Home-Grown Gasoline---Incubator Company Pioneers Production of Plant Biofuels to Power Ships, Jets, and the Family Car

Winter Springs, Fla. -- Whether you worry more about the high cost of gasoline or the increasing environmental damage fossil fuels create, Precision Renewable Energy---PRE---has some news that’s worth sharing: one very powerful solution may be right around the corner. “Alternative fuels are doable right now and it’s only going to get better over the next five years,” says W. Steven Edmonds, Jr. PRE’s executive vice president of industry development. PRE is a leading pioneer in the development of biofuels, which promise to replace fossil fuels as a sustainable, renewable, cleaner-burning source of power for everything from ships and jets to the family car and even the local electric company. PRE was founded by the individuals who were first in the U.S. to earn ASTM certification for camelina, an oily flax-like plant that has been cultivated since Neolithic times in Mediterranean regions of Europe and Asia for its cold-hardiness and oil-producing qualities. When the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels performed at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo last year, their flyover marked the first time an entire military aviation unit was powered by a 50/50 blend of camelina biofuel and common jet fuel. And that was just a demonstration. In three years, the U.S. Navy plans to deploy its “Great Green Fleet,” a carrier battle group powered entirely by non-fossil fuels. The U.S. Air Force has also announced plans to use 50 percent biofuels in its aircraft by 2016. “Camelina is just one fuel crop under development right now,” Edmonds said. “We are currently testing seven crops and we plan to have as many as 50 crops in testing within five years,” he said. PRE’s pioneering efforts could generate a potentially enormous payoff for farmers, seed producers and consumers, not to mention the environment. That’s one reason PRE attracted the attention of Tony Wise of Wise Seed Company, one of the largest seed harvesters in the southeastern U.S. Wise, a partner at PRE, envisions a multi-billion dollar alternative fuels industry that could end America’s dependence on fuel imports, provide a thriving marketplace for farmers---and future Wise Seed Company customers---and power most of the cars, trucks and buses on America’s highways. “The future has already started,” Edmonds said. “We are developing crops now that require very little water to meet an enormous proportion of our energy needs, and we’re already seeing powerful results,” he said. PRE is a client company of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program in Winter Springs. About the UCF Business Incubation Program Since its founding in 1999, the UCF Business Incubation Program has helped more than 200 emerging companies (including more than 134 current clients) create over $363 million in annual total economic output and more than 3,120 new jobs (taking direct and indirect and induced impact into account) with an average salary of $59,000. With ten facilities across the Greater Orlando community, the Business Incubation Program is a collaboration in economic development among the University of Central Florida, Orange County, the City of Orlando, Seminole County, the City of Apopka, the City of Winter Springs, the City of Sanford, Lake County, the City of Leesburg, Osceola County, the City of Kissimmee, City of St. Cloud, Volusia County and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. For more information about the Program and its clients and graduates, please visit www.incubator.ucf.edu and UCFBIP on Facebook, on www.facebook.com/ucf4bip.