POET breaks ground on $120-million expansion of ethanol plant

MARION — POET Biorefining broke ground Tuesday on a $120-million project to expand its plant in Marion.

The private company, based in Sioux Falls, S.D., says the expansion will raise capacity from 70 million gallons per year to 150 million gallons of ethanol per year.

Ethanol is used as a gasoline additive. Consumers might recognize it from E-10 signs at the gas pump, which represent the percentage of ethanol mixed with gasoline. Almost all gasoline is blended with ethanol today.

"Today we’re on the cusp of a new economic crisis, and biofuels and bio refineries like this one are once again prepared to provide an alternative to this downturn," said Jeff Broin, CEO of POET Biorefining, at the groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday.

Broin said the glut of corn, wheat and soybeans in the market was depressing prices, arguing biofuels are the answer that will provide a market for those crops and stabilize commodity prices.

After the expansion, the plant is expected to use more than double the amount of corn, with POET projecting it will use about 50 million bushels of corn. 

That's good news for local farmers.

Corn producers Paul and Matt Lust, who were at POET Tuesday, said they have been selling corn to POET since its Marion refinery opened in 2008. The Bucyrus-based farmers said they now sell about 90 percent of their crop to POET.

"We had an elevator closer to home that could bid us as well as POET," said Paul, but no more.

The Lusts see the plant expansion driving up demand — and propping up corn prices.

POET said the expansion will create 225 jobs while the facility is under construction. Once the facility is built, POET said it will employ between 18 and 21 new workers at the site.

Staffers from the offices of Republican Sen. Rob Portman and Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown were at the event, as was Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, to congratulate POET on its expansion and voice their support of POET's investment in Ohio's agricultural economy.

POET, one of the largest producers of ethanol in the U.S., used the opportunity to promote biofuel-friendly policies.

"Bio-refining is the future, and farmers are going to need to take a larger percentage of the gas tank away from the oil companies," said Broin, the CEO.

Kyle Gilley, the senior vice president of external affairs and communication at POET, encouraged farmers, residents and officials at the event to ask their elected representatives to uphold the renewable fuels standards and remove market barriers to biofuels' expansion.

The renewable fuels standards, which were created under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, requires a certain volume of renewable fuel to replace or reduce the quantity of petroleum-based fuel for cars, aircraft and heating, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website.

POET expects to finish construction by late summer or early fall of 2018.

svolpenhei@gannett.com

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