Poet , DOE Sign Agreement On Cellulosic Ethanol Plant

Poet and the U.S. DOE announced that they have signed a cooperative agreement for a commercial cellulosic ethanol project in Emmetsburg, Iowa. The agreement finalizes the first phase of a DOE award that was announced in February and will govern all aspects of the project leading up to construction. With the agreement in place, Poet will move forward on project preliminary design and engineering, environmental engineering, biomass collection and other activities.

According to the cooperative agreement, phase one of the project will last approximately 20 months. A subsequent phase two agreement will then be negotiated to cover construction which is expected to take two years. Following construction, facility operation is expected to begin in 2011.

Along with five other companies, Poet was selected in February by the DOE to negotiate a joint funding relationship to construct a commercial cellulosic ethanol production facility. Poet’s award is up to $80 million and can’t exceed 40 percent of the project’s total cost.

Project Liberty, Poet’s cellulosic project, will convert an existing 50 MMgy dry-mill ethanol plant in Emmetsburg into an integrated corn-to-ethanol and cellulose-to-ethanol biorefinery. Once complete, the facility will produce 125 MMgy, 25 percent of which will be from corn fiber and corn cobs. By adding cellulosic production to an existing grain ethanol plant, Poet 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.

Ethanol Producer magazine, Oct. 4, 2007