Rhapsody in Green

POET provides expert testimony on cellulosic ethanol

Dr. Mark Stowers, Vice President of Research & Development for POET, was on Capitol Hill earlier this week to provide expert testimony to the House Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality. Dr. Stowers briefed the committee on our cellulosic plans at a hearing titled The Renewable Fuels Standard: Issues, Implementation, and Opportunities.

Posted here is Dr. Stowers' testimony from POET TV. You can also watch the entire committee hearing or download the written version of Dr. Stowers' testimony. For more information on our cellulosic ethanol project, visit projectliberty.com.

POET at BIO

POET will be well-represented at the 2008 World Conference on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing which starts today in Chicago. At 12:15 tomorrow, CEO Jeff Broin will address a plenary session on the Biorefinery of the Future.

Among other things, Broin's speech will touch on the data recently released by Argonne National Laboratory at the USDA which shows the efficiency gains in ethanol production from 2001 to 2006. Over that five years, the ethanol yield per bushel of corn increased 6.4 percent, while energy and water use decreased 21.8 and 26.6 percent, respectively.

On Wednesday at 8:45 am, Dr. Mark Stowers, POET VP of Research & Development, will speak at a breakout session on Joint Process Developments in Biomass. He will be joined on the panel by representatives from Novozymes, ICM and Abengoa.

Stay tuned to the blog and I'll do my best to post reflections and photos from the conference. If you have questions or comments about the conference or their presentations, feel free to leave them below.

New web site for cellulosic ethanol project

Hardly an hour goes by without an inquiry coming to POET about our cellulosic venture, Project LIBERTY. From farmers who want to collect corn cobs, to potential collaborators, the media and the general public, there are a lot of people looking for the latest information on Project LIBERTY.

While we've had information on our web site for a while and updated that with a press release or two, we decided that all of the interested parties would be better served if Project LIBERTY had its own web site: www.projectliberty.com.

Check out the web site and let us know what you think in the comments below.

Biofuel Conferences

Spring is just around the corner and the biofuels conferences are piling up. We started working on some press releases about who from POET is going where, but I thought I'd put the list out here first:

• Jim Sturdevant, Director of Project Liberty, Doug Berven, Director of Corporate Affairs, is providing an update on POET's cellulosic ethanol project at the 2008 Northwest Iowa Ag Outlook Conference in Spencer, Iowa on February 19.
• Jeff Lautt, VP of Corporate Operations, will speak at the 13th annual National Ethanol Conference on February 27 in Orlando, Fl.
• Doug Berven, Director of Corporate Affairs, is speaking on a panel about Global Market Drivers and Outlook for the ethanol industry at WIREC on March 6 in Washington, DC.
• Berven is speaking at the 25x25 Renewable Energy Summit on March 12 in Omaha.
• Jeff Broin, CEO, is speaking at the opening keynote session of the World Biofuels Markets on March 13 in Brussels, Belgium.
• Broin is on a plenary panel addressing the biorefinery of the future at the 2008 Bio World Congress on April 27 in Chicago, Ill.

I'm sure there are more to come, but that ought to keep us busy for the Spring!

Cap & Trade video features POET

Environmental Defense produced a video last year called Cap. Trade. Grow. The video advocates a cap and trade system for carbon emissions in the United States. It goes into detail about the downside to America's addiction to oil and features some companies that are part of the solution. POET CEO Jeff Broin is interviewed regarding our cellulosic ethanol project. The 10-minute video has been posted to our favorites section on POET TV and can be watched here:

We got Treehugged!

Treehugger, the top environmental blog and a top-20 blog overall, gave some coverage to POET last week in a post about cellulosic ethanol. The blog included POET in an interesting discussion about schedule for the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol, which they give the acronym Ceetoh. Their best guess is no sooner than 2020 for broad commercialization of cellulosic ethanol in North America.

I noticed that a couple of the other cellulosic companies had Treehugger posts at some point in the past. Maybe ours is coming soon?

Broadcast coverage of the Energy Bill News Conference

There was significant broadcast coverage of the Energy Bill news conference we participated in with U.S. Senator John Thune, including the local affiliates of all three major TV networks. The ABC affiliate KELO piece can be found on their web site or viewed here:

KDLT, the NBC affiliate, posted a very brief recap of the event here. To launch the video, click here (link expires soon).

Peter Shinn of the Brownfield Network also attended the event. He posted a three-minute story on their web site, which you can listen to here:

For the latest print stories, visit the news page on our web site.

Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 Passes

Earlier this week, President Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The law includes an expansion of the Renewable Fuel Standard to 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022.

As the largest producer of ethanol in the world, several media outlets have been calling to get our reaction to the passage of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Just in the past week, we've done interviews with the Chicago Tribune, Reuters, the Associated Press and many more. We also issued a statement which you can find on our web site.

But what does new law really mean? As CEO Jeff Broin laid out at a press conference with U.S. Senator John Thune today, it will lead to improvements in energy security, climate change and the nation's economy. Here's the speech from Broin:

Producing 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels will lessen our imports by 1.5 million barrels per day, an amount roughly equivalent to what we import from Venezuela or Saudi Arabia. According to the NRDC, the enacted version of the bill represents a cumulative greenhouse gas equivalent reduction of 7.5-9 billion metric tonnes by 2030. This reduction is equal to 13-19% of the cumulative 2010-2030 reductions that would be required under sweeping Lieberman-Warner climate bill. Lastly, the bill will spark a huge investment in advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol. McKinsey estimates that it will take 1.5% of our nation's GDP to implement the mandated provisions of the act.

For photos from the news conference with Senator Thune, click here. To read a recap from the AP, click here.

Cellulosic Ethanol Webinar

Few weeks that pass without POET receiving an invitation to present at an event somewhere about Project Liberty, our cellulosic ethanol project. We've spoken at dozens of conferences since the award from the DOE was announced back in February and we have several more coming up this year.

Yesterday, Project Liberty director Jim Sturdevant, gave a presentation on the project for a webinar with Biofuels Journal. (Jim is pictured here during the webinar). You can read the event recap here and access the webinar here. It runs about an hour  and communicates the latest information on Project Liberty. About 50 questions came in from the more than 130 people who attended and Jim couldn't get to them all. If you have questions about Project Liberty, please feel free to ask them here and we'll do our best to respond.

POET to deliver webinar on cellulosic project

POET Project Liberty Director Jim Sturdevant will deliver an online presentation regarding POET's cellulosic ethanol project. The webinar will take place December 11 at 2:00 p.m. central time and is hosted by Biofuels Journal. To register for the free webinar, click here.

Jim will give an update on POET's Project Liberty, which will produce—starting in 2011—25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year from corn cobs and fractionated corn fiber. He will also take questions from attendees, but if you have questions you'd like him to address during the presentation, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Cob Harvest Media Day A/V

As promised in the previous post, we've got some pictures and video from Cob Harvest Media Day. First of all, the speeches are posted on POET TV. Here's POET CEO Jeff Broin kicking off the event:

As you can hear from the video, it was a typical South Dakota windy day. Also, pictures from the event can be found on flickr and Grainnet.

Harvesting corn cobs...lots of them

One of the biggest hurdles facing the commercial production of cellulosic ethanol is the harvest, transportation and storage of cellulosic feedstock. In POET's case, that cellulosic feedstock is corn cobs...lots of them. When our commercial cellulosic ethanol facility is operational in 2011, it will require 275,000 acres of corn cobs per year.

POET began preparing for that harvest long ago and this fall we're harvesting 4,000 acres of cobs on a farm in South Dakota. We're working with agricultural equipment manufacturers to test equipment that will harvest corn cobs along with grain in a single pass without significantly slowing harvest. I posted a press release with some details here.

Yesterday we hosted several members of the press on a farm near Hurley, S.D. for a demonstration of the equipment and an update on our cellulosic project. I thought I'd post some of the early press coverage. The first is from KELO-TV, the local CBS affiliate, who ran the following clip on their station

You can read the story here. It's a good piece, but it got the equipment a little confused. The John Deere combine at the site was modified to collect co-mingled grain and cobs. The Cob Caddy is a custom machine pulled behind a combine that collects the cobs separately from the grain. With the Deere, the separation step is required, but not so with the Cob Caddy. Also, these cobs will not go to Emmetsburg as the cellulosic portion of that project will not be operational until 2011.

Next is an interview that POET CEO Jeff Broin gave to Peter Shinn of the Brownfield Network. You can read the entire piece here or listen to a clip of the interview posted below.

I'll be posting some video and audio of our own from the event as soon as I find some time for production.

Cellulosic ethanol Conferences

If there were as many cellulosic ethanol plants as there are cellulosic ethanol conferences, we'd have cured our country's addition to foreign oil by now. There are two this week to mention.

First, Doug Berven, the Director of Corporate Development for POET, is in Washington, D.C. to speak at the Cellulosic Ethanol Summit. Today, the speaker at the luncheon was Chuck Connor, Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Chuck Zimmerman of DomesticFuel grabbed an interview with the acting secretary after his speech. The full agenda of the conference is here (pdf).

While Doug is in D.C., Dr. Mark Stowers, VP of R&D for POET, is in Chicago to speak at the Platts Cellulosic Ethanol Conference. He will speak Thursday at 9:00 a.m. The full agenda is here (pdf).

While we're on the topic, POET was in Washington, DC earlier this month for a cellulosic ethanol conference put on by the Renewable Fuels Association. The event also featured a speech from Chuck Connor, acting secretary of USDA, who sorted out some of the food vs. fuel rhetoric.

POET cellulosic project discussed on Brownfield Network

Peter Shinn of the Brownfield Network interviewed Dr. Mark Stowers, Vice President of Research & Development for POET (pictured here), on Project Liberty. You can read Poet making cellulosic ethanol happen quickly or listen to the audio here:

While you're at it, be sure to check out the Brownfield Blog.

Senator Grassley Visits POET

Yesterday, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) visited the Sioux Falls office of POET. The Senator wanted an update on Project LIBERTY, which is the transformation of an ethanol production facility located in Emmetsburg, Iowa into a biorefinery that produces ethanol from corn cobs and corn fiber in addition to corn starch. Senator Grassley also received a tour of the Sioux Falls office from POET CEO Jeff Broin and VP of R&D Mark Stowers, including the lab where biomass fermentations were taking place.

After the tour, the Senator (left) and Jeff Broin (right) made some time for press questions. You can read the AP article in the online version of the Rapid City Journal.

Cellulosic ethanol project director speaks

Every day, there's lots of activity at POET around our project to construct a commercial cellulosic ethanol production facility. That work is taking place in little pockets all across the company. On a monthly basis we get everyone together for a company-wide progress update.

After this month's update, I sat down with the director of Project LIBERTY, Jim Sturdevant (pictured here), to talk about the progress and get some of his thoughts and perspectives on his first three months at POET. We decided to make it our first audio post on Rhapsody in Green.

POET CEO featured on renewable energy podcast

Jeff Broin, the CEO of POET, was interviewed by Stephen Lacey for Inside Renewable Energy, a weekly podcast on renewable energy from RenewableEnergyAccess.com. In the interview, Jeff dispelled some of the myths of ethanol and talked about our cellulosic project.

If you aren't already subscribed to the show's RSS feed, go here to listen to the issue that includes Jeff Broin. Once you've listened, I'm sure you'll want to subscribe. I know I listen every week.

DTN covers POET Cellulosic Ethanol Project

Todd Neeley, the DTN ethanol reporter who updates the excellent DTN Ethanol Blog, came to Sioux Falls a few weeks ago for a story on our cellulosic ethanol project. It was the seventh in Todd's series on cellulosic ethanol. Thus the title: Cellulosic Ethanol-7.

I decided to put a link on the blog because it contains the most complete report on our project to date. For those who are seeking more information on our project, it's well worth the read.

If you're looking for more information on the cellulosic project now or in the future, you can always check out our cellulosic news page on the POET web site.

Kick-starting the conversation

Our announcement last week on cellulosic ethanol stirred up a little conversation in the blogsophere. A post at Green Car Congress elicited 12 responses ranging from This is great news! to Ethanol, whether it be corn based or cellulosic will continue to make a relatively minimal contribution to our fuel supply.

I had to laugh at a post on Mercury Rising that said POET is Making Corn Ethanol A Bit Less Sucky. Hmmm...I can't quite figure out where she stands on corn ethanol. Anyway, the post generated eight comments, one of which was a suggestion that hemp would make a better energy crop. I particularly enjoyed a comment from the communications director of the American Lung Association in Minnesota comparing ethanol to petroleum and citing the improvements to air quality with ethanol.

If you want to know more of what happened at the show, blogging coverage was provided by Domestic Fuel. Let us know what you think about ethanol, cellulosic or otherwise. We'd love to hear from you.

Kudos from Senator Lugar

Last week we announced that we have successfully made cellulosic ethanol from corn cobs. Judging by the number of people we've heard from, the news was widely read. It even made it's way to the capital in Washington D.C. where we received a very nice congratulatory letter from U.S. Senator Richard Lugar.

The first paragraph of the letter to CEO Jeff Broin read:

I was delighted to read today that POET has produced cellulosic ethanol from corn cobs. Rapidly increasing biofuels use in the U.S. is vital for reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Congratulations on taking a vital step toward this goal.

Later on in the letter, Senator Lugar wrote:

I am also pleased to learn that POET will soon be breaking ground on its third ethanol facility in Indiana. This is a valuable investment in America's energy security and in Indiana's economy.

We were honored to receive such a thoughtful letter from such an esteemed member of the United States Senate. If you'd like to read the entire letter, click here (pdf 246.2K)

More ethanol from the same corn

As mentioned previously, we are in St. Louis for the Fuel Ethanol Workshop and it has been a busy couple of days. Yesterday, we made an announcement that POET has successfully produced cellulosic ethanol from corn cobs.

There was a fair amount of press in attendance both at the event and on a conference call line. I've posted several of the stories on our web site.

Cindy Zimmerman, who is blogging about the conference from Domestic Fuel, posted audio of POET CEO Jeff Broin making the announcement here. Later today, Dr. Mark Stowers, VP of R&D, will give an update on the cellulosic project on a panel with the director of R&D from Abengoa Bioenergy.

Fuel Ethanol Workshop

We're heading to St. Louis for the 2007 Fuel Ethanol Workshop. More than 4,000 people are expected for the industry's largest conference and several POET employees will be in attendance.

Those of us who are attending will be busy. On Wednesday, we'll be announcing a milestone reached in the production of cellulosic ethanol. On Thursday, Mark Stowers will give a presentation on the progress of our cellulosic project.

I'll be posting pictures and updates here as they occur.

Singing About Cellulose in Singapore

Maybe he won't be singing (at least we hope he won't), but POET International Director of Business Development Mike Roth will be in Singapore for Biofuels Markets Asia which starts tomorrow. What he will do is give a presentation on ethanol production in the United States with a special focus on POET's cellulose ethanol project with the U.S. Department of Energy. I've posted a copy of the presentation below.

If you'd like someone from POET to speak at your conference, just go to the contact page on our web site.

Director of Project LIBERTY

Director of Project LIBERTY, originally uploaded by poetpics.

Jim Sturdevant is the new director of Project LIBERTY, the commercial cellulosic ethanol project of POET. As director of the project, Jim will coordinate the dozens of people at POET and all of the external collaborators working on this important project. For more information on Project LIBERTY, see this news release. To keep up with news on the cellulosic project, visit the POET Cellulosic Ethanol News Page.

The Biofuels Innovation Program Act

In response to the Biofuels Innovation Program Act introduced by Senators John Thune and Ben Nelson, POET issued the following statement:

Our entire country should be encouraged that our elected officials are proposing legislation such as this to stimulate the research, development and production of cellulosic ethanol. The Biofuels Innovation Program represents the kind of visionary leadership we need and should receive broad, bipartisan support from Congress. By directing funding to the producers who will grow all biomass crops or provide the corn stover and other crop residues directly to biofuels facilities, this bill will support the cellulosic ethanol industry while it is still in its infancy.