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World’s largest ethanol firm sees negative emissions at pilot plant

POET is aiming to use its South Dakota pilot facility as a springboard to push toward a 3.2 billion gallon a year cellulosic ethanol production target

One of the largest ethanol producers in the world has said it has developed a process to produce cellulosic ethanol that has negative emissions.

POET, the company based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said its Project LIBERTY has produced a biofuel that actually offsets more greenhouse gas emissions than it generates.

The fuel from POET’s first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant in Scotland, South Dakota, reduced carbon emissions by 111% compared to gasoline.

The results came from an analysis carried out by Air Improvement Resource, Inc., of Novi, Michigan.

The company’s CEO, Jeff Broin, said: “Not only is cellulosic ethanol a clean and safe alternative fuel, in cases such as Project LIBERTY, it can literally reverse some of the effects of our nation’s dependence on fossil energy such as oil.”

“By expanding the number of sources for ethanol production, the entire nation can contribute to helping our nation’s economy, security and environment through alternative fuel production.”

Wastes

POET’s Project LIBERTY uses agricultural waste – otherwise unwanted materials from harvested corn – to produce its ethanol.

The process uses wastes from the production of ethanol to make biogas that powers the plant, along with an adjacent grain-based ethanol plant.

“The production of biogas as a co-product is an exciting aspect of this process,” Mr Broin said. “We will use renewable energy to produce renewable energy.”

The company’s lifecycle analysis tracked greenhouse gas emissions “from field to tank”, including emissions from planting and harvesting, feedstock transportation, conversion to ethanol and distribution of the fuel.

The analysis also included the impacts of waste and co-products.

Calculations

We will use renewable energy to produce renewable energy” - Jeff Broin, POET

POET said its analysis used US Environmental Protection Agency calculations to take account of changes in land use and effects on agricultural inputs.

Results suggested that emissions from Project LIBERTY’s ethanol production totaled 41.8 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule of energy produced, but that biogas produced offset 49.8 grams of the greenhouse gas.

Along with estimates for land use changes, the total emissions per megajoule came to -9.7 grams.

EPA’s standard for gasoline emissions is 92.9 gCO2eq/MJ.

POET said it would continue to learn from its laboratory work and its pilot cellulosic ethanol plant.

The company produces more than 1.6 billion gallons of ethanol at 26 production facilities nationwide, along with its pilot-scale cellulosic ethanol plant.

POET has plans to commercialize the cellulosic process in Emmetsburg, Iowa, and is targeting a production level of 3.2 billion gallons a year of cellulosic ethanol by 2022.