News From FEW

A couple of major announcements relating to ethanol production were made this week at the 23rd Annual Fuel Ethanol Workshop and Expo in St. Louis.

First, POET announced the successful production of cellulosic ethanol from corn cobs.

At a press conference, POET CEO Jeff Broin said, “Along with corn fiber, cobs will be the primary feedstock we will use to make cellulosic ethanol at our proudction facillity in Iowa. For a host of reasons, POET is focused on corn fiber and cobs as the first cellulosic feedstock for our production facilities. First, the fiber that comes from our fractionation process will provide 40 percent of our cellulosic feedstock from the corn kernels that we are already processing in our facility. That means that nearly half of our cellulosic feedstock comes with no additional planting, harvest, storage or transportation needs.”

The other announcement came from DuPont, which has entered into an agreement with FOSS North America to help farmers and ethanol producers better understand ethanol yield potential of grain corn being delivered to ethanol plants.

Under terms of the agreement, DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred is providing to FOSS proprietary Ethanol Yield Potential calibration technology for use in FOSS grain analyzers. The technology provides estimated ethanol yield in terms of gallons per bushel.

Listen to audio from the press conference announcements by clicking on the links provided.

POET Announcement (20 min MP3)

Pioneer Announcement (20 min MP3)