POET Biorefining – Hanlontown receives “Shining Star Volunteer Award”

Mason City, Iowa honored POET Biorefining – Hanlontown at an awards luncheon last week with the mayor and city council.

Mason City Mayor Eric Bookmeyer honored the plant with the “Shining Star Volunteer Award ” for the many ways they reach out to their surrounding communities.

Over the last year, the plant donated time and equipment to paint a railroad bridge, paint and clean along the city trails, and many team members were regular volunteers at the community kitchen.

In a North Iowa Today article, General Manager Kelly Hanson said, “We did not expect this honor and it certainly is not why we volunteer, but we certainly appreciate the award.”

Congratulations to the Hanlontown crew for making the plant such an important part of the surrounding area!

 

Technorati Tags: Hanlontown,POET,ethanol,volunteering,award,Mason City

POET ranked #4 of “50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy”

Biofuels Digest today released its latest “50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy” list, and POET came out ranked #4.

It’s a ranking determined by voters with experience in bioenergy and subscribers to the publication, so it’s a special honor to be recognized by peers as a “hot” company. POET was unique in its inclusion as the top large-scale ethanol producer working with grain and cellulose.

POET reached some notable milestones over the past year in the areas of cellulosic ethanol, new products and green technology.

1. Cellulosic ethanol advancement (Project LIBERTY):

- Approved for a $105 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy for Project LIBERTY construction

- Completed the first commercial-scale biomass harvest of 56,000 tons for cellulosic ethanol in Emmetsburg, Iowa and commenced the second harvest

- Built a 22-acre biomass stack yard at the Project LIBERTY site with work continuing this fall

2. Developed new products:

- Branded zein product “Inviz™,” which can be used as a gum base or in films, packaging, adhesives, coatings, glazes and more

- Branded corn oil “Voilà!™,” which is being sold to biodiesel producers. Plan to install technology to more POET plants, with a potential of enough corn oil to supply feedstock for 50 million gallons of biodiesel per year.

3. Green technology:

- Installed POET’s Total Water Recovery system to more POET plants, for a total of 18 plants today. The system has reduced overall water use by more than 650 million gallons of water per year over 2009 baseline. The company-wide average water use per gallon of ethanol is now at 2.6

- Installed a waste heat recovery system that saves energy in POET Biorefining – Caro (Mich.).

 

Technorati Tags: POET,ethanol,cellulosic,green,zein,corn oil

Talking innovation in Minneapolis

As I said in a blog post last week, I was in Minneapolis for a conference on innovations in the Midwestern Biofuels industry. It proved to be two good days of conversation between ethanol producers and environmental groups.

I was joined at the conference by my colleague, Erin Heupel, the Director of Environment & Technology at POET. Here’s her presentation:

Alternative Approaches to Process Steam

View more presentations from POET

The Great Plains Institute hosted the meeting and summarized it in a recent email:

Leaders from the biofuels industry and the environmental community gathered in Minneapolis this week to discuss strategies for "greening" the existing corn ethanol industry. Organized by the Great Plains Institute and co-hosted by the Midwestern Governor's Association, the Innovation in the Midwestern Biofuels Industry meeting was planned in conjunction with several ethanol, agriculture and environmental groups.

"Convening diverse interests and facilitating the open exchange of information and ideas is a key part of  what we do at the Great Plains Institute," said GPI Bioenergy and Transportation Program Manager Brendan Jordan.  "This meeting was an important first step to engage leaders from the ethanol industry and environmental and agricultural organizations in constructive dialogue on how best to achieve mutually beneficial environmental and efficiency-related goals." 

Meeting participants - including ethanol producers, environmental community leaders, trade organizations, agribusiness, public sector, and academics - discussed the improving environmental profile of the ethanol industry. Presentations highlighted that the industry has become far more efficient and lowered its carbon intensity over the past decade.

The existing industry will remain focused on implementing cost-saving technologies.  Several additional technologies that may further reduce carbon intensity in ethanol production require extensive up-front capital investment and are unlikely to see widespread adoption until the financial environment improves.  Lower carbon intensity policies in California, Europe and other jurisdictions may provide some additional motivation for ethanol producers to adopt lower carbon intensity technologies, but meeting participants generally felt that existing policy is not sufficient. Participants discussed modifications to existing policies, and also discussed what additional policies may be helpful.

Meeting participants agreed that there are areas of common ground, and that they should be working together to figure out how to encourage investment in the existing industry, just as we work to encourage investment in second generation facilities.

Innovation in the Midwestern Biofuels Industry planning committee members included representatives from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Minnesota Corn Growers Association, Monsanto, Natural Resources Defense Council, POET, Renewable Fuels Association and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Twin Cities Conferences

I'm going to be in the Twin Cities next week for a couple of conferences. The first is Innovation in the Midwestern Biofuels Industry, hosted by the Great Plains Institute. This meeting will involve ethanol producers and environmental groups in a discussion about reducing the carbon footprint of existing Midwestern biofuels production. I'm moderating a panel of several biofuels producers discussing advanced technologies that are reducing carbon in their production facilities.

The second is the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Indirect Land Use Change Conference. From the description on their web site: "This one-day conference will bring together the nation’s leading thinkers on the issues on land use and biofuel sustainability to talk about where the debate on ILUC stands, and where we must go to ensure the sustainability of the next generation of biofuels."

I'll report back after the conferences on this blog, so stay tuned.

Conservation Biomass

At the America's Grasslands Conference in Sioux Falls this week, I was joined by Steve Apfelbaum, head scientist of The Earth Partners, to announce the launch of Conservation Biomass. Working together, our organizations aim to develop a source biomass that comes from restored marginal lands and is used to produce power. The ultimate goal is to make that biomass cost competitive with current power sources while delivering real environmental benefits.

The conservation biomass will initially be delivered to POET Biorefining - Chancellor, a 100 million gallon per year grain ethanol production facility in Chancellor, S.D. That facility is powered by landfill gas from the Sioux Falls landfill and a solid fuel boiler, where the biomass will be burned. Eventually, we intend to use it as a feedstock for cellulosic ethanol.

We made the announcement at the America's Grasslands Conference because we wanted to seek out the expertise of those who are managing grasslands and restoring native prairies. Steve and I spoke during lunch on the first day of the conference and you can watch our speeches here or on POET TV.

For more information on Conservation Biomass, check out our press release and this news story from Ethanol Producer Magazine. Also, be sure to visit the web site of The Earth Partners.

POET at the America's Grasslands Conference

This week Sioux Falls is hosting the America's Grasslands Conference and POET is a sponsor. We hosted a tour of our corporate headquarters today for a handfull of attendees. We showed them some grasses from the EcoSun Prairie Farm that were in a fermentation study and talked about the potential of cellulosic ethanol from grasses.

Tomorrow, I will speak at the lunch about a new project POET is working on called conservation biomass. I also plan to hang out at the conference most of Tuesday and Wednesday and will share my thoughts on this blog later in the week. Stay tuned!

UN World Water Day

Today is UN World Water Day and while the focus of the 2011 Day is on urban water, it reminded me of the progress POET has made on reducing water use in ethanol production. Just two weeks ago, we announced that we have cut the water intensity of ethanol production from 3 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol to 2.77. Our goal is to get to 2.33 by 2014.

Also, the POET Foundation is supporting the work of Global Health Ministries to bring water and other vital health resources to villages in Nigeria. If you would like to contribute to that important effort, please visit their web site.

Ask POET Episode 4: Ethanol Efficiency

The question for the fourth episode of Ask POET comes from Scott Miller, who asks: "What is the ethanol industry doing to reduce its carbon footprint and the amount of water it takes to produce ethanol?"

To get the answer, I interviewed Erin Heupel, Director of Environment & Technology for POET. Erin talks about the carbon intensity and net energy gain of ethanol and the water it takes to produce ethanol. Here's episode four of Ask POET:

On the carbon intensity of current ethanol production, see http://bit.ly/etohco2

For ethanol's energy returned on energy invested (EROEI), see http://bit.ly/etoheroei

For POET's Ingreenuity initiative to improve the sustainability of ethanol production, visit http://www.ingreenuity.com

Ask POET is a monthly program on POET TV where we answer the public's questions about ethanol and the role that we, as the largest producer, play in that industry. If you'd like to ask a question for a future episode, leave a comment below or email your question to askpoet@poet.com.

Meet a POET Farmer

Tony Thompson is an investor in POET Biorefining - Bingham Lake (Min.) and his 3,000 acre farm is located about 5 miles south of the plant. A CNN.com profile of Thompson highlights his unique farming practices. But is he all that different? Thompson doesn't think so.

"There's nothing that unusual about me," Thompson said when I talked to him yesterday. "Most of my neighbors are doing the same things I am. They may not do as much research, but many or most good farmers are implementing similar nutrient management systems and watching every unit of nutrient flow through the farm with the output goal being marketable grain…not pollution." Thompson said the real heroes are his crop consultant Steve Sodeman and Fairland Management Company who help him take better care of his land.

Thompson and his two brothers invested in POET Biorefining - Bingham Lake before the plant started up in 1997. They scraped together everything they could to purchase one share in the plant because it was a local outlet for their abundant corn crop. Thompson said he was initially one of the the most reluctant investors in the plant but has since bought out his two brothers.

That plant, where Thompson sells his corn, is also implementing new technologies that take care of natural resources. It was the first POET ethanol plant to install total water recovery, which decreased its water use by 23 percent. Read the story in Vital.

Energy and agriculture can be difficult undertakings, but this plant and farmers like Thompson are doing the best they can, while constantly looking for ways to improve. Be sure to read the entire story on CNN.com and leave your thoughts below.

Low Carbon Fuel Standard workgroup sorting through data for a true accounting of fuels

In California, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard expert workgroup has been meeting since February, examining the data and assumptions behind the state law regulating carbon intensity of different fuels. This group will make recommendations to the state Air Resources Board by the end of the year.

Dr. Mark Stowers, POET Senior Vice President of Science and Technology, is the lone ethanol representative on the group of scientists and academics, and he took a few minutes this week to provide an update to what the group has been dealing with lately.