Earlier this week the Rural Minnesota Energy Board (RMEB) toured two facilities and got to kick the tires on biomass harvesting equipment in Emmetsburg, Iowa. Below is more about what we saw and learned.
Click here to see photos from the tour!
- Plans to construct a 25 million gal/yr cellulosic ethanol plant co-located with their corn ethanol plant. Expect to employ 35-45 people (FTE).
- Plan to use biogas to help offset natural gas use, powering the cellulose plant and part of the energy needs of the corn ethanol facility
- Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles (DDGS) are trademarked and sold under the name Dakota Gold
- Veermer sells bailing equipment
- Bale yard – is tiled, working on what the best way to stack the bales and process them The logistics are still being worked out.
- When locating a facility what do you look for?
- Labor: Co-locate with an existing ethanol facility, some jobs are same and can be combined
- Natural gas supply is important, but they also plan to use biogas (methane) as much as possible to reduce use of natural gas
- Water: The same wells can be used for both facilities
- Rail access
- Tanks
- Water discharge? Poet has total water recovery—it’s recycled into the system. So the only emission of water is through evaporation.
- They are an R&D modular facility for non-corn feedstock—anything that has sugar to turn to ethanol (ie. milk whey, soda, paper). There is a worldwide market for these products, and they can be transported to less developed countries (with little or no infrastructure)
- Costs: 1 million gallons costs $3-4 million; 2 million gallons costs $4-6 million; the smallest they build is 300,000 gallons and the largest is 5 million gallons.
- Water needs: Vary based on the feedstock; some that are liquid have no water needs, while others are comparable to corn ethanol.
- Eric gave a presentation to the Energy Board in 2010, shortly after he moved to Emmetsburg, Iowa to sell biomass harvesting equipment.
