Watch POET’s cellulosic ethanol presentation online at DOC Biomass 2011

I’m listening right now to the free webcast of the Department of Energy’s Biomass 2011: Replace the Whole Barrel, Supply the Whole Market, which is taking place in Washington, D.C.

Leaders from every part of the industry are on-hand, as are many of the people in government who influence the industry most.

It’s a two-day conference, and tomorrow morning POET Project LIBERTY Director Jim Sturdevant will take part in the Opening Plenary, “Industry Perspectives on Bioenergy.” He’ll go through what Project LIBERTY is, what has been accomplished, what remains to be done, and some of the benefits (environmental, economic, etc.). His session starts at 8:30 a.m. EST.

If you’d like to hear it live, sign up for Biomass 2011 here.

Technorati Tags: DOE,cellulosic ethanol,ethanol,POET

Talking sustainability at the Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Conference

How POET is Making Sustainable Cellulosic Ethanol

I spoke about POET’s sustainability efforts in cellulosic ethanol last week at the Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. The conference ran Monday through Wednesday with the theme of “Global Perspectives and Applications.”

I was part of the Bioenergy Symposium, a full afternoon of talks and a panel discussion on the environmental aspects of bioenergy projects and policies. I highlighted Project LIBERTY’s integration with a POET corn-based ethanol plant, its anticipated greenhouse gas emissions relative to those from gasoline production, the conservative approach to biomass harvesting, the soil study by Iowa State University, and work by northwest Iowa farmers using BCAP to develop conservation plans with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

The audience was engaged: I fielded about 20 questions. Many comments were related to biomass harvesting and the soil study, and nearly all were supportive. One commenter said POET should be clear the soil research results are valid only for the soil type studied. He also said a three-year study is too short to draw conclusions about impacts of stover removal on soil carbon.

I agree! I explained to the audience that ISU’s research in the Emmetsburg, Iowa area is consistent with research done in other part of the country. ISU’s soils research will continue.

Other presenters in this session were Paul Argyropoulos, EPA (he gave an overview of RFS2); John Heissenbuttel, Co-chair of the Council on Sustainable Biomass Production (a new group trying to get a foothold with biomass stakeholders); Don Tyler, University of Tennessee (he spoke about switchgrass harvesting); and Brian Baldwin, Mississippi State University (he gave a broad overview of energy crops in the southeast U.S.) Many presenters after me said they liked what they heard about POET’s efforts. One said, “It is clear that POET is deeply concerned about the sustainability of their cellulosic ethanol process.”

Later I served on a panel with a subset of these presenters, and we fielded questions about the potential of biomass-based bioenergy.

Biofuels and Prairie Grass

Last week, I attended a public tour of the EcoSun Prairie Farm near Colman, S.D. The farm was established in 2008 to demonstrate the potential economic and ecological benefits of establishing grass-based farms in the former tall grass prairie region of central North America.

During the public tour, which was shortened by rain earlier in the day and the heat that followed, we heard from several members of the EcoSun Board who talked about the revenue streams they've established from grass-finished beef and prairie grass seed. They also talked about potential future revenue sources for the working grass farm, like carbon credits and selling biomass for cellulosic ethanol.

It's this potential to use native prairie grasses for biofuels production that has drawn POET's interest. As was mentioned in today's front page story in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, we've talked to EcoSun about the potential for a partnership.

For the most part, our research lab is through the early phase of research and developing corn crop residues for cellulosic ethanol (although the research will never really end) and is now beginning to look at what the next sources of biomass will be for cellulosic ethanol. We see a lot of promise and potential in the native prairie grasses like they grow at the EcoSun Farm. Pictured here is a stand of Sunburst Switchgrass. To see more photos, visit our Flickr page.

We'll have more to say about this at the upcoming America's Grasslands Conference that is being held in Sioux Falls, S.D. in August. You can learn more about the EcoSun Prairie Farm (and support their work) by watching Grass Roots: The Prairie Farm Story.

Conditional Commitment from DOE keeps cellulosic ethanol moving forward

This morning, the Department of Energy announced a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee for Project LIBERTY, POET's project to make cellulosic ethanol out of corn crop residue.

As we've said before (on this blog and elsewhere), the loan guarantee is an important step to commercialization of cellulosic ethanol. I like the way Brooke Coleman of the Advanced Ethanol Council put it: commercial cellulosic ethanol plants cost a couple hundred million dollars and it’s tough to get a car loan in this economy.

The story has generated a lot of coverage, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. There was also a comprehensive update from Ucilia Wang at earth2tech. If you're wondering where the project stands, watch this video interview with Project LIBERTY Director Jim Sturdevant:

For more on the announcement, see releases from POET and the DOE.