Located on 36 acres in Fort Myers, Algenol Biofuels’ advanced Pilot-Scale Integrated Biorefinery is the first center of its kind in Southwest Florida. A prototype facility for the production of sustainable biofuels and green chemicals, the biorefinery will produce approximately 100,000 gallons of fuel-grade ethanol annually when it reaches full capacity.

In addition to the biorefinery, the complex includes a 10,000-square-foot support building, a 4,200-square-foot greenhouse, a 10,000-square-foot water and ethanol processing pavilion and a saltwater well. This is the second facility that GCM has constructed for Algenol. A 40,000-square-foot biofuels research and development center opened on an adjacent site in 2010.

The new biorefinery represents the first large-scale launch of Algenol’s advanced Direct to Ethanol patented technology that produces ethanol directly from carbon dioxide, sunlight and saltwater using blue-green algae in patented photobioreactors (PBRs). With completion of the new biorefinery, Algenol expects to have the most advanced integrated biofuels research and development complex in the world.