Ethanol producer hopes to create biomass market

Morris Sun Tribune
Tom Cherveny, West Central Tribune
Published Sunday, December 14, 2008

BENSON — Weather conditions made it very difficult to harvest this year’s corn crop, but they didn’t stop the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company from gleaning corn cobs along with the yellow grain from roughly 2,500 acres.

There were “no show stoppers’’ to the Benson-based cooperative’s first-ever efforts to harvest corn cobs as a biomass fuel, according to Gene Fynboh, a member of the co-op’s board of directors and coordinator for the harvest. Fynboh and others met Thursday in Benson to assess the corn cob harvest, and to plan their next steps.

“My impression is that it’s still worth pursuing here,’’ said Fynboh.

“We’re committed to making this work,’’ said Bill Lee, general manager of Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company, as discussions on the harvest continued.

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