Firm Eyeing Mossy Head: Business Seeking Alternative Energy Grants
By Heather Civil, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach
Jun. 28–MOSSY HEAD — An Alabama company is eyeing Walton County for a new biodiesel and ethanol production plant.
Gulf Coast Energy Inc. of Livingston, Ala., is negotiating with Walton to buy or lease 50 acres at the county’s industrial park in Mossy Head for the plant.
If all goes well, part of the $165 million production plant could go online in as little as six or seven months from the date a deal is finalized, said Gulf Coast Energy President and CEO Mark Warner.
“We think alternative fuels are the future,” Warner said.
Gulf Coast Energy is touting the plant as the first in the world that will produce both biodiesel and ethanol.
“We don’t know of anybody else that’s making both products in the same place concurrently,” Warner said.
If built, the plant will be the first alternative fuel production facility in Northwest Florida and one of three facilities that produce ethanol in the state.
Central Florida is home to two ethanol manufacturing plants. The state does not have any biodiesel facilities in operation.
Biodiesel is a cleaner burning fuel for diesel engines that is made from carbon-based sources such as wood chips or plant material.
Ethanol is a fuel made from corn or sugar cane.
Gulf Coast Energy is seeking federal and state energy grants to build its facility.
Attracting makers of alternative fuels to Florida is a pet project of state Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Charles Bronson.
Bronson believes the state has abundant agricultural resources that will benefit producers of alternative fuels, said Terence McElroy, Bronson’s spokesman.
“One of his top priorities has been to establish renewable fuels in Florida,” McElroy said.
Gulf Coast Energy is a small company and has only been in operation for about a year. It has plans to build another biodiesel ethanol production plant in Livingston, Ala.
The plants that Gulf Coast Energy builds will use new technology that allows for a clean fuel-making process with low environmental impacts, Warner said.
The industrial park in Mossy Head, located along U.S. Highway 90 near State Road 285, is an ideal location because of its easy access to Interstate 10 and the CSX railroad line, Warner said.
The plant, if built, would employ 155 people and could spur growth at the vacant 240-acre industrial park.
“Based on the (tentative) commitments that they’ve (Gulf Coast Energy) made to us, they will lay the groundwork for future projects that will make the industrial park much more desirable,” said County Commissioner Larry Jones.
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