SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- South Dakota-based Poet LLC and its Dutch partner say a cellulosic ethanol plant being built in Iowa will open early next year.
Spokesman Steve Hartig said during a biotech conference in Sioux Falls Thursday that by next summer, Poet-DSM Advanced Biofuels should have any glitches worked out at the $250 million Emmetsburg, Iowa, plant dubbed "Project Liberty."
It's the first Poet plant that will make ethanol fuel from materials such as leaves, corn cobs and cornstalks, and the Argus Leader reports (http://argusne.ws/1bvd5ZF) Hartig says officials expect "a few surprises" when they start up the plant.
Poet is the nation's largest ethanol company. It's working on the Iowa project with Royal DSM, a biotech company based in the Netherlands.
The plant will make ethanol and license the technology to other plants.
