Poet plant produces cellulosic ethanol
The Scotland plant is producing ethanol at a rate of 20,000 gallons a year using corn cobs as feedstock.
The $8 million (€6 million) endeavour is a precursor to the $200 million Project Liberty, a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant that will begin production in 2011.
‘After producing 1,000 gallons, we’ve already been able to validate all of what we learned in the lab and believe the process will be ready for commercialisation when we start construction on Project Liberty next year,’ Poet CEO Jeff Broin says.
The pilot plant is located on the site of a 9 million gallon a year starch ethanol production facility and a starch pilot facility.
Poet is pursuing an integrated starch- and cellulose-to-ethanol biorefinery model that could see cellulosic production capacity added to its 26 plants that currently produce 1.5 billion gallons of ethanol from corn a year.
The pilot project is the result of a significant investment in research by Poet over the last eight years toward commercialising cellulosic ethanol.
In 2008 Poet spent $20 million on research, doubling its research staff and tripling the size of its lab in Sioux Falls.