News, Weather and Sports for Sioux City, IA: KCAU-TV.comSouth Dakota Based Ethanol Company Declines Federal Loan

South Dakota Based Ethanol Company Declines Federal Loan

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) _ Sioux Falls-based Poet LLC says it will decline a $105 million federal loan guarantee for a cellulosic ethanol plant in Iowa and instead launch a joint venture with a Dutch firm.

The nation's largest ethanol company is working with Royal DSM, a company based in the Netherlands that will supply yeast fermentation technology. Each will own 50 percent of the $250 million venture named Poet-DSM Advanced Biofuels LLC. If federal regulators approve, it will produce cellulosic ethanol and license the technology to other plants around the world.

The plant at Emmetsburg, Iowa, is expected to start operating in the second half of 2013 and convert corn crop residue into 25 million gallons of ethanol per year.

The federal loan guarantee had been finalized last fall by the U.S. Energy Department.

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