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Ethanol distillery planned in Manatee

By STEVE HUETTEL
Published June 11, 2005

A Brandon startup company announced plans Friday to build an ethanol distillery in Manatee County and sell the fuel for blending with gasoline at Tampa's port.

U.S. EnviroFuels has asked for an option to lease land at Port Manatee for the plant, which the company says will cost about $65-million and take about two years to build.

The plant will be Florida's first large-scale ethanol distillery, producing 40-million gallons of the fuel from corn and sorghum carried by barges from the Midwest, said EnviroFuels president Bradley Krohn.

Ethanol-blended gasoline is sold widely in such states as California and New York under federal mandates to reduce smog and unhealthy ozone levels but not in Florida, he said. Ethanol is cheaper than gasoline, Krohn said, and a mix with 10 percent ethanol sells for 7 to 10 cents less per gallon than regular unleaded.

U.S. EnviroFuels negotiated a lease option with the Tampa Port Authority to build a plant on 32 acres at Port Sutton, near U.S. 41 and Pendola Point Road. But the company withdrew the request last month one day before the port authority board was scheduled to vote on it.

U.S. EnviroFuels always intended to locate its first plant at Port Manatee, with a second distillery at Tampa's port, Krohn said. But officials postponed the Tampa project to focus on completing financing and permitting on the Manatee plant, he said.

"We have every intention of continuing discussions with the Port of Tampa for another facility," Krohn said. "We're not pulling out of the Port of Tampa, but we need to focus on Port Manatee."

Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or 813 226-3384.

[Last modified June 11, 2005, 00:25:17]