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POET says bioethanol should drive climate-challenge discussions

The world’s largest biofuel producer says tackling the climate challenge in 2022 starts with increasing bioethanol production.

“It’s just an all-around superior product to gasoline and we need to see more of that in the fuel supply.”

Doug Berven is the Vice President of Corporate Affairs with POET and says the company’s first sustainability report released last year showed a positive road map for biofuels. “Today we’re about 50 percent better than gasoline, by 2030 we’ll be 70 percent better than gasoline and by 2050 our bioprocessing facilities will be carbon neutral,” Berven says. “Those are pretty aggressive goals, but they are realistic.”

He says Midwestern states will play a major role in transitioning from fossil-based products to a more climate-friendly future. “We need to start getting our resources from the surface of the earth rather than the center of the earth,” he says. “We take plant-based materials, and we make power and everyday products out of that, which is very different than taking fossil fuels from the center of the earth.”

Berven says POET increased its biofuel processing capacity to 3 billion gallons per year with the acquisition of Flint Hills Resources.  He says the company also brought the first solar farm online and had a groundbreaking for a bioproducts institute at South Dakota State University.

Doug Berven with POET: