OSU president makes several stops in area

LEIPSIC — Wearing OSU Buckeye shirts, employees at Leipsic's Poet Biorefining ethanol plant greeted the president of The Ohio State University, Dr. E. Gordon Gee, on Thursday afternoon.

Leipsic's biorefining plant was one of several stops Gee made in Putnam and Van Wert counties on Thursday.

“I wanted to visit Poet because of its connection with agriculture and also to learn more about how it affects food production,” Gee said.

He said the Poet facility, with its alternative solution as a fuel source, is important in the security of America.

Mark Borer, general manager of Poet, said Gee's visit was important because of his influence on the next generation.

“This is the generation that will have to deal with the issues of fuel supplies,” Borer said, “and there are a lot of opportunities with technology in this field that are still uncaptured.”

During his visit, Gee was given a tour of the plant and learned about the current and potential future uses of corn at the plant.

Borer said the Renewable Fuels Standard sets an annual goal of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022, with 16 billion gallons coming from cellulosic ethanol. He said Poet, which has 27 plants in the United States, plans to have 3.5 billion gallons of annual capacity by 2022, making use of various cellulosic feedstocks from across the country.

The Leipsic facility opened in January 2008 and was the first ethanol plant to begin production in Ohio. Borer said there are now five ethanol plants in production in Ohio.

When Gee questioned if use of the corn would affect the amount of corn available as a food product, Borer said the need for feed for animals, seed and exportation has stayed about the same over the past several years, but the production of corn through technology has increased.

“The production of ethanol is absorbing this increase in productivity,” Borer said.

He also explained that the ethanol was made by using the starch, which is an abundant resource, from the corn while the high value protein and fat in the corn is returned back to the feed supply.

Borer said ethanol provides 10 percent of the fuel supply in the United States.

“But the industry is ready to go to 15 percent,” he said.

After his visit to Poet, Gee traveled to Ottawa, where he assisted in dedicating the general assembly room at the Putnam County Educational Service Center, in honor of Virginia Zirkle, an OSU alumni and supporter.

Gee also visited Pappy's Sassafras Tea plant and Christy's on the Square Chocolate/Fudge Shop in Columbus Grove and an open house at Niswonger Peforming Arts Center in Van Wert, hosted by the Van Wert Ohio State University Extension office.