Ethanol-giant POET has opened its 21st plant during a grand opening ceremony at its latest facility near Portland, Indiana. The 65-million-gallon-a-year makes POET the largest ethanol producer in the world cranking out an amazing 1.1 billion gallons annually.

This press release from the company says this is the first POET ethanol plant in Indiana, but two more are in the works for the Hoosier State:

“When we started our first facility in 1988 at one million gallons per year, we had no intentions of becoming the largest,” Jeff Broin, CEO of POET, said. “We simply realized that farmers needed additional uses for their crops and the country needed a clean-burning, domestic fuel. Now, with ten thousand farmer-owners and investors from all walks of life, we are developing the rural economy, improving the environment and reducing our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.”

U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, who spoke at the ceremony said, “POET Biorefining – Portland and the work of the community of Portland to support it are part of the vital effort to build a more secure America – an America less reliant on foreign sources of oil.”

Not only is the ethanol from the plant good for the environment, but the ethanol plant itself is doing its part. First of all, it using using a process that POET calls the BPX™ process that doesn’t use heat in the cooking process of producing ethanol, reducing energy usage by 8-15 percent in comparison with conventional plants. It will also be outfitted with a regenerative thermal oxidizer that eliminates up to 99.9 percent of air emissions. In addition, the Portland, Indinan plant gets all of its water from a nearby quarry that pumps out the water anyway to do the excavation.