SUSTAINABILITY
A DRIVING FORCE
For more than 30 years, POET has been a driving force behind renewable innovation and environmental stewardship. Our biorefineries dramatically reduced water and energy use by developing and deploying industry-leading technologies. Our missions helped empower some of the most impoverished communities on Earth with clean cooking stoves and sustainable farming solutions. Without all natural bio-based purified alcohol and biofuels like ethanol, greenhouse gases and airborne toxins would skyrocket and the world would be awash in grain with far too little demand. Our researchers have jumpstarted the global transformation to a greener economy with carbon-cutting biofuels, bio-based purified alcohol, natural CO2 and a whole host of innovative alternatives to petroleum.
But that was only the beginning. Today, POET recognizes that our planet urgently needs bolder solutions and even better results if we hope to sustain Earth’s fragile balance tomorrow. That is why POET is focusing all of its collective resources and decades of experience to drive sustainable change on a global scale. At POET, we’re focused on cultivating solutions to deliver the bio-based products and solutions our world needs in the most sustainable way possible. Just as we have done in the past, POET is embracing the climate challenge and showing the world we can do much more with much less.
MORE EFFICIENT EVERY DAY
SINCE 2005
POET has reduced its annual energy use by 18%.
SINCE 2005
POET increased its annual biofuel yield by 8%.
SINCE 2007
POET has reduced its annual water use per gallon by 20%.
Greenhouse Gas Reduction
By displacing harmful additives in gasoline, renewable clean-burning biofuels like those produced by POET cut carbon emissions from cars by an average of 46%, which can have an enormous impact on the amount of excess greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
Waste Energy Capture Technology
POET Biorefining-Chancellor has the unique ability to produce all of the energy used at the plant, using a Solid Fuel Boiler that burns several hundred tons of waste wood per day, and innovative Methane Gas Collection technology that captures and burns methane gas from the nearby Sioux Falls city landfill. Forward-thinking, public-private partnerships like these turn what would otherwise become waste into clean energy.
Total Water Recovery
Our patented Total Water Recovery system continuously filters and treats water until it is of usable quality. This system essentially eliminates liquid discharge from the biorefineries in our network, except for steam and water present in our Distiller’s Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS). POET plants don't have smoke stacks. What you see billowing into the sky is clean water vapor.
Carbon Capture
POET's energy efficient biorefining processes allow carbon dioxide to be captured for commercial use. CO2 captured by POET is put to use in everything from carbonated beverages like soda pop and beer to fire suppression systems. Thanks to this innovation, POET is now one of the fastest growing distributors of practical CO2 products in the US, with a dozen different manufacturing facilities in the Midwest.
Steam Turbines
Half of all POET plants now utilize energy-efficient steam-powered turbines that help power the plant by capturing excess steam and converting it into renewable electricity. Each generator produces an average of three megawatts of electricity per plant. That's enough electricity to power about 2,000 homes for a year.
Cellulosic Ethanol
POET has been on the leading edge of cellulosic biofuel research for years, refining an innovative process that can turn otherwise unusable fibrous biomass residue--like cobs, husks, and other plant matter--into clean-burning, renewable biofuel.
