The power of corncobs

Minneapolis Star Tribune
By H.J. CUMMINS, Star Tribune
Last update: July 6, 2008 - 10:49 PM

This fall, the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co. will go in search of the humble corncob. A $150,000 state grant will help the central Minnesota farmers' cooperative test two collection systems to gather the small, scratchy harvest remnant: one that rides piggyback on a combine and one that follows behind.

It's the next step that's, well, groundbreaking. The Benson fuel cooperative intends to stoke its boilers with the cobs, after they've been transformed into a gas by a new technology that could do the same to all manner of refuse from the countryside, including wheat straw, sunflower hulls, wood chips and prairie grass.

By next year, the Chippewa Valley cooperative expects to wean itself of 90 percent of the pricey natural gas it now needs to cook corn ethanol from members' crops.

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