Firm's goal: Yard waste into usable fuel (cellulosic ethanol, FL)

[jpak]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/business/epaper/2006/09/11/a1bz_losonoco_0911.html

FORT LAUDERDALE — Many of the tree limbs and palm fronds that piled up in the yards of South Florida after two powerful hurricane seasons ended up lining landfills.

But one day soon, yard waste like that could be reappearing at local gas stations, having been transformed into ethanol for fuel.

That's the goal of Losonoco Ltd., a company with British roots that wants to build four plants in Florida where so-called cellulosic ethanol can be manufactured. It's considering sites in Palm Beach County, among other places statewide.

Alan Banks, 51, chief executive officer of privately held Losonoco, said the firm moved its headquarters from London, where it still has an office, to Fort Lauderdale in June. The firm, with Steve Percy, a former president and CEO of the North American division of oil giant BP Plc as its chairman of the board, has nine projects under development in the United States.

<more>

[JohnWxy]

1. some more from the article. good post. recommended.

(emphases are my own):

Dr. Ellen Strahlman, a Sarasota resident who works in New York as a vice president at Pfizer Inc., is a Losonoco director who has long believed in the importance of alternative energy solutions.

"It's an opportunity to make a difference in the world in reducing the amount of reliance on petroleum and reducing the amount of emissions," Strahlman said.

"We looked at a number of technologies and we chose this one. It made sense economically and looked like you could scale it up," she said. "The field is very hot right now, with President Bush talking about alternative energy. It is an idea whose time has come."