Ethanol giant POET reaped national attention when it opened the nation’s first large-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in September 2014, but a rival operator in northwestern Iowa, Quad County Corn Processors, was actually the first on the market. The farmer-owned cooperative has continuously produced cellulosic ethanol since July 2014, with volume running at about 1.5 million gallons a year at present, said chief executive Delayne Johnson on Thursday.
Quad County developed its own method of distilling cellulosic ethanol from the fiber in corn kernels, while other processors have used corn stover or switchgrass as their feedstock. Johnson, like other biofuel leaders, says the EPA has failed to encourage production of advanced biofuels despite the expectation when Congress created the Renewable Fuel Standard that cleaner-burning, second-generation biofuels would soon supply the bulk of U.S. biofuels.
At Quad County, cellulosic ethanol is produced by a “bolt-on” unit in conjunction with the production of corn ethanol. “The process ferments the starch first and then the fiber, rather than a concurrent regimen that ferments both at the same time,” said the Sioux City Journal in 2014, paraphrasing Johnson.
Johnson told FERN that Quad County had a “diverse value stream” from cellulosic ethanol. Besides the low-carbon fuel, its process generates distillers corn oil and a high-protein livestock feed.
A handful of small-volume producers also make cellulosic ethanol, said Johnson. POET announced earlier this week that it would “pause” production of cellulosic ethanol at its Project Liberty plant in Emmetsburg and conduct research on more efficient and lower-cost production. The Emmetsburg plant was the last to be idled of the three commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plants that opened in mid-decade. There are strong views in the advanced biofuels sector about the best feedstocks and production methods.