Poet Making Cellulosic Ethanol Happen Quickly

By Peter Shinn

The nation’s largest single ethanol producer, Poet of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is bullish on cellulosic ethanol. Poet recently received an $80 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to commercialize a cellulosic process at its existing Emmetsberg, Iowa dry grind ethanol plant, an expansion Poet officials refer to as "Project Liberty."

Dr. Mark Stowers is Poet’s Vice President of Research and Development. He told Brownfield, if Project Liberty is successful, it won't take long for cellulosic ethanol production to become commonplace, at least at Poet's ethanol plants.

"Once we get it, if you will, right at Emmetsberg," Stowers said, "we should be able to replicate it across all of our current 21 plants and the plants that we also have under construction."

Of course, billions of gallons of fresh ethanol production capacity are coming on line from corn-based ethanol alone. But according to Stowers, he's not worried about overwhelming the current ethanol transportation infrastructure.

"Obviously, you'd like to have a more efficient market for these products," Stowers explained. "But the infrastructure, I think."

Brownfield Ag News, Oct. 11, 2007