland still waits
With about 150,000 acres of farmland, Brevard County is in a position to create agricultural jobs in supplying feedstock to ethanol plants. Many orange growers, struggling with disease damage and low prices, could repurpose their land to grow energy fuels.
BP Biofuels of North America plans the state's first ethanol plant, to be located in Highlands County. It is scheduled to break ground in 2011 and eventually produce 36 million gallons of ethanol annually.
Besides established energy sources sugarcane and sorghum, another energy crop mentioned frequently is jatropha curcas, a Mexican tree that bears golf ball-sized fruit with seeds full of oil that can be pressed out and used to make biodiesel.
"We've had three or four people inquire about it," said James Fletcher, head of the Brevard County Extension office. "We haven't seen any of it planted yet. We're pretty confident we can grow the product. We just have to have a place we can take it."
While the Gulf oil spill has generated more talk about biofuels, it has not created the economic conditions needed to spur ethanol feedstock production in Brevard County or the rest of Florida.
"Gas prices didn't peak," Harold Brooks, a Sebastian dentist and chief executive of Global Renewable Energy, said.
The company last year nixed plans to grow 3,000 acres of sweet sorghum and build an ethanol distillery near Sebastian that would produce 3 million to 4 million gallons of ethanol per year.
"Gasoline prices went from $4 down to $2.50 per gallon," Brooks said. "Ethanol cannot compete at $2.50 a gallon. It's got to be up closer to $4 a gallon to make it economically feasible. We're on hold."
Brooks believes the cellulose-based ethanol plant planned for Highlands County, southwest of Brevard, could revolutionize biofuel production in the state, luring many farmers into the energy feedstock market.
"If their technique works where they could make ethanol from branches and shrubbery, we would get back into it," Brooks said. "There's plenty of material. It's just gathering it together to make sure it's feasible, that it's something people can readily afford."
The government requires that oil refineries use at least 10 percent ethanol and gives a 50-cent per gallon tax break to companies that blend ethanol. However, oil companies now import cheap supplies of ethanol from Brazil, which has an established supply of the sugarcane-based fuel. Replacing a gallon of gasoline with ethanol costs taxpayers $1.78, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But there are few federal or economic incentives to manufacture ethanol in the U.S., Brooks said.
"It's the blenders who are getting the federal money," he added.
The BP oil spill closed just one of 2,600 offshore wells in the Gulf of Mexico, which had little impact on the fuel supply. But it increased resistance to offshore drilling, which eventually could result in a price rise that would make ethanol production more feasible. Brooks said his plan for biofuel isn't dead; it's only waiting for economic conditions to be right.
"If gasoline gets up to $4 or $5 a gallon, we'll be there," Brooks said. "It's gonna come. It's just a question of when."
Demand should rise
Jeremy Susac, director of Florida Biofuels Association, Inc., said the association is working with a number of firms that hope to plant crops to produce biofuels.
"Right now you're seeing people give pause to offshore drilling," Susac said.
Floridians increase their usage of gasoline and diesel fuel by 300,000 gallons a year, and as fossil fuel supplies become more scarce, interest in all biofuel programs likely will increase.
"There are a few (ethanol and biofuel plants) on the drawing board that are moving along," Susac said. "There's definitely an opportunity for more."
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