NORTH MANCHESTER - "The Renewable Revolution is not far off," Jeff Broin, chief executive officer of Poet Biorefining, told a crowd of hundreds who gathered Thursday morning for the grand opening of its Wabash County facility.
The 200-acre site is situated just east of Ind. 13 on Wabash County Road 800 North. The facility was built at a cost of around $130 million. It will use approximately 22 million bushels of corn from the area to produce 65 million gallons of ethanol and 178,000 tons of Dakota Gold Enhanced Nutrition Distillers Products each year.
Gov. Mitch Daniels offered his congratulations as well as his appreciation to Poet at the ceremony Thursday.
"I thank Poet for their business," Daniels said.
He told guests they were "witnessing the revitalization of a county" and said "the sky is the limit."
Several local agencies that worked together to bring the plant to the county were represented at the event, including the Economic Development Group of Wabash County, county commissioners and council and North Manchester officials.
Before the ribbon cutting, guests watched a flyover by the Vanguard Squadron, the world's only aerobatic fleet powered completely by ethanol. The three-plane squadron has been operating in the ethanol-powered program since 1993.
Guided tours were offered to guests to let them get a glimpse of the inner workings of the facility. The grains building takes in the farmers' corn, 100 percent of which is contracted locally, Poet officials said.
The new facility currently employs 42 people and has an annual payroll of more than $2 million.
Poet LLC, in its 20th year, is the largest ethanol producer in the world, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. The company produces and markets more than 1.4 billion gallons of ethanol annually.
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