LS9 Completes Florida Renewable Diesel Plant in Okeechobee, Florida

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Privately held biofuels producer LS9 Incorporated (South San Francisco, California) has completed construction for a renewable demonstration plant retrofit in the former facility of Biomass Processing Technology in Okeechobee, Florida.

The plant produced its first batch of 135,000 liters of renewable diesel at the retrofitted facility. Utilizing a variety of feedstocks (such as sugar cane, corn syrup, sweet sorghum, molasses, glycerin and biomass), the plant can produce various fuels and chemicals (such as alkanes, fatty alcohols, and fatty acid methyl esters) in a one-step process.

Following testing and further development, the company plans to invest additional capital to commercialize the process. Plans are to install four additional fermentation vessels to produce about 10 million gallons per year of renewable diesel.

LS9 operates a research and development center in South San Francisco and a commercial office, LS9 Brasil Biotecnologia, in San Paulo, Brazil.

The company is also partnered with Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) (San Ramon, California) and The Proctor & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) (Cincinnati, Ohio). These companies will perform feedstock testing, product development and testing, final product formulations, and commercialization, as well as provide investment funds, to further biofuel development.

The plant is unique because it is one of the first biodiesel production facilities to use Escherichia coli bacteria instead of the more traditional yeast organisms in the fermentation process.

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