When it comes to harvesting equipment for Case IH, Scott Acker is who you want to talk to. He’s their Director, Harvesting Marketing. I spoke with him at POET’s Project LIBERTY field day right after he answered a bunch of questions from farmers who were attending. Sam says POET approached them with the idea of collecting cobs to make ethanol …
Farm OEM’s Developing New Equipment
The Director of Business Development for POET is Scott Weishaar. He was the guy who told us about the various equipment options on display at their Project LIBERTY field day. That’s because he works directly with the farm OEM’s. He says the response from the OEM’s is phenomenal. There are several systems already being tested and they should be available …
Big Equipment Finance Options
Someone had to provide assistance to get all this big machinery to the POET Project LIBERTY field day last week. That someone was MachineryLink, represented by Landon Morris, Vice President, Marketing. Landon says they’re in the business of leasing late model combines and that they heard about the project a year ago. So what they’re doing is leasing machines directly …
This Farmer Likes Idea of Corn Cob Ethanol
When you’re attending a farm event it’s always nice to get a farmer’s perspective on things. That’s what I did at the POET Project LIBERTY field day when I spoke with Todd Mathisen who farms just east of Emmetsburg, IA. I asked him what he thought of POET’s idea to harvest corn cobs for cellulosic ethanol production. He said, “I …
Corn Cob Harvesting Will Be Economical
The Director of Project LIBERTY for POET is Jim Sturdevant. He oversees all the activities across the company that are “pulling together to transform this ethanol plant into one of the nation’s first cellulosic ethanol plants.” The plant he’s referring to is POET’s Emmetsburg facility where they held a field day yesterday. He says they intend to replicate what they’re …
Deere Designing Corn Cob Harvest Equipment
There are several farm equipment manufacturers working with POET on corn cob harvesting solutions. One of them is John Deere. Of the current options for harvesting/collecting the cobs, Deere is working on the corn cob mix kit (CCM) option. It’s basically an attachment to the combine according to John Deere’s Barry Nelson, who was attending the POET Project LIBERTY field …
POET Wants LIBERTY From Foreign Oil
Jeff Broin is CEO of POET and his company just continues to make innovations in the ethanol production business. Lately they’ve been very focused on what they call Project LIBERTY. The goal is to make cellulosic ethanol out of corn cobs. The company held a field day to showcase some of the equipment that companies like John Deere, Case IH …
B100 EcoJet On Display at SEMA Show
The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) is holding their annual show in Las Vegas and Jay Leno’s Ecojet is on display. Besides the team from Jay Leno’s Garage, Joe Jobe, NBB CEO is also there to speak with the media and attendees. This is not a consumer show btw. I just spoke with Joe via Skype from my computer to …
Ethanol Industry Urged to Vote
In this “Ethanol Report” podcast, Matt Hartwig of the Renewable Fuels Association talks about why it is important for the industry to be involved in the political process and why every needs to get out and vote. No endorsements from the RFA on who to vote for, by the way, just vote because elections on both the state and national …
Ethanol at the World Food Prize
Biofuels in general and ethanol in particular were part of the discussion at the World Food Prize symposium in Des Moines this year. Despite the food versus fuel controversy that permeated the headlines for 2008, there seemed to be more acceptance of biofuels as being able to co-exist with food production and being part of the overall global agriculture picture. …