Moving a mountain of woodchips

After months of construction, the delivery system for POET Biorefining – Chancellor’s solid waste fuel boiler is up and running.

I had the chance to check it out this week during a visit, and it’s impressive.

A large building stores a mountain of wood chips. Each day 150-300 tons of biomass are sent up a conveyor to feed the five-story tall boiler. Although the building is large, it only holds enough biomass for three days of operation.

When you combine the biomass power with methane piped in from the Sioux Falls Regional Sanitary Landfill, enough energy is produced to handle all the plant’s energy needs for steam generation. It offsets 65 percent of the total natural gas use, including that for drying the DDGS. That number will increase as more gas is generated at the landfill.

A peek inside the boiler showed some ferocious flames; my photo doesn’t do it justice. Check out a series of pictures at POET’s Flickr page.

Ethanol pipeline extends to South Dakota

Recently, the Associated Press correctly reported that POET's dedicated ethanol pipeline project with Magellan Midstream Partners had decided to expand the proposed pipeline to include South Dakota. It was our belief from the beginning that expanding the pipeline into South Dakota would be a good idea considering that it is the fifth largest ethanol producing state at almost one billion gallons of capacity.

The proposed ethanol pipeline is now 1,800 miles long and will directly connect to 30 Midwestern ethanol production facilities. As you can see from the attached map, the proposed route would start in South Dakota and travel through the ethanol producing states of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio before heading to the east coast.

The pipeline would significantly discount the cost of transporting ethanol to the east coast and decrease the carbon footprint of the fuel because it eliminates the use of fossil powered trucks and trains to transport the product to market.

POET ethanol plant in Indiana to open on September 11

On September 11 in North Manchester, Ind. POET will open its newest ethanol plant with a grand opening ceremony. Ground was broken in July last year and the plant started receiving corn in August. Ethanol production will start on September 15.

If you haven't been to a grand opening of a POET plant in recent months, it's quite an event. Thousands of people show up for a multi-media presentation, flyover from ethanol-powered planes, a life-size replica of the #17 Indy Car, tours of the facility and a free lunch. More information on the plant and the event can be found on our web site.

When the plant started receiving corn, Indiana's Newscenter showed up and produced this piece for their news:

POET provides update on cellulosic project at ACE Ethanol Conference

At the 21st Annual Ethanol Conference & Trade Show from ACE, POET provided the industry with an update on its drive to commercialize the production of cellulosic ethanol. The announcement was even discussed in ACE's new blog.

The announcement was that our pilot cellulosic ethanol production facility will be operational in the fourth quarter of this year. It will be located in Scotland, S.D. where it will be integrated with an existing corn ethanol plant.

Biofuels Journal interviewed POET CEO Jeff Broin after the announcement:

There was extensive media coverage, which you can follow on the POET news page, and a lot of chatter in the blogosphere. Cindy Zimmerman of Domestic Fuel was at the news conference and posted audio of an interview with Jeff Broin.

There was also a post from Earth2Tech, saying that our announcement will likely make the numerous startups working on cellulosic ethanol a bit nervous. With a renewable fuel standard that includes 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol, there is room for everyone.

I also enjoyed a comment to a post at CNET asking This is cool, how big is the commercial scale plant? The commercial scale plant, which you can follow the progress of at projectliberty.com, will produce 125 million gallons per year, of which 25 million will be cellulosic.

As for Jeff Broin's remarks at the news conference, you can download a printed version (pdf) or listen to the audio below:

POET Biorefining - Alexandria grand opening on POET TV

As promised in the last post, the speeches from the grand opening ceremony of POET Biorefining - Alexandria have been posted to POET TV. You can also watch them here:

In addition, Jeff Swiatek of the Indianapolis Star wrote a story about our company and the opening of the plant. It's worth the read.

Alexandria Grand Opening Next Week

Next week, POET will open its 23rd ethanol production facility in Alexandria, Ind. The facility will be the second plant opened in the state of Indiana where one more is under construction. The grand opening is scheduled for April 17 and complete details can be found in a release on our web site.

Hoosier Ag Today interviewed Dave Hudak, the general manager of the facility, and posted it on their web site. You can also listen to the interview here:

Ethanol plant expansion completed

Around 12 months ago, construction started on an expansion of POET Biorefining - Chancellor that would see its ethanol production capacity double to 100 million gallons per year. The expansion was completed last week and it took the plant less than 24 hours to reach its new nameplate capacity.

Construction on a solid waste fuel boiler (pictured here) continues at the site and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year. Once it is done, the solid waste fuel boiler will replace up to 60 percent of the plant's natural gas usage. For more information on the boiler, see this post announcing the project last year.

The first load of grain

The next POET plant to come online will be POET Biorefining - Alexandria (Ind.). It will start producing ethanol early next quarter. They received their first test load of grain yesterday and the system ran smoothly. Full grain receiving will begin in March when they begin collecting enough grain to produce 65 million gallons of ethanol per year.

Dave Lawler of Lawler Trucking drives the first load of corn into the grains receiving area of the plant.

The first load of corn emptying out of the truck and into the plant.

From L to R: POET Biorefining - Alexandria Commodity Assistant Mike McCarty and Commodity  Supervisor Dean Thurston, Yorkton farmer Dale Rinker whose load of corn was the first into the facility, and POET Biorefining - Alexandria Commodity Assistant Jaime Yanez.

Under construction in Chancellor

I went to Chancellor yesterday to see how the expansion of POET Biorefining - Chancellor is coming. The production facility in Chancellor was completed in 2003 with a production capacity of 40 million gallon per year. Ground was broken on the expansion in March and as you can see, construction is progressing quite nicely.

As of now, the expansion, which will increase the production capacity to 100 million gallons per year, is slated for completion in the second quarter of 2008. For more pictures of the plant, visit our Flickr page.

The city of Chancellor has a population of just over 300 people, so an ethanol plant that employs 50 people plays a huge role in the local economy. As just one example, I joined General Manager Rick Serie for lunch at the Chancellor Cafe. As you can see from the photo, the cafe is a fairly new building. It opened in 2002 when the plant was originally under construction. The homemade pie is worth the trip alone.

Reaction to the ethanol plant in Portland

Last week, we received a fantastic reception from the Hoosier state during the grand opening event for our newest plant in Portland, Ind. We are glad to be there and the community is genuinely glad to have us.

Several comments from the area found their way into media reports from the Friday event. An article in the Muncie Star-Press quoted several people in the area:

"This is great," Jay County resident Ralph May said while enjoying the festivities. "This is one of the best things that has happened to our city and our state in a long time. We've got something good going here."

Robert Durbin, a retired electrician from Decatur, agreed. "It's amazing that they can take a product we grow and turn it into a useful resource and not destroy our atmosphere, not discharge anything into the air or into the streams," he said. "I'm glad they are able to do this." 

Jim Bob McEwen, a Jay County farmer, said not only is the new facility great for the community and the state, "I think people who were against it in the beginning will be more welcoming as they realize it's environmentally friendly and not near as bad as they feared."

Senator Richard Lugar spoke at the event and has some great things to say about the plant and the ethanol industry as a whole. Gary Truitt at Hoosier Ag Today spoke to Senator Lugar and posted the interview here. Gary also posted an interview with Jeff Broin.

The Bluffton News-Banner interviewed POET Biorefining - Portland's maintenance manager Jeff Maddox of Montpelier, who said: I never expected the goose that laid the golden egg to land in my lap at my age.

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