OFFICIALS in Tampa, Florida, got a surprise recently when a local firm building the state's first ethanol-production factory put in a request for 400,000 gallons (1.5m litres) a day of city water.

OFFICIALS in Tampa, Florida, got a surprise recently when a local firm building the state's first ethanol-production factory put in a request for 400, 000 gallons (1.5m litres) a day of city water.

Kumar Plocher founded the company in 2001, and it now produces about 3700 liters of biodiesel fuel every day.