Meridian Waste’s Attis Innovations to create biomass value from rogued citrus trees

Meridian Waste Solutions, Inc., Atlanta, announced that its subsidiary, Attis Innovations, is actively working with the Gulf Citrus Growers Association and the University of Florida Southwest Florida Research and Education Center to evaluate citrus trees as a feedstock for its proprietary biomass processing technology. The Attis biorefining technology can efficiently separate and convert biomass into high-value, high-volume commodities, such as cellulose, glucose, cellulosic ethanol, furfural and a melt-flowable form of lignin that disperses efficiently into plastics.

Since 2005, the Florida citrus industry has been struggling to combat a disease known as "greening," a bacterium that is spread by common bugs called psyllids. Once a citrus tree is exposed to the bacteria, its lifespan and productivity can be nearly cut in half. As a result, trees are "rogued," or extracted, and burned at a rate of roughly 10-20 percent per year, almost ten times the normal rate of 1-2 percent. Attempts to eradicate the disease have thus far been unsuccessful, with the fallout having a negative impact on both citrus production and revenue for the industry.

Through a partnership with the Gulf Citrus Growers Association and the University of Florida, Attis Innovations is working aggressively to develop a system to create new jobs and value from rogued citrus trees and their byproducts. Attis Innovations estimates that from the roughly 350,000 acres of citrus groves in southwest Florida, there are roughly seven million trees rogued each year. Assuming the average weight of the rogued trees is about 250 pounds, this equates to roughly 875,000 tons of trees being rogued and destroyed annually.

Attis expects that by fully deploying its biorefining technology in this region, approximately 125 well-paying refinery jobs could be created. A key component of Attis’s technology is the ability to build cost-effective facilities at small scale to match feedstock supplies and available capital. Attis expects that the total citrus tree plan would be built out over five projects at approximately $60 million each.

"The greening disease that has been affecting the citrus industry in Florida over the last 12 years has created a considerable strain on the profitability of citrus growers," Ron Hamel, executive director of the Gulf Citrus Growers Association, says.

“These are exactly the type of applications and impact we look to have on our communities,” Attis Industries CEO Jeff Cosman says. “The construction and operation of just one system at one-fifth of the citrus scale would create incomes of equivalent to about $1 per share. This is one of many applications we wish to engage in to grow our company while creating high-quality, sustainable jobs. The USDA estimates that there is more than one-billion tons of biomass in the United States available for processing without disruption to the current food supply. This particular citrus application in southwest Florida represents less than 0.1% of the available feedstock for this purpose.”