Iowa Group Produces Corn-Based Cellulosic Ethanol on Commercial Scale

The Des Moines Register reported that Quad County Corn Processors beat out DuPont and Poet to produce the state’s first-ever gallon of commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol.

The northwest Iowa company produced a limited amount last week but plans to quickly scale up so that it produces about 2 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year.

“We’re running 24/7 now,” said Delayne Johnson, CEO of Quad County Corn Processors in Galva, IA. “It was minimal production today, but it will be thousands of gallons tomorrow, and by next week, it will be full speed.”

Two other advanced biofuel projects are expected to be completed this year. DuPont Danisco is building a $225 million cellulosic ethanol plant next door to Lincolnway Energy near Nevada, and Poet-DSM is building a $250 million plant in the northwest Iowa town of Emmetsburg, also next door to an existing plant.

DuPont and Poet both plan to use corncobs and husks collected from area farmers’ fields to make cellulosic ethanol. Quad County Corn Processors converts the kernels’ corn fiber into the biofuel, in addition to traditional corn ethanol.

Quad County’s cellulosic technology is “bolted on” to its existing ethanol plant, with the capacity to produce 35 million gallons of conventional ethanol a year. The farmer-owned company invested $9 million in building the added capacity.

The new plant will turn corn kernel fiber into cellulosic ethanol, improve the protein in its dried distillers grain by 40%, and boost corn oil extraction by 300%. The project is expected to create five full-time jobs.

Johnson said the company received nearly $6 million in financing from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Iowa Power Fund for the project. He also said the nation can produce a billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually by adding its technology to existing ethanol plants. S