Farmers near Emmetsburg are getting a look today at equipment used to harvest corn cobs for use in the next generation of ethanol production. Mike Roth is the program director for the biomass program for the company called POET. He says they’ll have harvest demonstrations and also equipment that farmers can look at and ask questions about.
It’s called “Project Liberty,” and will use 276,000 tons of corn cobs each year. Roth says they hope to get 450 farmers on board by 2012. Roth says they have about 12 individual farmers right now, but hope farmers will see the benefit in this from converting corn cobs into an alternative energy source, and also through added revenue for their farm.
The company will provide incentives for farmers to purchase the specialized equipment to harvest the corn cobs. Project Liberty is expected to produce 25-million gallons of cellulosic ethanol each year. The plant is set to go on-line in 2011.
Contributed by Dan Skelton, KICD, Spencer