The Florida Senate Community Affairs Committee on March 17 voted 5 to 3 to advance a bill that supports efforts to develop a cellulosic ethanol plant in Fernandina Beach, Florida, a coastal community located near Jacksonville just south of the Georgia border.
Rayonier Performance Fibers LLC (RYAM) has proposed to build a 7.5 MMgy cellulosic ethanol plant at the site of its existing acid sulfite-based pulp mill in Fernandina Beach, which has been operating since the 1930s.
The City of Fernandina Beach earlier this year denied the company’s project plan, arguing the cellulosic ethanol project constitutes chemical manufacturing, which is not allowed under city code. The legislation, CS/SB 1118, includes language specifying that the production of ethanol via a process that includes fermentation, distillation and drying does not qualify as chemical manufacturing or chemical refining.
RYAM is also challenging the city’s decision via a lawsuit. The company on Feb. 28 filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of the Fourth Judicial Circuit in and for Nassau County, Florida.
Documents filed as part of that lawsuit explain that the one of the byproduct of RYAM’s pulping process is spent sulfite liquor (SSL), which contains unused biomass components from the wood chips RYAM uses to make its specialty cellulose products. The company currently either burns the SSL in its sulfite recovery boiler for energy or sells it to LingoTech Florida LLC.
The proposed cellulosic project would be located within the existing footprint of the RYAM facility to convert the exiting SSL byproduct into second-generation ethanol via a fermentation process.
