Port ethanol project moving forward

An ethanol plant planned for the Port of Tampa, mired in a lawsuit for more than a year, appears cleared for takeoff.

Brad Krohn, president of US EnviroFuels, declined to comment on the lawsuit, or to confirm that it has concluded. But he did say the project was now seeking financing and expected to get under way in the second half of 2008. That suggests a resolution in the project’s legal woes.

Krohn also said the project has changed. Original plans called for a 44-million-gallon-a-year plant that would use corn from the Midwest and reclaimed water from Tampa to make ethanol, an alcohol fuel. That plan has been indefinitely postponed. Instead, Krohn will start with an ethanol storage and blending facility.

“The market conditions are not optimal for building an ethanol plant at this moment,” Krohn said.

US EnviroFuels is moving forward with an ethanol plant in Highlands County. The company received a $7-million grant from the state to build the facility, which will use sweet sorghum to make ethanol. Krohn expected construction on that project to begin some time in 2009.

The Highlands County project is one of many state-funded ethanol projects in Florida.

- Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer