POET gives update on cellulosic ethanol plants
Energy Dept. helping fund $200 million Iowa project
By Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 9/18/2008 3:15:00 PM
Ethanol producer POET plans to start producing cellulosic ethanol from a small pilot-scale facility in Scotland, S.D., later this year and 125 million gallons/year commercially at a $200 million plant dubbed Project Liberty in Emmetsburg, Iowa, by 2011.
The Emmetsburg plant was previously slated for construction in Indiana but Iowa now is contributing funds toward the project.
Cellulosic ethanol is a biofuel produced from wood, grasses or the non-edible parts of plants. “A lot of people can produce cellulosic ethanol in test labs while the key is to make it commercially on a large scale,” Nathan Schock, director of public relations for POET, tells The Chemical Purchasing Summit organized by ICIS Chemical Business and Purchasing magazines.
The POET plant will use corn cobs as the feedstock because they have greater bulk density than other biomass, and generate a higher ethanol yield than from stover and other corn debris.
The POET plant is part of a Department of Energy-funded project investigating claims that there’s enough farm waste in the so-called Corn Belt of the Midwestern U.S. to produce 5 billion gallon/year of cellulosic ethanol.
See also: Ethanol capacity comes back on the drawing boards
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