South Dakota's Poet joining Summit pipeline project

Sioux Falls-based company hooking 17 plants onto line after initially partnering with Navigator CO2

The world’s largest ethanol producer plans to hook onto the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline slated to run through South Dakota.

Sioux Falls-based Poet LLC has inked a deal to have the Iowa-based carbon sequestration company pump emissions from 17 of its ethanol plants around the Midwest to an underground storage facility in North Dakota.

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First reported by Bloomberg.com Monday, the development comes a week after Poet representatives told The Dakota Scout there was “nothing to report” when asked to confirm the company was joining Summit’s project. Poet had previously been a partner in the now-defunct Navigator CO2 pipeline project that regulators here rejected last year.

“POET is excited to partner with Summit Carbon Solutions on this historic project,” said Jeff Broin, POET Founder and CEO, in a statement provided to The Dakota Scout Monday. “As the world seeks low-carbon energy solutions, carbon capture ensures that ag-based biofuels will remain competitive for decades to come. This is a tremendous opportunity to bring value to farmers, bioethanol producers, and rural communities and counties in participating states, and I believe it will unleash even more opportunities for ag and bioprocessing in the future.”

Of the 17 Poet plants included in the agreement with Summit, five are located in South Dakota with the rest located in Iowa. The South Dakota ethanol plants are located in Big Stone, Chancellor, Groton, Hudson, and Mitchell.

Summit now touts 50 different ethanol plants as partners.