If you live in the midwest, especially Iowa, you know we have thousands of acres of corn. Our farmers currently harvest these fields primarily for grain and in some cases the stover for livestock feed and bedding in the form of round or square bales. But now innovative thinkers are looking at these fields of opportunity to produce ethanol from stover NOT corn. POET Biomass, headquartered in South Dakota along with manufacturers, researchers, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Energy are intensively researching and producing commercial cellulosic ethanol at the Poet production facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa.
I attended the Emmetsburg Project Liberty Field Day on Tuesday November 3, 2009. I walked away from the event very intrigued, energized and hoping this puzzle comes together. The billions of tons of cellulosic material readily available in Americas heartland will blow you away. Not to mention the woody by-products of many existing production processes that can also be used to create ethanol, but POET is focusing on corn stover. Vermeer, Case, Demco and more are all working on ways to efficiently harvest corncobs from the field. A number of heavy-hitter speakers addressed the crowd of farmers, media and equipment manufacturers. Lt. Governor Patty Judge, Jeff Broin CEO POET, Scott Weishaar VP Commercial Development Poet, Jonathan Coppes USDA Administrator and former 4-star General Wesley Clark, currently Co-Chairman of Growth Energy.
“Ethanol is America’s best renewable fuel because it can help create green-collar jobs, boost our domestic economy, and improve our environment right now,” stated Clark. He shared additional facts to the crowd “we have the opportunity to save one million barrels of oil imported into the US per day and stop one of the greatest transfers of wealth by producing our own energy. American grown and produced ethanol creates 60% less green house gases than gasoline.” Consider the benefits of NOT depending on imported oil from the Middle East.
The U.S. government is throwing millions of dollars at this project. And I say “THANK YOU!” Anyway we can create cleaner energy and not depend on importation of oil from the Middle East is thumbs up in my book! Through the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) farmers are eligible to receive payments at the rate of $1 for each $1/dry T. up to $45/dry T. to a 2-year payment duration for the delivery of corncobs. Poet is offering opportunities to local farmers to incentivize the delivery of corncobs to their Emmetsburg facility. You can learn more about this exciting project at Poet’s YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/poettv, their Flickr stream http://www.flickr.com/photos/poetpics/ or their website http://www.poet.com/news/index.asp.
Author: Bellana Putz
www.lessingflynn.com
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