14 DAY TRIAL // In a move set to generate about 200 construction jobs and 40 permanent jobs, POET’s Project LIBERTY has just received a $105 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
The money will be used to support the development of one of the first cellulosic ethanol plants in the States, which will be located in Emmetsburg, Iowa.
Project LIBERTY is also expected to generate around $14 million in new revenue to area farmers who will provide the corn crop residue. Conservative estimates found that the average farmer will spend $50,000 on new equipment. This would represent $20 million pumped into American industry.
Scheduled to begin operations in 2013, the new cellulosic bio-refinery will reportedly be able produce up to 25 million gallons of ethanol per year, which means that enough power will be generated to source both Project LIBERTY and most of POET’s adjacent grain-based ethanol plant.
The project’s innovative process uses enzymes to convert cellulose from corncobs, corn leaves and corn husks into ethanol.POET plans to replicate its unique process so that it is integrated into all the company's 27 grain-ethanol plants for a combined annual capacity of one billion gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol.
POET plans to have 3.5 billion gallons of annual capacity by 2022, making use of various cellulosic feedstocks from across the country.
“This project represents a pioneering effort to make broad scale deployment of cellulose ethanol a reality,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. ”Producing the next generation of biofuels can not only reduce America’s oil dependency, it can also create vast new economic opportunities for rural Americans.”
The company estimates that 85 percent of Project LIBERTY will be sourced with U.S. equipment.
Ethanol produced by Project LIBERTY will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 111 percent. Or to put it in other words, it has negative emissions.