POET Producing Corn Oil at 25 Biorefineries

Twenty-five of POET’s network of 27 biorefineries have now installed its patent-pending corn oil technology, bringing its total capacity to approximately 250,000 tons per year, enough feedstock to produce 68 million gallons of biodiesel annually.

POET has been selling Voilà™ corn oil into biodiesel and feed markets since January 2011, when POET Biorefining – Hudson (S.D.) first began to produce it on a commercial scale. Strong demand for the product prompted upgrades at the majority of the plants in the POET network

“Having a more diverse portfolio of products has been a benefit for POET, particularly when ethanol margins are challenging,” POET CEO Jeff Lautt said. “Expanding our product line is an important part of our strategy for growth.”

POET plants that are producing corn oil today are:

Indiana:
POET Biorefining – Alexandria, Cloverdale, North Manchester and Portland

Iowa:
POET Biorefining – Ashton, Coon Rapids, Corning, Emmetsburg, Gowrie, Jewell and Hanlontown

Missouri:
POET Biorefining – Laddonia

Michigan:
POET Biorefining – Caro

Minnesota:
POET Biorefining – Lake Crystal, Glenville and Preston

Ohio:
POET Biorefining – Fostoria, Leipsic and Marion

South Dakota:
POET Biorefining – Big Stone, Chancellor, Hudson, Groton and Mitchell as well as the POET Research Center in Scotland

One of POET’s four Ingreenuity goals is to increase production of bio-based products. Corn oil is playing an important role in reaching that goal.

“There’s a bio-based solution to so much of what petroleum supplies today,” Lautt said. “It’s exciting for me to see POET playing a large part in providing those solutions.”

Voilà is just one item on POET's growing list of products created at its plants. In addition to ethanol, POET produces quality products for animal feed including Dakota Gold distillers dried grains. POET also captures carbon dioxide at five of its plants for sale to beverage producers and other users.

Pacific Ethanol Stockton Partners with Edeniq to Expand Production

Edeniq announced today that California ethanol producer, Pacific Ethanol, Stockton LLC, has entered into an agreement to install Edeniq technology at the company's Stockton, California ethanol plant.  Pacific Ethanol will install Edeniq's proprietary Cellunators to boost ethanol yields, and will also deploy Edeniq's patented OilPlus corn oil extraction process to increase corn oil recovery.

Edeniq's Cellunator technology mills corn and other plant materials into 'right-sized' particles of feedstock that can be more efficiently converted into the plant sugars needed to produce biofuels. Beginning this quarter, Edeniq will install Cellunators at the Pacific Ethanol plant in Stockton, California.  In addition, Edeniq will deploy OilPlus technology at the Stockton plant.  OilPlus combines thermal, mechanical, and chemical treatments to improve the recovery of corn oil, a valuable co-product that can be used for feed and other bio-industrial products. 

With four ethanol plants in the Western United States including California, Oregon and Idaho, Pacific Ethanol's facilities have the combined ethanol production capacity of 200 million gallons per year.   The Stockton, California plant was built in 2008 and has the capacity to produce 60 million gallons per year.  Edeniq's technology is expected to increase the facility's ethanol yields by 2-4%.     

"Edeniq's technology will allow us to increase efficiency and create additional value for our customers," said Neil Koehler , CEO of Pacific Ethanol, Inc. "Our partnership with Edeniq improves our ability to compete in the marketplace."

Edeniq currently has technology agreements with six ethanol producers across the U.S., and Pacific Ethanol will be the company's second plant partner in California.  In addition, Edeniq owns and operates a demonstration-scale production facility in Visalia, California, which is currently converting a range of cellulosic feedstock into low-cost cellulosic sugars and cellulosic ethanol. 

In June, Edeniq received a $3.9 million grant from the California Energy Commission as part of California's Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program.  The grant was given to Edeniq to help fund further developments and innovative enhancements to Edeniq's proprietary cellulosic ethanol technology, enabling the low capital cost addition of cellulosic ethanol production to corn-based ethanol plants in California. 

"With Pacific Ethanol as a customer, we are continuing our commitment to unlock the sugar conversion process and gain efficiencies each step of the way," said Brian Thome , President and CEO of Edeniq.  "This installation is just the beginning of our work with Pacific Ethanol to scale sustainable fuels."

Sweetwater Energy and Ace Ethanol to Begin Commercial Production of Cellulosic Ethanol

Sweetwater Energy, Inc., a Rochester NY-based cellulosic sugar producer, announced a first of its kind in the nation, long-term commercial agreement with Ace Ethanol, a Stanley, WI-based corn ethanol production facility, to generate cellulosic ethanol at Ace’s plant for up to 16 years. Sweetwater’s patented, decentralized process will convert locally available cellulosic, non-food biomass, such as crop residues, energy crops, and woody biomass into highly fermentable sugar, which Ace will ferment into ethanol. The entire contract has a total potential value in excess of $100 million, and requires a minimal capital outlay by Ace Ethanol while stabilizing Ace’s feedstock cost over the life of the agreement.

“Ace Ethanol has been bench testing Sweetwater’s cellulosic material for some time and we’re confident that this project will be commercially profitable,” says Neal Kemmet, President of Ace Ethanol. “With Sweetwater, we’ll move from 100% corn to a combination of corn starch and 7% cellulosic sugar as our feedstocks.”

“This is a very exciting time for the industry, and we couldn’t be more pleased to have aligned Sweetwater with Ace,” says Jack Baron, President and COO of Sweetwater. “Our patented, decentralized sugar-production model is designed to let us work in tandem with a refiner’s existing infrastructure, which fosters strong collaboration on both sides.  Furthermore, our refined sugars can be used for biochemical or bioplastics production, giving Ace diversification options in the future. Ace is a progressive industry leader located near affordable biomass; they are financially successful and constantly incorporating proven new technologies to maintain their leadership position.”

“Over the last year we’ve had some incredible conversations with everyone at Ace Ethanol, and the more we talked about the benefits we could provide for one another, the more we realized that a partnership between our two companies made for a fantastic fit,” says Arunas Chesonis, Chairman and CEO of Sweetwater. “We’ve now signed a definitive agreement for a long-term commercial relationship for cellulosic sugar, effectively moving an existing dry-mill corn ethanol facility to cellulosic ethanol without interrupting their operations. And best of all, since the process is scalable, Ace can increase the amount of cellulosic sugar they’re adding to their process in the coming years.”

Sweetwater Energy uses a unique, patented technology to produce low-cost sugar solution from non-food biomass. This sugar solution is sold to biorefineries, which use it to produce biofuels, biochemicals, and bioplastics. Unlike petroleum-based technologies, Sweetwater Energy’s process uses carbon from renewable biomass that is grown or procured domestically, and significantly reduces greenhouse gases.

The Sweetwater-Ace agreement entails Sweetwater placing one of its cellulosic facilities adjacent to the Ace Ethanol site, and delivering enough refined monomeric sugar for Ace to produce up to 3.6 million gallons of ethanol per year during the initial phase of the relationship. The promising economics afforded by Sweetwater’s cellulosic sugar and the patented hub-and-spoke distributed model will ultimately determine the pace and volume with which Ace’s corn ethanol facility will migrate to Sweetwater’s cellulosic feedstocks.