ag & INdustry Poet, an ethanol plant in Glenville, is shown on a sunny day in February. — Danielle Boss
Most field corn grown in America is used for feeding livestock and for producing cereals, alcohol, starches, sweeteners and corn flour. Food in the form of kernels comes from sweet corn and is about 2 percent of the U.S. corn crop. Popcorn is a different species altogether.
Poet Glenville General Manager Rick Mummert said market access remains the biggest challenge facing the ethanol industry. He noted that the United States is trying to get OPEC to raise oil production when meanwhile ethanol is being exported to Brazil and Saudi Arabia.
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A new kind of energy
Poet constructed a cellulosic ethanol facility that makes ethanol from corncobs, which is an example of an advancement that gives a value-added aspect to corn growers without taking away from the many uses for the kernels.
Poet Glenville General Manager Rick Mummert said in Minnesota, 10 percent of ethanol is blended into gasoline resulting in substantial environmental and economic benefits. He also said creating access to higher blends will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and displace significant volumes of imported oil.
Poet’s website said the Glenville plant became operational in 1999 and has 50 employees.
Some of the farmer owners of the plant, Poet Glenville General Manager Rick Mummert and officials with Sioux Falls, S.D.based Poet Biorefining have told legislators they would like to see a phasing out of federal subsidies for ethanol in exchange for government support of investments in blender pumps and ethanol pipelines and encouraging automakers to build flex-fuel vehicles. The plan is called the Freedom Fueling Plan.