What do we do with all those bales?

If you've been reading this blog, you know that we've collected a lot corn crop residue around Emmetsburg, Iowa over the past couple of years. Some of it has been going to our pilot plant in Scotland, S.D.

However, the pilot plant has a capacity to process one ton per day and last fall we collected 56,000 tons. Do the math and you'll discover that it would take more than 150 years for the pilot plant to process all of that corn crop residue.

That's why much of the residue has been making it's way to our waste-powered ethanol plant in Chancellor, S.D. At POET Biorefining - Chancellor, we have a solid fuel boiler that produces steam for the plant by burning biomass in a 22' x 16' x 65' combustion chamber.

But before it comes to Chancellor, the bales have to be ground up and that's where a new partnership with the Sioux Falls landfill comes into play. It was in the long-term plans for the landfill to purchase a grinder and the revenue from grinding our corn crop residue bales allowed them to speed up the purchase. It was the subject of a story by KELO-TV, the local CBS affiliate:

You can see pictures of the grinder on our Flickr Page or watch video of it in action on POET TV.