Cellulosic ethanol pushes ahead

by Mark Steil, Minnesota Public Radio
December 26, 2008

Ethanol made from something other than corn has gotten a lot of hype but so far has little to show. Critics like to joke the success of cellulosic ethanol has been "five years away for the last 20 years." It's a jab at an alternative energy source which everybody seems to love, but no one can make. But that could be changing. A South Dakota company, POET, has one of the handful of small-scale pilot plants successfully making ethanol from plant fiber, things like corn cobs and wood chips.

Sioux Falls, S.D. — Standing amid test tubes and fermenting machines in POET's laboratory in Sioux Falls, company research and development chief Mark Stowers gives an upbeat report on the pilot plant.

"We started up on November 18 and already we've been making cellulosic ethanol and we're very, very excited," said Stowers.

POET isn't giving any tours of the pilot plant, located in the town of Scotland some 60 miles southwest of here. It makes ethanol from corn cobs, about 20,000 gallons a year.

Stowers say the Scotland facility is basically a large version of the system initially developed in this laboratory.

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