POET Research

POET's research and technology efforts have advanced biorefining for the good of our stakeholders, the industry and the country as a whole. Our scientific expertise is one of the major reasons each new Poet plant can quickly meet and exceed its guaranteed nameplate production output.

But pure volume is only one part of the story. The real reward of POET Research and Technology is efficiency: not just doing more with the same components, but doing more with fewer of them.

Cellulosic Ethanol

Project LIBERTY is expected to be POET's first commercial-scale, cellulosic ethanol plant. Scheduled to begin operations in Iowa in 2013, we anticipate that it will produce 25 million gallons of ethanol per year from corncobs, leaves and husks, provided by farmers in the area around Emmetsburg, Iowa.

The plant will share infrastructure with the adjacent POET Biorefining -- Emmetsburg. Roads, land and other features will be shared, and the co-product from the cellulosic ethanol process will be biogas, enough to power both ethanol plants.

POET plans to expand cellulosic ethanol production within the POET network and license the technology to other ethanol producers. We also plan to work to tweak the technology so that it works for other forms of biomass, like grasses or woodchips. Altogether, POET is working to be involved in the production of 3.5 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol.

BPX™

BPX™ is the cornerstone of POET's proprietary, patent-pending technologies. It's a breakthrough process that converts starch to ethanol without heat, or "cooking." It means POET achieves higher ethanol yield with lower energy input. And we believe that gives POET a significant production and economic advantage over others.

Put simply, BPX can make more starch accessible for conversion to ethanol, which means we can squeeze more fuel from each kernel of corn: close to 3 gallons of ethanol per bushel compared to an industry standard 2.8 per bushel. Multiply these savings by POET's 1.7 billion-gallon-per-year production output, and you get an idea of the significance that efficiency represents. That creativity comes from a common-sense fixation on research and development.

The result of years of research and collaboration with the top minds in biotechnology, the BPX process in a complex system of biotechnologies that delivers an efficient conversion of starch to glucose directly to fermentation. The process, known as raw starch hydrolysis, yields an unprecedented 20 percent ethanol in fermentation. This simply means we can do more with our feedstock without heat, reduce fermentation by-products, reduce VOC emissions and increase nutrient and flowability qualities in our Dakota Gold® distillers grains.

BFRAC™

BFRAC™ is a leap forward in biorefining efficiency and proof that POET can do more with a kernel of corn than was ever thought possible. It's a process that lets us separate corn into its three major components, or fractions: fiber, germ and endosperm.

The endosperm is then fermented to create ethanol, while the remaining fractions are converted into new value-added products, including Dakota Gold HP™, Dakota Bran™ Cake, corn germ meal and corn oil. Even better, BFRAC reduces overall energy consumption to produce ethanol.