Vital coverage of Project LIBERTY

 The Winter 2010 issue of Vital has been sent out and the cover story is a profile of the existing facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa that will be converted to produce ethanol from cellulose in addition to corn. That story includes short interviews with Project LIBERTY Director Jim Sturdevant, State Senator Jack Kibbie as well as a farmer board member of the plant and a farmers who has been collecting corn cobs.

If you enjoy the story, click here to have the quarterly publication from POET delivered to your mailbox.

KGLO Ag Expo

POET Biomass does a lot of work in and around Emmetsburg, Iowa, but we’re also taking a longer and broader look at biomass harvesting.

After Project LIBERTY gets rolling, additional plants, both POET and other producers, will look to add the technology to their operations. That’s going to take corn cob harvesting well beyond the boundaries of Palo Alto County, Iowa and across the Midwest.

In an effort to educate farmers about this coming opportunity, Friday I will be speaking at the KGLO Ag Expo in Mason City, Iowa.  The topic is Project LIBERTY and the need for corn cobs as the feedstock to the plant.

Cellulosic ethanol is closer than ever thanks to the ongoing research and development by POET. The pilot plant in Scotland, S.D. has been operating for the past 14 months actively making ethanol out of cobs, perfecting the process for commercial scale in Emmetsburg.

Now it is up to the American corn farmer to supply the feedstock. Emmetsburg will be the first large-scale cob harvest, but farmers everywhere should prepare to think about their crops in a whole new way.

Wall Street Journal covers Project LIBERTY

In the last week of 2009, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece by reporter Ian Berry on the financial benefits that will come to farmers from producing cellulosic ethanol. Here's one paragraph from the piece:

Unlike some of the other corn residue, the cobs are seen as having little if any value to the land and can be removed without depleting the soil. And the cob, unlike the grain, doesn't ignite the "food versus fuel" debate. POET said that it is quickly finding ways to make cellulosic ethanol profitable. Since the pilot project started, it has cut costs almost in half, to $2.35 per gallon from $4.13, by reducing energy usage and enzyme costs, among other expenses.

If you still have your hard copy from December 30 lying around, it's on Page B5.

One farmer’s take on the corn cob test harvest

Derek Young, of Wallingsford, Iowa, is accustomed to eating Halloween cookies during harvest. This year, for the first time in his life, he was eating Christmas cookies.

A wet autumn led to a long harvest this year: poor conditions for an efficient harvest, but, as it turned out, a good “worst-case” scenario for testing the speed of new cob harvesting equipment.

Now that the harvest is over, Young had a few minutes to talk with me about how progress went testing prototypes for corn cob harvesting.

He said his work this season generated some interest among other farmers in the area.

“Early on, a fair amount of people were driving by, checking it out,” he said.

Q: I know that one of the main concerns from farmers is that cob harvesting will slow down their harvest. Did you find this to be the case this year?

A: “No, I didn’t. You know, there’s a learning curve with a lot of new equipment. I thought it was going to be a lot worse than what it was.”

Young was using Vermeer equipment (pictured here) to harvest the cobs in his field this year.  He said representatives from Vermeer were very helpful in making sure everything ran smoothly.

“As long as the partners you’re working with truly are partners, you’re going to be in good shape.”

 

Q: In order to secure a steady supply of cobs, what issues does POET need to educate the farm community about to make them comfortable adding this to their operation?

A: “Of course a big question is ‘What are we going to get (price for cobs)?’ … I think lot of growers, if they see it brings a lot of value to their operation, I think they’re going to be on board.”

Young said one of the main concerns is still the speed of harvest.

“It can’t be seen as something that’s going to seriously hamper harvest, especially coming off a year like this.”

He said it’s also important that POET’s efforts address a broad cross-section of the agricultural community: large and small operations alike.

“I think a lot of people (smaller operations) wonder where they might fit into this. It can’t be seen as something for the big guys.”

 

Q: How do farmers feel about taking some stover off the ground?

A: “There are some people out there that really think ‘Oh, you’re going to be taking a lot off the soil.”

Young said he heard that opinion occasionally around town. Personally, though, he’s seen improvements in farming over the years that have added a lot of material to fields, and he doesn’t think it will be an issue of serious concern.

“I think about how there’s so much more stover and residue than there was years ago.”

 

Q: How difficult will it be to promote this effort to farmers nationwide?

A: Young thought that farmers are eager to help the ethanol industry and want to be involved in both grain-based and cellulosic ethanol.

“We need to keep a viable ethanol industry going or there isn’t a corn industry,” he said.

Answering public questions about corn cobs, POET's cellulosic ethanol costs

POET’s announcement last week that we’ve lowered the cost of producing cellulosic ethanol from $4.13 down to $2.35 got noticed by media outlets and blogs across the country.

Coverage from national mainstream media outlets included the Washington Post, the Associated Press, Clean Skies TV, and many more. Some notable blogs in the energy and alternative energy sphere also addressed the issue, including R-Squared Energy Blog, Green Car Congress, Salon.com, Climate Progress and Daily Tech.

The blogs were especially interesting because we could gain some insight into the public’s thoughts about what POET is doing thanks to the blog posts and comments from readers. A few issues came up repeatedly, and I’d like to address them here:

 

Q.    Does the cost include factors such as depreciation, labor, insurance, etc?

A.    Yes. We’ve been making ethanol for more than two decades, so we’ve got a pretty good sense of how to figure the cost of production at an ethanol plant. All commercial factors were included in our final number.

Q.  Does the cost incorporate the benefits of tax credits or other government incentives?

A.  No, the $2.35 figure represents the cost without any financial assistance.

 

Q.  Will removing corn cobs damage the soil?

A.  POET is funding research through Iowa State University to gather additional information on this important issue, but a number of studies have already been done on this subject, and they all indicate that taking corn cobs will not make a significant difference in soil nutrient content.

 

For instance, an April, 2009 study by Canadian researchers published in the Agronomy Journal concluded that “The potential therefore exists to use crop residues for ethanol production or other industrial purposes without adversely affecting the long-term productivity of medium- to heavy-textured soils providing that <40% of the total above ground residues other than grain are removed and the frequency of removal is no more than 2 yr out of three.”

 

Previous research from Iowa State (before POET was involved) has shown that the corn cob represents 5-7 percent of the nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) in the stover.  To be clear, that does not include the grain. This is consistent with other research we've seen.

 

There has been enough research done to move forward confidently in this project, however we continue to seek more information so we can help farmers find the best way to manage their land while providing cobs for cellulosic ethanol production.

 

Q.  What are POET’s assumptions for the cost of purchasing cobs, and will farmers bring cobs in for that price?

A.  POET figures the cost of cobs at $55/ton. We figure the average farmer stands to gain a profit of about $20 per acre based on this cost, which includes equipment, labor and other costs. In addition to that, the Biomass Crop Assistance Program will provide farmers up to an additional $45/ton in matching funds for two years to help defray startup costs for farmers entering the biomass market.

We've had a great reaction from farmers in the Emmetsburg, Iowa area, and we're confident that others will have a similar reaction once they learn the details. POET Biomass, a new division at POET, helps farmers tailor their cob harvesting plans to best fit the needs of each particular farm.

POET CEO talks cellulosic ethanol on green TV shows

Jeff Broin, the Chief Executive Officer of POET, was in Washington, DC yesterday to give a progress update on cellulosic ethanol after one year of operating a pilot facility. You can read the news coverage on our web site.

Also while in Washington, Mr. Broin interviewed with two online TV stations that cover energy and the environment. You can watch his interview with E&E TV at this link and the interview with Clean Skies TV below:

Getting closer to commercialization of cellulosic ethanol

Today, on the one-year anniversary of the start-up of our pilot plant, POET announced that we have reduced the cost of producing cellulosic ethanol from $4.13 to $2.35. The goal is to be below $2 by the time Project LIBERTY starts up.

Check out a video of Dr. Mark Stowers, Senior Vice President of Science & Technology for POET, explaining how we've reduced costs:

The story was picked up Green Car Congress, the Washington Post and many more.

Endorsement of enzymatic hydrolysis from Al Gore

In an interview with Newsweek Magazine, former Vice President Al Gore had this to say about the next phase of biofuels production:

The pathway that I think is likely to be the winner is enzymatic hydrolysis, which essentially uses engineered enzymes to break down the cellulose, the lignin, into fermentable compounds...

That is the pathway that POET uses to produce cellulosic ethanol at our pilot facility and will commercialize through Project LIBERTY. Here is a representation of how our process works:

 

Thanks to the former Vice President for his endorsement and Biofuels Digest for bringing it to our attention.

Press coverage of LIBERTY Day cellulosic ethanol harvest demonstration

The opportunity to view pre-commercial biomass harvesting equipment that will collect feedstock for cellulosic ethanol proved as irresistible to members of the press as it did to farmers in the Emmetsburg area. There was quite a lot of news coverage as you can see from our news page. Here are a few of the online highlights:

Ken Anderson of Brownfield Ag news posted seven audio clips of speeches and interviews with speakers, farmers, POET team members and agricultural equipment manufacturers on their site.

KTIV-TV out of Sioux City, Iowa posted several news clips to their web site: Farmers sign up to deliver cobs to Emmetsburg, IA project, Cellulosic ethanol plant promises jobs, freedom from foreign oil, and Gen. Wesley Clark: 'We need E15 right now.'

Chuck Zimmerman posted tons of content to his blogs Domestic Fuel and AgWired as well as photos and videos that are worth checking out. Here's one of POET CEO Jeff Broin's speech:

Finally, there was an extremely complementary opinion piece about the event from the nearby Estherville News. Among other things, it said: Corn-based ethanol is in fact the best thing to come down the road for Iowa farmers, Iowa's economy and the environment for a very long time. Except for cellulosic ethanol, of course. We agree.

Biomass harvesting equipment slide show

During the Project LIBERTY Field Day, a slide show of the biomass harvesting equipment played on four big screens under the tent. There were a total of 16 agricultural equipment manufacturers at the event and you can view many of them on that slide show:

Biomass harvesting equipment slide show

View more presentations from POET.

The equipment manufacturers and partners represented were AGCO, CASE IH, CLAAS, Demco, Fantini, Iowa State University, Idaho National Lab, John Deere, Ken's Truck & Trailer, Milstak, Redekop, Stinger, SmithCo, Unverferth, Vermeer and Wildcat. For photos of the equipment in action, be sure to check out our photo gallery.