(Sioux Falls, S.D.)– Officials with Sioux Falls-based POET announced today (Tues.) the Iowa Department of Economic Development has approved an agreement for the final $5.25 million in assistance for its Project LIBERTY, a commercial-scale ethanol plant in Emmetsburg that will produce ethanol from corn cobs.
The final approval brings Iowa’s contribution to the project to $20 million. The initial $14.75 million, from the Iowa Power Fund, was approved in February 2009. In 2008, POET and the Iowa Department of Economic Development agreed to terms surrounding the project. Officials say approval of the latest assistance finalized those terms.
POET plans to begin construction of the plant this year, which will be co-located with its current grain-ethanol plant in Emmetsburg.
POET’s pilot-scale plant in Scotland, South Dakota is already producing cellulosic ethanol at a rate of about 20 thousand gallons per year.
