Ethanol plant close to done

FOSTORIA - The new POET Biorefining - Fostoria plant is 90 percent complete, and the company plans to open the facility this fall.

"The plant is about 90 percent done. Construction is going very well," said Nathan Schock, public relations director for POET. "We're still anticipating starting up in the fourth quarter of this year."

Although the exact date has not been determined, he said late September or October are likely.

In June, POET hired Jeff Henkel as general manager for the new plant. Experienced in management of maintenance operations, Henkel has a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering and a master of science degree in nuclear engineering from Ohio State University.

"We still have several open positons," Schock said. Anyone interested in applying should go to www.poet.com and click on "careers." From the drop-down menu, choose the Fostoria location.

"There's 10 positions that we're currently looking for people," he said.

The plant is designed to produce 65 million gallons of ethanol and 178,000 tons of distillers dry grains per year.