(Sioux Falls, S.D.)– The nation’s largest ethanol maker will get more than 76 million dollars in federal funding to start producing fuel from corn cobs and fiber.
Poet, a privately held company based in Sioux Falls, says it will expand capacity from 50 million to 125 million gallons per year at its corn ethanol plant in Emmetsburg. About 25 million gallons will be made from plant waste typically left behind in farmers’ fields.
Poet says discarded corn cobs and stalks can be removed from farm land without causing soil erosion or stealing nutrients.
The company will need about 275,000 acres of cobs to supply its Emmetsburg plant, which is scheduled for retrofit construction starting in 2009 and operation beginning in 2011.
(Story from the Associated Press.).
