POET, South Dakota State University, South Dakota Mines break ground at future POET Bioproducts Institute
In South Dakota, POET, South Dakota State University and South Dakota Mines held a groundbreaking ceremony for the POET Bioproducts Institute at the Research Park at SDSU. The institute will serve as an innovation center for the development of low-value agricultural and forestry materials into high-value bioproducts such as specialty animal feeds and bioplastics that are degradable.
The 45,000-square-foot facility is made possible through $20 million in legislative funding, $5 million from POET and $2 million from South Dakota Corn. Furthermore, the South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council will provide $500,000 annually for five years—a total of $2.5 million—and the state committed a yearly $500,000 for operational costs.
The facility will allow collaboration on the next generation of bioproducts. SDSU strengths are in feedstock and preprocessing, as well as the downstream animal feed testing trials. Mines provides expertise on the bioprocessing side, developing biomaterials through the Composites and Polymer Engineering Lab and the Composite and Nanocomposite Advanced Manufacturing–Biomaterials Center. POET will provide innovation around commercial scale development.
Category: Research
