Ethanol-maker, manufacturers show how cob collection is done

The Des Moines Register
By DAN PILLER • dpiller@dmreg.com • November 8, 2008

Emmetsburg, Ia. — Poet's planned ethanol plant that would process corncobs rather than corn kernels faces a "Field of Dreams"-like question:If Poet builds the plant, will farmers come with the cobs?

Corn-fed ethanol is an easy trick for producers because farmers simply harvest the grain and truck it to the ethanol plant the same way they would if they take the corn to an elevator. Not so the corncobs, which will require new and expensive equipment to separate from the grain on the combine. The process also may require more hard-to-find farm labor.

Farmers — made wary by rising input costs and stagnant corn and soybean markets this fall — may need some persuasion before they turn next year's harvest into what Poet LLC hopes to be the first biomass harvest.

Read the full story