Poet’s BPX process improves corn yields 10 percent

In South Dakota, Poet said that its BPX process is producing up to 3.0 gallons of fuel per average bushel of corn, up 10 percent from previous industry standard of 2.7 gallons per acre. If the Poet process were spread out across all corn acreage in the country, the US would put back 800 million bushels of corn towards alleviating food price concerns.

Professor Jay-lin Jane, a carbohydrate professor at Iowa State, has been researching specific corn strains, under a recent deal with Poet, to find the most effective in terms of yield.

The CEO of POET said that the company will increase production capacity to at least 1.5 billion gallons in 2008 through new plant construction. Speaking at the Reuters Global Agriculture and Biofuels Summit, Jeff Broin said that the company expects also to add cellulosic fuel capabilities to most of its 22 existing plants. Following the completion of the proposed merger of VeraSun Energy and US BioEnergy, VeraSun will have 1.6 billion gallons in planned capacity in 2008. POET is constructing four new ethanol plants and expanding one other.

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