POET Biorefining - Big Stone recently completed an expansion that took the facility from an annual nameplate construction capacity of 40 million to 75 million gallons of ethanol per year. The facility had been producing nearly 50 million gallons per year, or almost 20 percent above its nameplate capacity.
The expansion of Big Stone puts the total annual production capacity of the 20 POET Biorefining plants at 1.045 billion gallons of ethanol per year. The six plants in South Dakota produce just over 310 million gallons per year.
What makes POET Biorefining - Big Stone particularly interesting is the subject of an article in the July issue of Ethanol Producer Magazine. The POET facility is located a half mile from the Big Stone Power Plant (pictured here) and uses steam from that plant to operate its evaporators and distillers. That leads to a 50 percent decrease in natural gas usage in comparison to similar ethanol plants. POET Biorefining - Big Stone also gets 85 percent of its water from the power plant's retention ponds.
With natural gas usage 50 percent below the norm and only 15 percent of its water coming from an area township, what you have is a big facility with a small environmental footprint.
I read a story a http://www.argusleader.com/ titled: "Poet to become world's largest Ethanol Producer when 21st Plant opens"
Congratulation's on your accomplishment.
Posted by: Dave Clark | June 21, 2007 at 08:46 AM