POET Tightens Water Use
Company will decrease of water per gallon of ethanol produced.
Compiled by staff
Published: Mar 15, 2010
POET plans to decrease water use in the production of ethanol by 22% over the next five years in the first goal of its sustainability initative, "ingreenuity." It intends to cut the company's water used per gallon of ethanol from an average of 3 gallons to 2.33, an annual water savings of one billion gallons. In a presentation to employees, POET CEO Jeff Broin said the company is committed to producing ethanol as sustainably as possible and minimizing its impact on natural resources.
The reductions will come primarily through installing a proprietary process developed by POET engineers that recycles cooling water rather than discharging it. The Total Water Recovery process has recently been installed in three POET Biorefining locations – in Bingham Lake, Minn., Caro, Mich. and Hudson, S.D. According to Broin those facilities now average 2 to 2.5 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol.
To kick off the initiative, Broin announced the POET Foundation has committed more than $420,000 to the non-profit Global Health Ministries over the same five-year period as POET's water reduction goal. A portion of the funds will help repair, construct and maintain 90 wells in Nigeria that that will give more than 300,000 people access to pure water.
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Tagged: ethanol, sustainability
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