This just in from Businesswire - a new partnership's in the works to create America's first renewable and clean-burning ethanol plant. The source: sugarcane.
The 12 million-gallon-per annum plant will use sugar juice and molasses as feedstock. The $80 million partnership between Pacific West Energy LLC and Gay & Robinson Inc. will enable the agricultural enterprise to continue, preserving approximately 230 jobs in West Kauai.
Gay & Robinson Inc. and Pacific West Energy LLC announced today a partnership to develop the first fuel ethanol plant in America to create renewable power and clean-burning ethanol fuel from sugarcane.
The new 12-million-gallon-per-annum plant will use sugar juice and molasses as feedstock.
The initial $80 million phase of capital investment will include installation of a new biomass boiler and turbine generator to efficiently produce renewable electricity. Design and engineering work has begun, and an air permit for the ethanol plant has been secured. Future business plans call for additional stages of energy production, including biodiesel production, a methane recovery system, the processing of municipal solid waste, hydro power, the conversion of biomass into liquid fuels and solar energy production.
“We’re excited to partner with Pacific West Energy and begin transforming G&R from a commodity raw sugar producer to a provider of renewable and alternative energy for Kauai and Hawaii,” said Alan Kennett, President of Gay & Robinson.
By generating electricity and ethanol from renewable feedstock, the business will help lower Hawaii's extremely high energy costs. In addition, new investment will be made to expand sugar cane cultivation and employ new cultivation and harvest techniques that will maximize biomass and reduce the burning of sugarcane wherever possible.
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