S.D. ethanol company tops in capacity

S.D. ethanol company tops in capacity

	Published : Fri, 14 Sep 2007 19:18 By : Agencies Print this Story

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - A South Dakota company that has been making ethanol from corn for more than 20 years leads the nation in production capacity -- at least for now.

With Friday's grand opening of its Portland, Ind., biorefinery, privately held Poet now has the capacity to produce more corn-based ethanol than any of its competitors, including agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland Co., according to the Renewable Fuels Association.

Poet's 21 plants across South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan can pump out 1.1 billion gallons of the alternative fuel, and additional biorefineries under construction or development will eventually add 375 million gallons of capacity.

That puts Poet just ahead of ADM, which has an annually capacity of 1.07 billion gallons with another 550 million gallon under construction or development, according to the RFA.

That's a big accomplishment for a company that started with a single one million-gallon plant in 1988 and no ambitions of becoming the largest, said Jeff Broin, Poet's president and chief executive officer.

'It's exciting, and we are sure going to pause to recognize it,' Broin said by telephone after Friday's grand opening ceremony. 'But we have a lot of work to do. It's a very young industry and we feel there's a lot of opportunity left in this industry.'

While much of that opportunity is in corn-based ethanol, Poet is also expanding into cellulosic ethanol, or fuel made from plants or plant waste.

A message was left seeking comment Friday with an ADM spokesman.

The U.S. Department of Energy earlier this year awarded $385 million to six companies hoping to build the nation's first big biomass-to-fuel plants. Poet is slated to receive $80 million in grant money, which is part of the Bush administration's goal of making cellulosic ethanol competitive by 2012.

Poet plans to convert its 50-million-gallon-per-year Emmetsburg, Iowa, plant into one of the nation's first commercial cellulosic biorefineries. Once complete, it is expected to produce 125 million gallons per year -- 25 percent of them from corn cobs and fiber.

Poet says its research should allow it to squeeze 27 percent more fuel from each acre of the crop. The company has been testing the process in its Sioux Falls lab as it prepares to set up a pilot-scale model at its research center in Scotland.

Broin said he sees many different sources of energy contributing in the future.

'Oil has definitely been our major staple for energy supply for the U.S. and even the world,' he said. 'I think over the next 10 and 20 years you'll see other types of energy and renewable energy take up a much more prevalent role in the energy business.'

Poet's Portland, Ind., plant will use 22 million bushels of corn from the area each year to produce 65 million gallons of ethanol and 178,000 tons of distillers grains, a high protein feed.