Can you say 'Vercipia'

Verenium and BP, which have announced they're building a biofuels plant next year in southeast Highlands County, said Thursday they're forming a new company, Vercipia Biofuels.

It will be headquartered in Florida.

"We haven't decided on a location yet," Verenium spokeswoman Kelly Lindenboom said from Cambridge, Mass.

Greg Harris, interim president of the Greater Sebring Chamber of Commerce, has already signed a letter, along with Sebring airport director Mike Willingham, inviting the company to settle here.

Vercipia - which the company's Web site said means "green beginnings," will make 36 million gallons of next-generation cellulosic ethanol from sugarcane, sorghum and grasses.

The company is also developing a second commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol site in the Gulf Coast region.

In Highlands County, the company intends to construct a $1.5 million building, and make $1.6 million in road improvements.

It will eventually mean 140 jobs in Highlands County, and they'll be high paying, according to a grant application released under Barbara Stewart's signature in a county commission board meeting.

The plant manager will be paid $150,000 a year with the possibility of a $45,000 bonus. Engineers will make from $125,000 to 75,000, and technicians qualify for $58,240 to $50,000.

The hiring process hasn't started yet, Lindenboom said.

The plant is to be located along State Road 70, near Brighton, on 35,000 acres of Lykes Brothers land, with 20,000 farmable acres.

Vercipia intends to break ground on the Highlands County facility in 2010. Production is expected to begin in 2012. Vercipia's second commercial site will be announced next year.