Minnesota awards $150K to Chippewa Valley Ethanol to evaluate heat-from-corn cob energy process

In Minnesota, the state Department of Commerce’s Office of Energy Security awarded $150,000 to Chippewa Valley Ethanol for an evaluation of the plant’s process for producing energy from corn cobs. The plant utilizes the cobs to provide heat for the plant, in lieu of natural gas.

In Minnesota, the state government is preparing plans for ending subsidies to ethanol plants in the state. The last payments, under a state plan designed to incentivize ethanol production in the state, are scheduled for 2010, and only six plants are still receiving per-gallon incentive payments.

Minnesota has an E-20 mandate that will take effect in 2013. Currently Minnesota has an E10 mandate in place, and was the first state (in 2005) to establish an E10 standard. Implementation of the E20 mandate is contingent on obtaining federal approval to use E20 blends.

In Iowa, Poet has been developing its cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmitsburg, jointly funded with the US Department of Energy, that will produce 25 Mgy of corn from corn fiber and cobs.

The plant, which will be operational in 2011, will pay between $30 and $60 per ton of cobs and fiber for the 850 tons per day required by the plant. The cob price equates to a price of $0.63 and $1.26 per bushel, compared to $3.60 per bushel for corn.

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