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WL company preparing to expand presence in the area

A Purdue Research Park company is taking another step toward replacing leaded, general aviation gasoline.

Swift Enterprises is teaming up with a South Dakota-based firm to develop a market for high-octane, unleaded gas.

Swift Fuels Chief Operating Officer Jon Ziulkowski says Broin Energy has experience bringing alternative fuels to market, such as ethanol.

"They are coming onboard as principals in the new organization to bring forth expertise, knowledge, financial backing, relationships they've gathered through their 30 plus years in the renewable fuels business."

Swift’s synthetic fuel is derived from bio-feed stock.

Ziulkowski says the next step is to prove they can produce enough to meet expected demand. He says they're eyeing a location on the south side of Lafayette.

"This is step one in commercialization - building a facility, which we have taken as task number one. We're not quite ready to release all the details on that facility, but it will be the first commercial-sized production facility of our fuel."

He says the goal is to produce a limited amount of the alternative fuel by the end of this year, and increase production the first half of 2013.

The Federal Aviation Administration is currently looking at ways to transition small planes off of leaded fuel.

Zuilkowski says, as far as they know, there is only one other company working on an unleaded aviation fuel. However, he says Swift is further along in producing its own.