Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Poet became the top producer of ethanol today with the opening of plant No. 21 in Portland, Ind.

The 65 million gallon per year plant brings Poet's total capacity up to 1.1 billion gallons per year of corn ethanol.

And the Midwestern company isn't stopping there. Poet has five more plants under construction, and one getting an expansion, with its Leipsic, Ohio, facility set to open in the fourth quarter of this year.

"We're basically a company of Midwesterners that started here and we're comfortable with the Midwest and believe it's a great place for ethanol production," Nathan Schock, director of public relations for Poet, told Cleantech.com.

Poet, which changed its name from Broin earlier this year (see Broin name change to Poet complete), celebrated the Portland plant opening with visits from Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman, and a flyover from the Vanguard Squadron, the world's only 100 percent ethanol powered aerobatic fleet.

Check out the planes here >>

Poet expects its capacity to go up by another 375 million gallons once work on those other plants is complete. Schock also said the company has one more plant under development.

In addition to boosting its ethanol output, the new plant also raised Poet's production of one of its co-products.

"We produce a very high quality, high protein distillers dried grain, called Dakota Gold, and combined our 21 facilities produce over 3 1/2 million tons of that," said Schock.

But the ethanol maker will have to make sure it keeps up the pace if it wants to hold on to the top spot. Decatur, Ill's Archer Daniels Midland is a close second, with 1.07 billion gallons per year. And Archer Daniels has another 550 million gallons under construction.

VeraSun Energy is far behind in third, with 450 million gallons per year. VeraSun also has another 550 million gallons under construction.

The market in the U.S. is likely to be eager for more ethanol with the implementation of new fuel regulations.

"The U.S. Senate has recently passed a bill calling for 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by the year 2022, and we are anxious to be a part of meeting that goal," said Schock.

But with world ethanol production hitting 13.49 billion gallons per year in 2006, according to F.O. Licht, there may be a ceiling to the market.

"Experts believe that the top amount of ethanol that could come from corn is around 15 billion gallons per year that would not affect other uses of the crops," said Schock.

Schock said topping out at 15 billion would only use about a third of the corn crops, leaving plenty left over for food, feed and grain.

But Poet has a plan to continue its growth even once that ceiling is reached. The company is making a very large investment in cellulosic ethanol from corn cobs and corn fiber (see Poet marks cellulosic milestone).

"We are in the process of discussing the final details of a joint relationship with the U.S. Department of Energy to construct a commercial cellulosic ethanol production facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa," said Schock.

And Poet's farmers will benefit in more ways than one.

"Our backers are primarily small investors and farmers located around our facilities. We have around 10,000 farmer investors in our network of plants," said Schock.

The DOE is providing the company with a grant of up to $80 million for the cellulose project, which Poet expects will cost in excess of $200 million.

Once talks with the DOE are complete, Poet can get started on the cellulose plant, which should take about 30 months to build. But that Emmetsburg plant is only the beginning.

"We will be adding the cellulosic production onto an existing corn ethanol plant, and we have another 20 ethanol plants that produce ethanol from the starch in the corn, and it's our intention to add cellulosic ethanol production capacity to many of them as well," said Schock.

In the future, Schock said the company could end up feeding its own power needs with the paired plants.

"From the cellulosic production, we will use some of the leftover lignin from that production to power the entire facility, both the grain and the cellulose portion of the facility, and almost, or possibly completely, remove our need to power the facility through any fossil energy."