Xethanol Corporation and Renewable Spirits, LLC have teamed up to build a citrus peel based pilot ethanol production facility in Florida. The pilot plant should be able to produce up to 50,000 gallons / 190,000 litres of ethanol in the upcoming citrus harvesting season alone, later expanding to over 500,000 gallons / 1,900,000 litres per year.

Xethanol is positioning itself as being committed to the production of ethanol and related products using locally available raw materials to service nearby major urban markets. Their biomass technology moves beyond traditional corn-based ethanol and includes everything from wood chips and yard waste to corn stover and municipal solid waste. Because most organic waste material is now either abandoned or land-filled at the producer's expense, biomass is potentially a significantly cheaper feedstock for ethanol production than corn.

Related:

• Volkswagen announces power-train roadmap toward oil free future
• U.S. joins Interamerican Ethanol Commission but discourages imports
• Shell president prefers E85 from biomass waste, not corn

[Source: Renewable Energy Access]

Xethanol is set to increase their production of ethanol in six states in New England: Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont. The corporation has set up NewEnglandXethanol LLC, a “strategic alliance” between Xethanol and Global Energy Management LLC, according to a press release pointed at by Domestic Fuel. This announcement follows Xethanol’s previous announcement of their CoastalXethanol initiative, which will increase ethanol production in the Southeastern U.S.

DF also points to a second press release by Xethanol that says the company is looking to include biodiesel in its portfolio through managing the business of H2Diesel, a company that licenses its proprietary biodiesel conversion technology that “simplifies the production of biodiesel from vegetable oils including waste oils”.

[Source: Yahoo! via Domestic Fuel]