Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Underway

Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Underway



October 2007

 POET Energy and the 
U.S. Department of Energy, DOE, have signed a cooperative agreement for a 
commercial cellulosic ethanol project in Emmetsburg, Iowa that will 
produce ethanol from corn cobs. Cellulosic ethanol is produced from 
biomass with starches that are difficult to convert to fuel; sources 
including corn stover, grasses, wood chips, agricultural waste. 
The company says its Emmetsburg facility will use "advanced corn 
fractionation" and "lignocellulosic conversion" technologies to produce 
cellulosic ethanol - the first facility in the world to do so 
commercially. 
These are two proprietary, patent-pending biotechnologies that unlock more 
starch from corn than ever before possible and "yield ethanol above the 
industry standard output with considerably less energy," the company says. 

POET's cellulosic ethanol project is nicknamed Project Liberty because it 
will reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. 
The company will convert an existing 50 million gallon per year dry-mill 
ethanol plant in Emmetsburg into an integrated corn-to-ethanol and 
cellulose-to-ethanol biorefinery. Once operational, the facility will 
produce 125 million gallons of ethanol per year, 25 percent of which will 
be from corn fiber and corn cobs. 
By adding cellulosic production to an existing grain ethanol plant, POET 
says the company will be able to produce 11 percent more ethanol from a 
bushel of corn, 27 percent more from an acre of corn, while almost 
completely eliminating fossil fuel consumption and decreasing water usage 
by 24 percent. 
The agreement between POET and the DOE finalizes the first phase of an $80 
million federal government award that was announced in February. With the 
agreement in place, POET will move forward on project preliminary design 
and engineering, environmental engineering, biomass collection and other 
activities that will take two years overall. 
Then a two year construction phase is scheduled, with facility operation 
expected in 2011. 
In June, POET announced that Jim Sturdevant, a 22 year veteran of the U.S. 
Geological Survey, will serve as director of the project. 
POET has purchased additional land adjacent to their Emmetsburg production 
facility in order to accommodate construction of the cellulosic facility. 
With the opening of its 21st ethanol production facility in September in 
Portland, Indiana, POET becames the largest producer of ethanol in the 
world. Portland is the first POET plant in the state of Indiana, with two 
additional plants currently under construction. 
"When we started our first facility in 1988 at one million gallons per 
year, we had no intentions of becoming the largest," said Jeff Broin, CEO 
of POET. "We simply realized that farmers needed additional uses for their 
crops and the country needed a clean-burning, domestic fuel." 
"Now, with 10,000 farmer-owners and investors from all walks of life, we 
are developing the rural economy, improving the environment and reducing 
our nation's dependence on foreign oil," he said. 
Formerly known as Broin, the 20 year old company currently operates 21 
production facilities in the United States with six more in construction 
or under development. 
The Portland facility will be equipped with technology that decreases its 
environmental footprint, including a POET patent-pending process that 
eliminates the need for heat in the cooking process of producing ethanol, 
reducing energy usage by eight to 15 percent in comparison with 
conventional plants. 
It also will be outfitted with a "regenerative thermal oxidizer that 
eliminates up to 99.9 percent of air emissions," the company said. 
POET's Portland facility will obtain 100 percent of its water supply from 
a nearby quarry which pumps out water in order to continue its excavation 
activities. To use this water, a 10 million gallon retention pond was 
constructed on site that lets the sediment settle out of the water before 
it is used in the ethanol plant. By using water that would have originally 
been discharged, the facility will leave more water resources available 
for other commercial and residential purposes. 
The Portland facility will utilize 22 million bushels of corn from the 
area to produce 65 million gallons of ethanol and 178,000 tons of Dakota 
Gold Enhanced Nutrition Distillers Products™ per year. These distillers 
grains are a nutritious livestock feed. 
The other by-product of ethanol production is the greenhouse gas carbon 
dioxide, which is emitted during fermentation. Many ethanol plants collect 
that carbon dioxide, CO2, clean it of any residual alcohol, compress it 
and sell it for use to carbonate beverages or in the flash freezing of 
meat. 
POET says, "A select few of our plants collect, compress and market it for 
use in other industries. The carbon dioxide we produce is ultimately 
reabsorbed by future corn crops, which need CO2 to grow." 
But too much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere, and only a portion of it 
is absorbed by plants. Instead, CO2 and other greenhouse gases form a 
layer that blankets the Earth, holding in heat from the Sun and raising 
the planet's temperature. 

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