Florida-based Protec Fuel has announced plans for a multi-phase rollout of E15 and E85 in the southern portion of the U.S. The company will initially open 28 stations offering both E15 and E85 across the South and Southeast regions of the country, including communities in Texas, Florida and Virginia. Those stations are expected to be complete in the first quarter of next year.

Protec Fuels is a distribution and management company that provides ethanol blends and is an ethanol blends station installer. According to Growth Energy, the company currently supplies more than 200 E85 stations either directly or through distribution partners. While retailers for the current phase have been identified, Protec Fuels said future stages of the initiative are still in development.

"Because of the success of our retailers who have offered E85 in the past, our retail customers are asking us for E15," said Todd Garner, CEO of Protec Fuel. "With our proven expertise in the field, it's natural for us to help meet the demand of many convenience store retailers—large and small—who want to offer products different than their competitors. Further, this can aid in helping to meet the renewable fuel standard blend wall, after market concentration of E10.”

Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, has spoken out in support of Protec Fuel’s announcement. “Protec is offering consumers a choice and savings at the pump and breaking into new markets in the South by opening 28 E15 and E85 stations in Atlanta, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Virginia and Florida,” he said.

“Bottom line--consumer demand for homegrown, high performance, low cost fuels cannot be ignored, Buis continued. “E15 continues to spread across the nation and Protec is a leader in a larger movement that will increase E15’s footprint across our nation, finally ending Big Oil’s stranglehold on the liquid fuels marketplace.”