Commercial Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Underway in Iowa -nearly eliminates fossil fuel consumption

I don't know if anybody already posted this and I missed it but at the risk of being redundant:



http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2007/2007-10-05-097.asp


SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota, October 5, 2007 (ENS) - POET Energy and the U.S. Department of Energy, DOE, have signed a cooperative agreement for a commercial cellulosic ethanol project in Emmetsburg, Iowa that will produce ethanol from corn cobs. Cellulosic ethanol is produced from biomass with starches that are difficult to convert to fuel; sources including corn stover, grasses, wood chips, agricultural waste.

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These are two proprietary, patent-pending biotechnologies that unlock more starch from corn than ever before possible and "yield ethanol above the industry standard output with considerably less energy," the company says.
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The company will convert an existing 50 million gallon per year dry-mill ethanol plant in Emmetsburg into an integrated corn-to-ethanol and cellulose-to-ethanol biorefinery. Once operational, the facility will produce 125 million gallons of ethanol per year, 25 percent of which will be from corn fiber and corn cobs.

By adding cellulosic production to an existing grain ethanol plant, POET says the company will be able to produce 11 percent more ethanol from a bushel of corn, 27 percent more from an acre of corn, while almost completely eliminating fossil fuel consumption and decreasing water usage by 24 percent.

More biomass being used- if we can ever get hemp production going, that would probably produce even more.

which pumps out water in order to continue its excavation activities. To use this water, a 10 million gallon retention pond was constructed on site that lets the sediment settle out of the water before it is used in the ethanol plant. By using water that would have originally been discharged, the facility will leave more water resources available for other commercial and residential purposes.