Alliance BioEnergy Plus makes offer to acquire Ineos’ Florida ethanol plant

Alliance BioEnergy Plus Inc., West Palm Beach, Florida, announced it has submitted an offer to purchase a 145-plus acre ethanol plant previously owned by INEOS New Planet Bioenergy in Vero Beach, Florida.

If successful the company will begin to retrofit the front end of the facility immediately with its patented CTS process and quickly be converting local yard waste into cellulosic ethanol through an option agreement with Indian River County.

INEOS Bio broke ground on the plant in February 2011 and completed the $130 million facility in 2012. INEOS Bio announced in late 2016 it was putting its ethanol business, including the Vero Beach demonstration site, up for sale. In a statement, INEOS Bio said, …the economic drivers for the development of the technology (gasification fermentation) no longer aligned with the company's strategic objectives.

Though details surrounding the specific offer are covered by non-disclosure agreements, company Alliance Bioenergy Plus CEO, Daniel de Liege, says he has been encouraged by the response and support he has received from the county, chamber, economics development office and community.  "County officials have been incredibly supportive of our effort to acquire the facility and understand the tremendous benefits we bring with keeping the facility open and saving dozens of jobs," De Liege says.

The offer signals a critical, yet exciting next step in the evolution of the patented CTS process.  "This is primetime for us," adds De Liege. "Our engineers and scientists have spent the better part of the last decade working tirelessly to perfect our technology and we have arrived at a point where we are ready to start putting it to work commercially. A complete, high-tech facility already built provides the Company with an opportunity to begin utilizing the CTS technology to produce high quantities of low-cost cellulosic ethanol quickly and at a fraction of the cost compared to building from the ground up or other processes."

If successful and, up and running at capacity, sometime in early 2018, the facility will produce 8 million gallons a year of cellulosic ethanol valued at $33 million a year with a pretax profit of more than $24 million a year.

The company has begun the due diligence phase of the process and will assess the viability of the land, feedstock, permits, years of testing and activity at the site as well as local, state and federal environmental filings and regulations.