Ethanol Blog

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- Poet LLC announced it was connecting its Fairmont, Nebraska, ethanol plant to a carbon dioxide pipeline, with plans to capture CO2 for transportation and permanent underground sequestration in Wyoming, the company said in a news release on Thursday.

The Sioux Falls, South Dakota,-based company said it entered into "definitive agreements" with infrastructure company Tallgrass to connect to the Tallgrass Trailblazer pipeline.

Tallgrass is in the process of converting a natural gas pipeline to transport CO2 to a Tallgrass sequestration site in Wyoming. The Trailblazer project is under construction and expected to begin operations in 2025, which will enable near-term connectivity of Poet's plant in Nebraska.

"Capturing and sequestering bioCO2 from the bioethanol-production process lowers the carbon intensity of the final product, which will open new market opportunities that create value for Nebraska corn growers and bioethanol producers," Poet said in a news release.

"By delivering bioCO2 for transportation and sequestration, Poet will not only benefit the farmers who supply their facility, under the Trailblazer community benefits agreement Poet's commitment will also support additional direct funding to the landowners who have agreed to site the pipeline on their property and the communities that are hosting the infrastructure."

Jeff Broin, Poet's founder and CEO said his company believes carbon pipelines present good economic opportunities for farmers.

"Carbon capture is a tremendous opportunity to create significant value for farmers and bioethanol producers while strengthening rural communities and counties in Nebraska and across the Midwest," he said in a statement.

"We believe this initiative and similar carbon capture projects will play an important role in unleashing even more opportunities for agriculture in the future."

Alison Nelson, segment president of CO2 business development and origination at Tallgrass, said her company was "excited to be collaborating with Poet in Nebraska and are proud that our work with them will broadly benefit the Nebraska communities associated with the project and continue to add value across the state's bioeconomy."

In January, Omaha-based Green Plains Inc. announced it had acquired all necessary rights of way to connect all of its Nebraska ethanol plants to Trailblazer, https://www.dtnpf.com/….

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

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