advertisement:
By J.G. WALLACE
With Friday’s grand opening of their new 65-million gallon per year ethanol plant in Portland, Poet Energy became the world’s largest producer of ethanol.
In the span of about 20 years the privately held company grew from humble roots in a barn on the Broin family’s Minnesota farm to the largest player in the booming bio fuel industry.
Poet now has the capacity to produce more corn-based ethanol than any of its competitors, including ADM. With Portland online, Poet can produce 1.1 billion gallons per year, with the company expected to soon add an additional 375 million gallons of capacity through new plants. ADM has an annual capacity of 1.07 billion gallons with another 550 million gallon under construction or development,
The $105 million plant in Portland is the company’s 21st production facility and their first in Indiana. Poet is in the process of completing two additional plants in Alexandria and North Manchester.
“When we started our first facility in 1988 at one million gallons per year, we had no intentions of becoming the largest,” said Jeff Broin, C.E.O. and founder of Poet.
“We simply realized that farmers needed additional uses for their crops and the country needed a clean-burning, domestic fuel,” Broin said. “Now, with ten thousand farmer-owners and investors from all walks of life, we are developing the rural economy, improving the environment and reducing our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.”
The Portland facility will soon be equipped with technology that decreases its environmental impact. Poet has developed a new BPX technology which will eliminate the need for heat in the process of producing ethanol, reducing energy usage by 8-15 percent in comparison with conventional plants.
It will also be outfitted with a regenerative thermal oxidizer that eliminates up to 99.9 percent of air emissions. Poet’s selection of the Portland site created an opportunity for an additional environmental benefit.
Poet Biorefining Portland will draw all of it’s water supply from a neighboring quarry which pumps out water in order to continue its excavation activities. To enable the plant to make use of the quarry water Poet constructed a 10 million gallon retention pond on site.
The pond allows the sediment to settle out of the water before it is used in the ethanol plant. Broin noted that by using water that would have originally been discharged, the facility will leave more water resources available for other commercial development and residential purposes.
The keynote speaker at the Portland grand opening was U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, a leading advocate of alternative fuels and in reducing our dependence on foreign oil exports.
Lugar said, “Poet Biorefining Portland and the work of the community of Portland to support it are part of the vital effort to build a more secure America, an America less reliant on foreign sources of oil.”
Lugar praised Broin for their efforts to develop Cellulosic ethanol using primarily corn cobs as the raw material. The company recently received an $80 million grant from the federal government toward that research.
Lugar called the plant’s opening an important milestone for Jay County and Indiana. “But this is more than an economic milestone today,” Lugar said, saying the plant’s opening played a vital role in helping build a more secure America.
“Bio fuel offers a dual opportunity for economic revitalization of rural America and a solution to a serious national security problem,” Lugar said.
“Global competition for oil continues to grow as demand soars,” Lugar said. Lugar noted that most oil exporting nations are now tightening their control of supplies, and some nations like Russia have started limiting exports based on a political agenda.
Lugar noted many of the oil exporting nations are hostile to the United States, like Iran and Venezuela, and even a slight disruption in supply from those nations could have a big impact at the fuel pump for American consumers.
Lugar noted there are now 93 E-85 filling stations in Indiana, up from just 1 two years ago. Lugar said he thinks the auto industry must do more to produce and market flexible fuel vehicles, and that for consumers to be attracted to buy those vehicles the price of ethanol fuel must be competitive.
Broin spoke of the challenges for our nation to replace foreign oil, noting that the U.S. imports 12 million barrels of oil each day. Broin noted that even with increased corn production the industry cannot meet the goal of producing 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022, just 15 years from now by only relying on corn.
Broin said that the development of cellulosic ethanol is vital. Broin displayed a glass jar filled with ethanol made from corn cobs at one of Poet’s research facilities in Scotland, South Dakota.
Broin praised state and local officials for their support and said the Portland community had been outstanding to work with. Broin added, “You have some great corn here, but even better people.”
Other speakers included Ken Klemme, Assistant Director for the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, who called the plant a situation where everyone wins.
Also speaking were Larry Ward, Poet’s V.P. of Project Development, Portland Mayor Bruce Hosier, Kevin Sulc, District Representative for Rep. Mike Pence, and Brent Wake, Regional Director representing Sen. Evan Bayh.
Also present was Dr. Tonya Bergeson-Dana, wife of the late race car driver Paul Dana, who Broin credited with almost single-handedly convincing the Indy Racing League to switch to ethanol fuel. Dana was killed last year in a practice session at Homestead-Miami Speedway following a collision.
The Portland facility can store about 430,000 bushels of corn in their main silo. A larger unit is already being planned. The plant will store the finished denatured ethanol in two 2 million gallon tanks, where the fuel will be loaded into tanker trucks or rail cars.
The fuel is denatured by the addition of 8-10% gasoline to render it unfit for human consumption, and therefore not subject to taxation as a distilled product.
The tour gave visitors a close up look at five massive stainless steel fermentation tanks. Inside the plant an overhead maze of color-coded and labeled pipes snakes throughout the facility. One bright yellow pipe was labelled, “beer,” a firm demonstration that the plant is essentially a brewery and distillery.
About 2,500 people attended the gala event, which featured plant tours, a fly over by the Poet sponsored ethanol powered Vanguard Squadron, and the opening ceremony, followed by a barbecued pork chop and chicken luncheon.
Poet clearly spared no expense to show off their Portland plant. Arrangements for parking were made at the Jay County Fairgrounds and Jay County High School, with attendees bused to the plant on motor coaches.
Each attendee was given an event program and a gift bag to commemorate the event. Local investors in the plant were given V.I.P. treatment. The crowd was a mix of the community, with many farmers and business people in attendance.
Poet Biorefining – Portland will utilize 22 million bushels of corn from the area to produce 65 million gallons of ethanol and 178,000 tons of Dakota Gold Enhanced Nutrition Distillers Products per year. The plant plans to bring in all grain by truck, but can ship out finished fuel and distillers grain by rail or truck.
The plant is expected to boost the local economy by about $100 million each year. The plant has created around 40 jobs with an annual payroll of about $2 million. During the opening ceremony plant manager Greg Noble introduced each new employee.
Employees praised the company for their support and training. Maintenance team member Jeff Maddox of Montpelier said working at Poet feels like being part of a big family, with everyone treated equally.
Maddox said he was very excited to begin work and that getting hired at Poet was a blessing. “I never expected the goose that laid the golden egg to land in my lap at my age,” Maddox said.
Maddox formerly worked at Sterling Casting in Bluffton for 17 years, and later worked at Bluffton Regional Medical Center until he was hired at Poet.
Poet’s Portland plant will take delivery of their first load of corn on Tuesday and will start milling corn that day. The first batch of finished fuel is expected to be shipped out 7-10 days later.
In November 2006, Poet Energy, formerly known as Broin, had announced plans to build a 60 million gallon per year ethanol plant on a 203-acre parcel of land south of Bluffton near the intersection of the Hoosier Highway and Meridian Road.
That plant would have been virtually identical to the one in Portland. Just three months later though, in February 2006 Broin officials announced that they were withdrawing their plans to build a facility in Bluffton.
At the time, Mike Lockrem, Director of Public Relations for Broin had said, “There is a great deal of competition in the state of Indiana for quality sites and while we are committed to meeting our strategic plan of building multiple plants in the region, we have shifted our focus to areas that in our view have greater potential for long-term success.”
jgwallace@news-banner.com
Read this story in our E-Edition, Click Here
Talk about this story in our forums!