Energy and Ethanol is one of the topics covered in the Feed the World curriculum. In the Findlay workshop, participants made ethanol in a classroom, then visited a much larger-scale production facility.
The POET Biorefining plant in Leipsic began operations January 10, 2008. This facility consumes approximately 24 million bushels of locally-grown corn to produce 68 million gallons of ethanol annually. The dried distillers grains (DDGs) resulting from ethanol production are used in the premium Dakota Gold brand livestock feed for regional, national and international markets.
The teachers enjoyed hearing plant manager Mike Knueven talk about the history of the company and the refining process, then they went on a tour of the plant. POET provided bags of hammer-milled corn as part of each teacher’s supply kits for use in the classroom.