Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Ethanol giant receives grant to help it acquire corncobs for cellulosic plant

Leading ethanol company Poet has received a $6.85 million grant from the Department of Energy to secure feedstock for the company's first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility. The company is to get $13.5 million in 2010 to meet its goal of 700 tons of cellulosic biomass per day of operation, reports the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, S.D., the firm's hometown. The proposed plant, known as Project Liberty, is scheduled to open in Emmetsburg, Iowa, in late 2011. (Read more)

Most of the cellulosic biomass will be corncobs, and the grant will help farmers add cob collectors to their combines. "We're asking farmers to change a longstanding practice of going to their fields, harvesting the corn and shooting everything else out the back end of a combine," Mike Roth, director of Poet's biomass program, told Michael Burnham of Environment & Energy Daily. "Cellulosic ethanol is not yet produced and sold in United States, but scientists say the 'second generation' biofuel has a big environmental upside because it can be made from the hearty, non-food portions of sugarcane and many other plants," Burnham writes. (Read more; subscription required)

We previously reported in January that Poet had opened its first pilot plant to develop ethanol from corn cobs in South Dakota, and we reported in August about Poet's announcement of the Project Liberty facility in Emmetsburg.

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