Vital Magazine - Spring 2022

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SPRING 2022

RECHARGING NATURE’S BATTERY The Renewable Revolution Has Begun vitalbypoet.com | 1

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Vital magazine is a news and media resource managed by POET, the world’s largest producer of biofuels. Since 2007, Vital has provided readers with forward-thinking content that helps to advance an industry that provides renewable energy and bio-based products from the surface of the Earth.

Vital seeks to educate readers about the state of the biofuels sector today and the breakthrough stories of innovation and sustainability of tomorrow by presenting a variety of insights and perspectives.

Each issue features in-depth, quality reporting on important topics, such as the fight against the climate crisis, innovation in agriculture, local and national policy landscapes and stories of the men and women advocating to advance bioethanol and other renewable bioproducts.

Vital by POET is committed to editorial excellence, along with high quality print production and distribution. In the spirit of its continued commitment to being good stewards of the environment, POET is proud to produce Vital using 100% recycled paper when printed.

Additional reporting can be found online at vitalbypoet.com.

The opinions and statements expressed by content contributors and advertisers in Vital are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of POET. Neither POET nor its third-party content providers shall be liable for any inaccuracies contained within Vital, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

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Contents FEATURES

COLUMNS

08 | Arthur Team Cultivates Positive Culture

06 | In Sight

By Jeff Broin

Stepping up to learn, meet new challenges

20 | Waves of Grain

14 | Farm Fresh

By Adam Wirt

POET harnesses the power of ocean freight to boost markets, sustainability

40 | Mechanics Corner

30 | Reclaiming Nature’s Battery

Automotive advice from the Under the Hood radio show

The renewable revolution has begun

58 | Out Of Left Field

42 | Partners in Innovation

By Scott Johnson

POET, SDSU and SD Mines join forces to bring the POET Bioproducts Institute to life

DEPARTMENTS

52 | What’s the Big Idea?

16 | Policy Corner

Research and development, portfolio of patents differentiate POET from competition

26 | POET PAC 38 | Get Biofuel 48 | People of POET

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Left: POET Bioprocessing – Arthur | Top Right: Andy Lindsay | Middle Right: Dave Bushong and Steve Lewis Bottom Right: Jose Gutierrez and Kaylinn Schlender

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IN SIGHT

Moving Mountains in 2021

By Jeff Broin, Founder and CEO of POET

Throughout my 34 years in the biofuels industry, there has never been a dull moment.

At POET, there’s always something to be done: a breakthrough to be made, another regulatory hurdle to overcome, an opportunity for growth on the horizon. Things seem to move quickly, and we don’t often have the luxury of kicking back and being satisfied with the status quo.

That’s why I often have to remind my team — and myself — that, while our tenacity, work ethic and never-satisfied mentality are core to our success, it is equally important to pause and celebrate our victories. We are working each day to forge new paths and, sometimes, move mountains. We know where we’re headed, but if we don’t stop to measure our progress every now and then, we could lose sight of just how far we’ve come.

And in 2021, we sure covered a lot of ground.

Despite the impacts of recent global challenges, POET has been blessed with a season of prosperity.

We navigated through volatile corn markets, we saw fuel demand return to pre-pandemic levels, and we continued to grow our line of plant-based bioproducts.

In June we grew by 40% virtually overnight with the acquisition of six world-class bioprocessing facilities in Iowa and Nebraska, bringing our annual production capacity to 3 billion gallons of bioethanol, 14 billion pounds of DDGS, and 975 million pounds of corn oil. Those are numbers I never could have imagined as a 22-year-old running a one-million-gallon-per-year bioethanol plant in the late 1980s.

In September we released our inaugural sustainability report featuring a pledge to achieve carbon neutrality across our facilities by 2050. Throughout the year we completed the construction of environmental improvement technologies at several of our facilities to make inroads toward that goal, including steam turbine technology at POET Bioprocessing – Mitchell, renewable CO2 capture at POET Bioprocessing – Portland, and the first POET Solar Farm at our headquarters in Sioux Falls.

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Other internal and external accomplishments throughout the year were, quite frankly, too numerous to list; however, a few other key achievements included: • A study by Environmental Health & Engineering (EH&E) finding that the carbon intensity of corn bioethanol is 46% lower than traditional gasoline • Joining the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action (USFRA) Decade of Ag movement • Multiple regulatory victories, including the veto of an anti-E15 bill in Indiana as well as E15 approval in Oregon and Nevada • An international feature in the BBC StoryWorks short film series “Nature’s Building Blocks” • Completion of our second POET Pure purified alcohol facility at POET Bioprocessing – Alexandria • Breaking ground on the POET Bioproducts Institute at the Research Park at South Dakota State University • The launch of the Gradable platform across all 33 POET facilities to encourage climate-smart farming practices This is an exciting time for POET and, most importantly, for the global bioeconomy. We are on the cusp of a new era, where the world is beginning to recognize what we’ve known all along: the best near-term solution to ending our addiction to fossil fuels and restoring harmony between human and nature can be found in biofuels and bioproducts created from agriculture.

I believe this is the beginning of an agricultural revolution. The scope of achievements made this past year was nothing short of remarkable — but from where I’m standing, our future looks even brighter.

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FEATURE

Arthur Team Cultivates Positive Culture Stepping up to learn, meet new challenges

By Jack Mitchell Nestled in the rolling hills of west-central Iowa, POET Bioprocessing – Arthur is one of the prettiest plants he’s seen, says General Manager Jack Mitchell. “It’s a beautiful setting for a plant. When the corn is up, you’re driving through a cornfield, literally, as you come up to the plant. It’s picturesque and quintessential Iowa.”

POET Bioprocessing – Arthur joined the POET network last summer as part of the acquisition of six bioethanol facilities from Flint Hills Resources (FHR). The facility at Arthur started up in the fall of 2008 as a standalone plant under the name Platinum Ethanol. The 110-million-gallon facility was sold to FHR in mid-2013. Today, it’s running at 130 million gallons annually, producing roughly 300,000 tons of distiller’s grains (DDGs) and 35 million pounds corn oil from approximately 40 million bushels of corn.

However, the picturesque location in western Iowa presents its challenges because Arthur, at just 200-some people, is surrounded by other small towns with the closest city, Sioux City, Iowa, an hour to the west. That’s why recruiting and retaining employees depends largely on creating a positive culture where people are excited to come to work because, as Mitchell says, “The best recruiters by far are your employees.”

“It can sometimes be a challenge to recruit team members,” concurs Operations Manager Vernon Volkmann. “We do not have a big pool to draw from. We’re not near a big city, so we’ve got to reach out far and wide.”

Working at a bioprocessing facility is different from many jobs, Volkmann says. “You’re not standing in one spot doing the same thing.” Before starting as an operator at the plant shortly after startup, he had worked in manufacturing jobs while farming on the side. Being an operator allowed him to continually learn about bioethanol fermentation and plant operations, and he’s worked his way up to serving as Operations Manager today.

“You’re improving yourself as you do your job. You’d think after 10 years, you would have seen it all, but there’s always something new.”

Vernon Volkmann, Operations Manager

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Jack Mitchell, General Manager | Kaylinn Schlender, Administrative Coordinator Jose Gutierrez, Environmental, Health and Safety Specialist | Vernon Volkmann, Operations Manager vitalbypoet.com | 0 9

Left: Vernon Volkmann and Jack Mitchell at POET Bioprocessing – Arthur Right: Jose Gutierrez works within the plant

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“One of the strengths here is our teamwork,” says Jose Gutierrez. Like Volkmann, he started in operations more than a decade ago and recently stepped into the role of Environmental, Health and Safety Specialist. He has been part of a group of experienced employees dubbed the “Fifth Shift” in recent years. “We support the entire plant, not just production, but support for other areas like grains. You have to think outside of the box.”

The teamwork at Arthur gets demonstrated every fall when members step in to help the grains team with the harvest rush. “Our record was close to 700 trucks in a day,” says Kaylinn Schlender, Administrative Coordinator.

Working in this role since a couple of months before the first grind, she likes the variety in her job, which includes helping in the scale house during the harvest rush as area farmers deliver corn. “We hit 10.6 minutes for truck turn around,” she says. “We’ve got five pits, so they come through pretty quick.”

“We’ve always taken pride in keeping our plant clean and neat. Truck drivers over the years have commented on how clean our place is,” says Volkmann. Optimizing corn handling has also long been a focus at Arthur.

“We have two 1.3-million-bushel bins that at one point were the biggest bins ever built. We have the capacity to hold 7.5 million bushels of corn when full, which includes two outside piles. That lasts us between 50 and 60 days.”

He adds that keeping the corn in good condition in the big bins and piles is a challenge. “There’s a lot of management to keep it in shape. It’s been a learning curve, but over the years, we’ve learned what to do and what not to do.”

When the company began exporting more of its DDGs a few years ago, the attention to corn quality made a difference, Volkmann explains. “We’ve got to pay attention to color to meet specs to ship overseas. And that starts in the beginning when grinding corn. You’ve got to do things just right, or the color won’t be there at the end.” While a challenge at first learning all the areas in the process that would affect color and quality, “It’s second nature to us now,” he says.

Cultivating positive culture Mitchell gives credit to the nearly 50-member team at Arthur for the plant’s success. “It’s a really capable group that’s always looking for ways to increase bioethanol yield, get more corn oil and produce quality DDGS. With any acquisition, there’s a transition period a team has to work through, but I’ve been really proud of them.

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They have an entrepreneurial spirit, build a positive culture and there’s a pride of ownership within the facility.”

Jack Mitchell, General Manager

As Administrative Coordinator, Schlender says building that culture means planning activities for plant employees and their families — family days and holiday parties, a chili cookoff and pumpkin carving contest, to name a few.

For Gutierrez, the company culture is demonstrated whenever a new product or procedure is integrated to improve production. “We’re willing to do extra steps and not just reject new ideas,” he says. “We want new ideas and welcome the challenge.” He says it may require extra work running tests, but it often pays off by improving yields or reducing costs.

“We used to be a small part of the portfolio in the industry,” says Mitchell.

“Now we’re part of a business that is all in on the bioethanol space.

What’s exciting is having the opportunity to be part of the biggest and best bioethanol producer in the world. That’s motivating.”

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FARM FRESH

A Glimpse into Emerging Carbon Markets for Farmers

By Kevin McNew, Chief Economist, Farmers Business Network (FBN) Agriculture has yet to reach its full potential in the fight against climate change, but the conversation surrounding decarbonization is becoming increasingly focused on farmers. That’s mainly because climate-smart farming practices — like cover crops and reduced tillage — can limit the release of carbon into the atmosphere by “sequestering” it in the soil.

But policies and markets that will give necessary price signals to farmers to adopt these practices are still in the process of evolving. The idea of a market for carbon sequestration services is admittedly abstract, and the varying degrees of state, national and international policies on carbon have created a challenging landscape for the development of a unified carbon market. So, let’s take a moment to distill the key factors that we at FBN believe will shape the future of carbon markets and farming.

For a market to function properly, it generally requires three key actors: consumers (or buyers) who have a need or desire for a product/service, producers (or sellers) who can effectively create and deliver the product/service and institutions to provide rules for fair trade, legal enforcement and verification.

In this context, the consumers are companies that emit carbon as part of their operations, and the producers are farmers, who can serve as a key source for carbon sequestration. Put simply, these companies would work with farmers by offering to pay for a set of practices that yield a certain quantity of carbon removal defined by legal entities. And behold, a market is born.

There are a few options for what these markets could look like. For example, the carbon intensity (CI) of individual commodities like corn could become the attribute that is valued. Another option is for companies to purchase carbon sequestration services and, as such, the total amount of carbon sequestered by a farm becomes the traded metric.

These two potential paths for how carbon could be traded are not necessarily restrictive in terms of companies or farmers choosing one or the other, but they could involve subtle differences worth considering. Regardless of which pathway is selected, the cornerstone of either scenario will be data. This will start with machine-readable data like what is currently generated from modern planters, applicators and harvester equipment.

We believe this climate-smart future is imminent. Companies are beginning to set clear goals to reduce emissions and offer transparency about their progress. This is especially true for publicly traded companies. In fact, NASDAQ’s Environmental Standards Group reported that over 40% of the corporate annual reports sampled had clear targets for greenhouse gas emissions.

Our view on the future of carbon markets and their relationships with farmers for value creation is bullish. Carbon-based agricultural markets are yet to be fully formed, and there is still much to be done regarding the policies, institutions and systems that will support the transmission of carbon value back to the farm. However, the world is looking for solutions to the climate question, and we believe the necessary building blocks will be assembled in the coming years — starting on the farm.

For more information on carbon markets, please watch the FBN Roundtable discussion from January 20, 2021 at https://go.fbn.com/on-demand-webinar-the-evolution-of-carbon.html 14 |

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POLICY

RVOs Explained

By Erin Smith On December 7, 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the long-awaited proposed 2020, 2021 and 2022 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVO), which set annual targets for how much biofuel must be blended into America’s fuel supply under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Overall, it was a mixed bag for the biofuels industry.

Under the Trump Administration, EPA’s 2020 rule called for 20 billion total gallons of biofuels, including 15 billion conventional gallons and five billion advanced gallons. In early 2021, the EPA extended the compliance deadline for 2020 obligations for refiners to meet these goals.

For the first time, the EPA retroactively reduced the volumes of a past RVO. This decision impacted the 2020 volumes and set an irresponsible precedent. Not the ideal response from an administration that promised to strengthen the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The numbers from 2021 are closer to but still lower than actual blending rather than pushing more renewable fuels into the market.

However, the good news is that the 2022 numbers reinstate 15-billiongallon volumes, and the industry will receive an additional 500 million gallons of court-ordered volumes over the next two years. Furthermore, the EPA intends to finally dispose of small refinery exemptions and will deny all pending applications. The POET team is working diligently alongside our industry allies to urge the EPA to reinstate robust blending targets before the rule is finalized and, as President Biden has said, “Get the RFS back on track.”

We are also continuously reminding the Biden Administration that biofuels play an integral role in achieving our national and global climate goals. Biofuels are the most affordable, abundant and readily available way to decarbonize the transportation sector while advancing the bioeconomy and supporting America’s rural economies.

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FEATURE

Waves of Grain POET harnesses the power of ocean freight to boost markets, sustainability

By Marcella Prokop

At a time when uncertainty has impacted everything from canned goods to fuel prices to the cost of a steak dinner, POET is doing its part to ensure consistent quality and fewer disruptions for the people it serves — both domestically and abroad.

Recently, POET became the 53rd largest container shipper in the United States. This placement allows the South Dakota-based company to help drive sustainability, product quality and demand in domestic and global markets.

POET Bioproducts Director of Trading Andy Lindsay says the company is driving sustainability by harnessing the power of shipping and export opportunities to provide a consistent protein source to consumers, enhance the efficiency of maritime transport and ensure demand and a market for grains grown in America.

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Andy Lindsay, POET Bioproducts Director of Trading works with his team 22 |

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“What we’re talking about here is ocean-going containers,” Lindsay says. “You’ve got goods being brought to the U.S. from Southeast Asia, and those boxes, historically, have gone back empty. In probably the early-to-mid 2000s, agriculture started to grab hold of exporting goods in a container.”

Although POET’s suite of bioproducts includes Dakota Gold, NexPro, Voilà, Voilà Premier, JIVE, POET Pure, and Ripple, the bulk of what is shipped in containers is DakotaGold and NexPro. Roughly 750,000 tons of Dakota Gold and 50,000 tons of NexPro go out in containers annually.

And the opportunity to fill an otherwiseempty container allows POET to reduce the number of “deadhauls” a ship makes, enabling the vessel to be more efficient and potentially reduce its carbon footprint. This aligns with POET’s commitment to move its bioproducts in a way that contributes to a comprehensive goal of building a better, more sustainable world. But that’s not the only benefit of POET’s place in the shipping sector.

Making good on maritime moves According to the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, 80% of the world’s goods are moved via ship. Logistics issues over the last 20 months have contributed to slowdowns and inefficiencies in global transport. This has left consumers feeling the pinch of decreased access to everyday products, including food.

But another reason consumers might experience bottlenecks and shortfalls is that meat producers in some parts of the world don’t have access to the feed they need to raise the animals they produce for local or global consumption. When producers can’t feed their animals, this, in turn, upends markets all around the world. By exporting an exceptional protein source to these producers, POET’s bioproducts impact consumers across the globe.

“In Asia, we know some people have to buy feed [to last] two months because they can’t get it on demand. Here, I can just get feed from the wet mill down the road,” Lindsay says. “In Korea, there are 40 million people, but 80% of the country is mountainous. They have to

import virtually all their corn, all their protein, anything that goes into feeding their animals.”

For clients like those Lindsay has met as he works overseas to build relationships, the promise that they will purchase a highquality and consistent product from one run to the next is just as significant as being able to access the product. The feed mills, the resale companies, the small farms — no matter who Lindsay and others at POET are working with, consumers know they can trust the ingredients, methods and processes that create the bioproducts they get from POET. Isaac Crawford, VP of Trading & Portfolio Management at POET, agreed, “Increasing awareness and knowledge on a global scale helps provide a better value to customers overseas, and it provides a better value for the bioproduct domestically.”

As a loose feed for swine, poultry, dairy cows and beef cattle, Dakota Gold is known in the U.S. and increasingly in foreign markets as a nutrient-rich feed that’s high in protein and phosphorus. NexPro ups the ante with its higher protein range (50% as opposed to the 24-40% of standard DDGs). Lindsay says that educating foreign consumers on the value of these bioproducts increases demand, driving both international and domestic markets.

Beyond the bioproducts themselves, Lindsay says everyone involved with POET knows the value of cultivating human relationships.

“Face-to-face interaction is how you develop relationships, and going to place like Southeast Asia and letting them know who you are and what your product is shows them who POET is.”

Andy Lindsay, POET Bioproducts Director of Trading

“We know the specifications of the corn going in, the corn going out, and we can deliver on the bioproducts we create,” Lindsay says.

This is part of what makes POET a leader at home, too, in each of the communities served by its 33 plants.

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Bringing it back home Although POET is committed to developing and supporting economies overseas, serving the Midwest region that gave POET Founder and CEO Jeff Broin his start is still at the heart of the company’s mission.

In addition to providing the grains that go into POET’s high-quality bioproducts, local farmers and livestock producers have the first option to buy POET’s bioproducts close to home.

“The biofuels industry drives not only the global economy but also the Midwest economy forward,” said Crawford. “The farmers that we partner with to purchase the corn we use to make our bioethanol and bioproducts are our neighbors and community members. Our world-changing mission starts right here in the Midwest communities that we call home.”

POET puts a big emphasis on making an impact in its communities and around the world. This commitment is evident in the quality of every batch of bioethanol distilled, every gallon of corn oil sold or every ton of Dakota Gold that goes out to meet the world’s energy needs — whether it meets the market by truck, rail car or shipping container.

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POET PAC

Meet Your Team

By Erin Smith POET PAC strives to uphold the interests of its members by educating legislators and regulators on the benefits of biofuels — and that all starts with a great PAC team. The PAC has recently expanded to include two new team members: Matt Ward and Rachael Grooms.

Matt Ward, Government Affairs Manager Matt Ward grew up in South Dakota and graduated in 2006 with a degree in political science. After running his own restaurants in northern Colorado for a few years, he moved back to Sioux Falls. His first role at POET was on the POET Bioproducts team, working in exports and merchandising. When a position with POET PAC opened up, he pursued the opportunity to move into public affairs.

As Government Affairs Manager, Ward will be responsible for all aspects of POET PAC, including promotion, compliance and outreach. His position will help POET PAC best serve POET’s objectives.

“What I think is most interesting about this role is the opportunity to get a holistic view of how POET approaches and attacks its policy objectives. When looking at state and policy issues, it’s good to be on the right side with POET. POET holds a lofty, wellworth it — and honestly, moral — goal to change the world. At a base, foundational level, I believe in this fight.”

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Rachael Grooms, Public Affairs Manager Rachael Grooms started her public affairs career in 2016 when she worked for the Minnesota State Senate. Grooms later joined Congressman Hagedorn’s campaign in southern Minnesota, assisting in communications, fundraising and event planning. Wanting to settle in South Dakota, she moved to Sioux Falls, keeping POET on her radar until the Public Affairs Manager position presented itself.

As Public Affairs Manager, Grooms will be responsible for educating key audiences about POET’s mission, company and products and showcasing how the company is working to change the world. Her position plays an essential role in shaping opinion and policy to support POET’s business objectives.

“I’m most excited about two things in this role. First, the POET culture is widely known. There are other people my age in fulfilling careers, and POET makes sure to take care of its team members. Secondly, I’m excited about the events and fundraising aspects. I enjoy planning events; being organized and making sure PAC members have fun in the process go hand-in-hand in this role.”

To learn more about POET PAC, visit poetpac.com or email Matt and Rachael at poetpac@poet.com

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What’s more, sustainability and environmental conservation are key in each and every process we develop. That’s why our commitment to provide the separating technology required to produce renewable biofuels and agricultural co-products is as strong as ever. To learn more about GEA’s centrifuges and separation equipment and the industries we serve, email us at sales.unitedstates@gea.com, call 800-722-6622, or visit us online at gea.com.

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Recharging Nature’s Battery The renewable revolution has begun

By Steve Lange

Decades have been spent searching for a better way to power our planet.

Many of the world’s biggest companies and brightest minds have traversed the globe to find the answer.

Regrettably, in their quest to solve one of the most complex problems in human history, they have continuously overlooked one of the most simple, straightforward and readily available solutions: corn.

“We think of corn as nature’s battery,” said Jeff Broin, POET’s Founder and CEO. “The leaves act as the solar panel, and then the energy is transferred from the sun into the corn kernels and the biomass, which can be stored indefinitely. So, the plant acts as a battery.”

That battery — and its ability to power the planet — has a much more storied history than most realize.

In 1896, bioethanol powered one of the country’s first internal combustion vehicles, Henry Ford’s Quadricycle. In 1908, the Model T, which could run on both bioethanol and petroleum, became the first-ever flex-fuel vehicle.

Ford himself called bioethanol “the fuel of the future.”

But bioethanol use waned in the 1920s, as Prohibition stymied the production of alcohol-based fuels. The Age of Oil had begun to take hold.

By the 1940s, the oil industry in the United States was drilling 20,000 new wells per year — most of them roughly one mile deep —and pumping five billion barrels of oil per day from inside the Earth.

Bioethanol was pushed to the back burner.

In the 1970s, the energy crisis brought biofuel blends back into favor, and by the early 80s, bioethanol’s value was slowly beginning to take hold, though mainly as a clean and effective octane booster for gasoline. vitalbypoet.com | 3 1

And that’s when farmers like Lowell Broin decided to take matters into their own hands. In 1982, Broin, a Minnesota farmer, always looking to get more value from his corn, put a pressure cooker full of corn mash onto the kitchen stove to learn what he could about the basics of producing bioethanol.

Four decades later, U.S. bioethanol production has reached 15 billion gallons per year and accounts for the purchase of five billion bushels of corn — a much-needed market for the ever-increasing yields grown by American farmers.

And POET, with Lowell’s son Jeff at the helm, has been at the forefront of that revolution. Today, POET’s 33 biorefineries produce three billion gallons of bioethanol, 14 billion pounds of distillers dried grains and 975 million pounds of corn oil per year. The company purchases more than five percent of U.S. corn each year.

In just the last decade, technological advancements have proven that the promise of bioethanol as the “fuel of the future” may finally be fulfilled. But the future of bioethanol, it turns out, may mean far more than fuel.

It may mean the beginning of the end of the Age of Oil. “Until the 1800s, humans got everything they needed from the surface of the land. Everything. That all changed with the Age of Oil,” said Doug Berven, POET’s VP of Corporate Affairs.

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“Now, we may find that returning to that era of agriculture and getting back to creating what we need from the surface of the land is actually the future.”

Doug Berven, POET’s VP of Corporate Affairs

That future would mean farmers moving to the forefront of an agricultural revolution.

“Right now, we think of farming as mostly livestock and grain,” said Berven. “In maybe just 20 years from now, farming could mean livestock, grain, energy, bioproducts and chemical building blocks.

Farmers will be leading this agricultural renaissance.”

Fourth-generation farmer Steve Sinning has been working his family’s land in Lennox, S.D. since the 1970s. He has seen firsthand how bioethanol has improved the market for corn as yields have continually increased over the past few decades.

“Since the ‘80s, our corn yields have increased greatly,” said Sinning, who now produces up to 250 bushels per acre, nearly triple the yields from just 30 years ago. “If we did not have bioethanol, our corn prices would be way lower, way lower. [The bioprocessing facilities] use billions of bushels of corn every year, which creates a great market. Almost all of my corn goes to the bioethanol plant.”

The economic impact of bioethanol drives the market for the nation’s surplus corn, and the positive environmental impact of bioethanol has become more critical as the world becomes more aware of climate issues and ecological health.

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“Bioethanol production is very sustainable,” said William Gibbons, the Associate Dean for Research at South Dakota State University’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences.

“We’re actually finding through sustainable farming practices that we’re pulling carbon out of the atmosphere and adding it to the soil.

This is basically the opposite of what we do when we extract petroleum and burn oil to generate energy.”

American oil refineries alone emit roughly 200 million tons of greenhouse gases every year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). That’s roughly five percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. In a 2021 study, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory found that the use of corn bioethanol actually reduces the world’s greenhouse gases and lowers our carbon footprint.

Relatively simple changes on a national level would do even more. If E15 replaced E10 nationwide, for example, greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by 17 million tons annually, according to a recent report

by Growth Energy. That’s the equivalent of removing nearly four million vehicles from the road. A corresponding study by ABF Economics found that nationwide use of the 15 percent bioethanol blend would create more than 182,000 additional jobs and save consumers $12.2 billion in fuel costs.

“Biofuels have gone from one percent of the fuel supply in this country in 2000 to more than 10 percent of the fuel supply today,” said Berven. “But the process creates so much more than just fuel; POET has an entire suite of sustainable bioproducts.”

Bioprocessing facilities turn that corn into everything from animal feed to corn oil to hand sanitizer. POET captures CO2 for use

in carbonated beverages, welding gases, and flash freezing of foods. They’ve also created an eco-friendly asphalt rejuvenator and an industrial lubricant.

“The corn oil we produce as a result of the bioethanol production process can be used to produce biodiesel and renewable diesel,” said Broin. “How’s that for exciting? We now have biofuels as a byproduct of biofuels.”

Researchers are regularly discovering naturally-grown, ag-based bioproducts can replace more and more toxic petrochemicals.

“We believe that everything that you can get from a barrel of oil, you can get from a bushel of corn. It’s simply a matter of biotechnology and economics,” said Broin.

Those economics center on farmers in America and around the world. Average corn yields in the U.S. are now nearly 180 bushels per acre. If just the top 10 countries in the world could catch up with American production, said Berven, that would mean another 20 billion bushels of corn. Per year. On the same amount of land.

“The potential for agriculture around the world is virtually untapped. We have a chance to incentivize a global agricultural revolution.”

Doug Berven, POET’s VP of Corporate Affairs

The economics will also be driven by more markets — and higher margins — for those farmers. Over the past three decades, biofuels have been the main economic driver of significant growth in the agriculture sector.

That growth has ramped up in the past few years, as biotechnology continues to reveal new uses for bioethanol.

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Researchers at Oregon State University, for example, recently showed the promise of powering clean cars with direct-bioethanol fuel cells. The U.S. Department of Energy labs discovered a chemical shortcut for converting bioethanol into jet fuel. The team at POET is focused on its corn oil-torenewable diesel fuel project.

“We have a chance to reinvent energy to address climate change,” Berven said. “If we truly want to decarbonize the world, if we want to advance beyond fossil fuels, we’ve got to get our resources from the surface of the Earth. The only way we’re going to do that is through agriculture, and it’s going to be led by farmers.”

Broin believes that already-proven premise — that farmers could soon be producing much of what the world currently gets from petrochemicals — could mean the end of hunger, the end of climate change, the end of the Age of Oil. And the start of the next stage of that agricultural revolution.

“Now more than ever, we must embrace the bioeconomy, harvest our energy from the surface of the Earth, and significantly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels,” said Broin. “Soon, everyone will realize how important farming is to our future. The potential of agriculture is so vast, and I think the world is finally starting to understand how far it can take us.

If we truly want to supercharge the economy and power a brighter future, we need to look no further than the land that surrounds us — the land that farmers have worked for thousands of years. The sun, the soil, and the seed are the key to a low-carbon future.”

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GET BIOFUEL

Hammering It Home

By Ryan Welsh, Director of Sales & Marketing / Growth Energy In the biofuels industry, one of the biggest hurdles we often have to overcome is a general lack of awareness — or, even worse, negative misinformation — surrounding our exceptional product. That’s why we have to use every tool at our disposal to move the needle with consumers.

We all know that one of the most important tools in any toolbox is the hammer. Well, our “hammer” is education. The facts are on our side — we just have to make them known. And the best place to build a foundation for education is with the subject matter experts: auto mechanics.

Get Biofuel most recently donned our hammer in late 2021 at the Orlando campus of the Universal Technical Institute (UTI), the premier educational automotive institution for aspiring mechanics. Dr. Andy Randolph hosted a three-session biofuels performance workshop attended by nearly 300 UTI students and instructors.

Dr. Andy is a fuels expert with a background in Chevrolet and NASCAR engine building. He is a very factual, engaging, and entertaining instructor, and he kicked off the workshop with a discussion of the many positive attributes of bioethanol. He explained that it is a “more-than” product — that it has evolved into more solutions than even the visionary Henry Ford could have imagined when he predicted bioethanol would be the fuel of the future.

“Bioethanol is an amazingly versatile product, with uses ranging from automotive fuel to alcoholic drinks, to, yes, even hand sanitizer,” said Dr. Andy. “As a fuel, bioethanol is renewable, safe, cost-effective, high in octane, and very clean, which is especially ideal given the climate crisis we are confronting.”

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The question-and-answer portion took up most of the workshops, which Dr. Randolph welcomed.

After all, the best way to educate oneself is to ask questions. I even slipped in my own question at the end of our last session: “Dr. Andy, 20 years ago, companies like Motorola were facing lawsuits due to health effects of lithium-ion batteries in phones close to the human head. Is there any concern about sitting on almost 7,000 of those batteries that are essential to an electric vehicle?” I asked.

“Only time can give you that answer,” he replied with a shrug and a laugh.

The workshop was a success, and Get Biofuel’s partnership with UTI grew even stronger in 2021 when POET and H2O Innovation partnered to donate hand sanitizer to all 13 of its campuses. We are now also expanding the workshops to reach the entire UTI network and establish Get Biofuel brand at all campuses.

Greg Madden, Chief Strategy Officer at H2O Innovation, views education as key part of our toolbox as well. “We were excited to be part of the effort to provide POET’s high-quality hand sanitizer for the UTI schools, and we’re very excited about the growing partnership with Get Biofuel. We hope that it will help advance the conversation with auto mechanics, some of the best primary sources to spread the word about the benefits of bioethanol.”

There is still a lot of work to be done on the biofuels education front, but in the meantime, we’ll keep doing what we can to hammer it home.

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MECHANIC’S CORNER

A Modern Match: Older Vehicles and E15 Russ Evans, Under the Hood Radio Show Host and Mechanic You’ve probably heard about the shortages the automotive industry is experiencing. Even basic necessities like motor oil have been in short supply, driving up costs and making it difficult to repair vehicles quickly and get them back on the road.

Even more notably, cars themselves are also hard to find. If you’ve shopped for a new or used vehicle in the past six months, you know how rare they’ve become. Finding an affordable car — much less one you actually want — can prove to be quite the challenge. With many used cars approaching twice their book value, some people have been driven to bring out much older vehicles that were parked in a garage for backup or leisure purposes.

A few months ago, these cars were rarely on the road, if at all; however, now that their values have increased, our customers are bringing them to us to check over and make sure they’re roadworthy.

Most of the repairs we see would previously have doomed the vehicles for recycling, but thanks to the shortages, they’re now being repaired.

Now that these older cars are being driven regularly again, we’re getting questions about fueling. Most of them are 20 years old, and fuel has changed since the early 2000s. E15 is now found in many more pumps, and as the most affordable option, that’s what people want to reach for — but they want to know if it will be okay for their car. They need an education on the benefits of bioethanol.

E15 is an excellent choice for these cars. All of us in the automotive industry — from the mechanics to the fuel suppliers — feel comfortable advocating that information. E15 has long been approved for use in 2001 and newer vehicles, but there is a lack of knowledge about using biofuel, as seen by the number of our customers who ask us about it. We often hear, “Is it alright to put E15 in my car?” We even get this question for brand new vehicles with owners’ manuals that clearly state that E15 is allowed.

Our society shares reviews about everything, from the phones we buy to the clothes we wear, but when was the last time we shared anything about the fuel we put in our vehicles?

As a shop that repairs hundreds of cars a month, we see no issues with bioethanol and encourage its use where it’s allowed: in more than 90% of vehicles on the road today.

The Under The Hood radio show is America’s Favorite Car-talk show heard on over 250 stations, YouTube and podcast. The Motor Medics, Russ, Chris and Shannon, are three great friends having fun and offering a wide range of automotive advice.

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BIOFUELS MUST BE PART OF THE CLIMATE SOLUTION Learn More at GrowthEnergy.org/Environment

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FEATURE

Partners in Innovation POET, SDSU and SD Mines join forces to bring the POET Bioproducts Institute to life

By Andrea Van Essen In response to challenges from both the private sector and the state, two South Dakota universities have stepped up to create an innovative publicprivate partnership that will marry research and commercialization for the bioproducts sector.

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The POET Bioproducts Institute will be a 45,000-square foot specialized laboratory facility that will open mid-2023 at South Dakota State University’s (SDSU) Research Park in Brookings. The institute is the product of a partnership between SDSU and South Dakota Mines, made possible by a $5 million gift from POET, as well as $20 million in legislative funding, $2 million from South Dakota Corn, and additional annual funding from the South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council and the state.

According to SDSU President Barry Dunn, the idea has been brewing for quite some time.

“Over the last eight years or so, Jeff Broin [POET’s Founder and CEO] and Jeff Lautt [POET’s President and COO] have been challenging SDSU to be more proactive and relevant in the biofuels and bioproducts arena, and in 2019, at Governor Noem’s State of the State address, she challenged the people in this state to come up with a bold idea,” he said.

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Jeff Lautt gives speech at South Dakota State University’s ground breaking for the POET Bioproducts Institute

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After the Governor’s address, Dunn turned to Broin and Lautt with his bold idea — a bioproducts institute that would work not only on innovation in biofuels but on other bio-based products.

As the state’s land grant university, Dunn says SDSU has a responsibility to the agriculture sector that goes back to its inception in 1889.

“It goes back to our mission related to agriculture and the state of South Dakota, but it’s new, it’s not the traditional way of thinking.”

Barry Dunn, SDSU President

“It’s about expanding that vision to think of agriculture not only as food but as a substrate for our fuel and biologically-related products.

It could be related to medicine, or it could be a replacement for petroleum-based products, and so it’s an expansion of our mission that we needed to do in the 21st century.”

From POET’s perspective, collaborating with the universities is instrumental in providing the next generation of talent for the bioproducts sector.

“One thing that’s kind of neat about POET is that we have opportunities in everything from finance to business to marketing to human resources to microbiology and all of the engineering disciplines,” Lautt said.

“That makes us very interested in collaborating with universities to give them feedback on what we’re seeing and what we need. I think we get a great response from the universities that we work with to make sure that they’re adapting and staying on the cutting edge.”

Impacting South Dakota and the world The work done at the POET Bioproducts Institute will create an impact in numerous areas, from value-added agriculture to sustainability to economic development.

That impact will be felt locally in the state of South Dakota, regionally in the Midwest and on a global scale.

“Here at POET, we talk a lot about our mission as putting the balance back in place between Earth and humans. We believe that over the last 150 years, as the world has used a lot of petroleum, that we’ve gotten out of sync, and we have depleted a lot of resources,” Lautt said.

In South Dakota, where agriculture is the number one industry, POET has asserted that the 21st century will be all about the intersection of agriculture and biology.

“As biology has advanced, there are now all kinds of science and technology that can create products and energy from agricultural resources, where 50 to 100 years ago, you couldn’t compete with oil,” Lautt said.

“We painted the picture for South Dakota Mines and SDSU that we believe the Midwest is going to be the next Silicon Valley — the Ag Valley.”

Jeff Lautt, POET President and COO

A large piece of what will make that vision a reality is higher education institutions.

Universities throughout the Midwest are developing biotechnology institutes that become resources for students and provide opportunities for the private sector to collaborate and develop technology alongside undergraduate and graduate-level minds.

“You need to have the resources to be able to do some of that pre-pilot or pre-commercial technology scale-up work, and SDSU didn’t have that, and neither did South Dakota Mines. So, this is really one of the first big ventures where the schools came together to work with the private sector,” Lautt said.

“With POET being the world’s largest biofuels company, based right here in South Dakota, and having the relationships we have at both of those universities, it became clear that we would be a good lead donor to make the project a reality.”

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POET’s involvement The institute will develop courses in bioprocessing with a focus on value-added agriculture, specifically specialty animal feeds and biomaterials. The universities will offer academic degrees, soliciting POET’s input on the development of courses and degree programs.

As an industry leader, POET will have an active role in the development and operation of the facility, from design to governance to the aforementioned curriculum development.

The facility will be managed by a new non-profit organization, the Dakota Bioproducts Innovation Institute.

“We will be on the board for a long period of time, sitting alongside other industry representatives as well as representatives from both SDSU and South Dakota Mines, and we will govern this institute to be successful,” Lautt said.

That success should prove impactful for the universities, the state and the world.

“It would be remiss of me not to use this opportunity to thank both Jeff Broin and Jeff Lautt for their vision, their energy and also their kind of doggedness in promoting this as part of the future, literally, of our planet, and in helping our state get caught up and be part of this future,” Dunn said.

“The rewards of this will certainly benefit POET as a company, but they will benefit all of us in ways that no one can really imagine right now. It’s a very exciting project that will change the world for all of us, and it was their enthusiasm that really pushed it forward. We owe them a great deal of thanks — we all do.”

Learn more about the POET Bioproducts Institute at: www.rpsdstate.com/poet-bioproducts-institute.html

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EXPLORE THE POWER OF CONNECTION

JOIN POET’S TALENT NETWORK TO BE THE FIRST TO Left: POET Bioprocessing - Leipsic, OH KNOW ABOUT NEW CAREER OPENINGS.

POET.COM/TALENTNETWORK

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PEOPLE OF POET

A Blending of Passions Portland’s Maintenance Manager combines technical skills with artistic talent to produce masterpieces

By Darrell Boone It’s a long way from Nome, Alaska to Portland, Ind., but for John Mikulski, Maintenance Manager at POET Bioprocessing – Portland, it’s been a great ride.

“People either love or hate living in Alaska,” said Mikulski. “But I loved it. I was always outdoors snowboarding, hunting, fishing, camping — doing the Alaska thing.”

The son of missionaries, Mikulski lived in Alaska from ages five through 18. In addition to loving the outdoor life, it was also there that Mikulski developed his strong interest in engineering and technology.

“Nome is a gold mining town, and I had a friend whose dad was a mining engineer,” he recalled. “I was fascinated with that.”

After serving a stint in the Navy as an aircraft mechanic, Mikulski relocated to Indiana, where he had family, and picked up a degree in industrial maintenance. When he went to Portland for his job interview and tour of the POET plant, Mikulski said both he and POET knew immediately it was a match.

“As soon as I walked into the plant, I knew this is where I wanted to be,” he said. “They offered me a job in maintenance on the spot. In many ways, it was similar to what I did in the Navy, and I was able to hit the ground running.”

Mikulski is a hands-on sort of guy and has a poster in his office that reads, “Success is a ladder that can’t be climbed with your hands in your pockets.” His hands have been busy.

He started in maintenance and was soon promoted to supervisor. The following year, he became operations manager, then maintenance manager two years later. He would ultimately like to move higher on that ladder, but he’s pretty happy where he’s at in the meantime.

“I like having the freedom to make changes, and I feel like people listen to my ideas,” he said.

“We have a small team, and I like to develop people and keep them safe and trained. I’m also proud to be in an industry that’s making a difference, changing the world a little and being part of something bigger than myself.”

General Manager Adam Homan has worked with Mikulski for nine years and appreciates the value he brings to the Portland team.

“With his experience, John can troubleshoot just about anything in the facility,” Holman said.

“He’s the kind of person who can accomplish anything he puts his mind to.”

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Technical meets artistic Besides his day job, Mikulski operates a successful wood-turning side business from home called Midwest Hybrids. After spending some evening family time, Mikulski heads to his shop, where he uses lathes and an assortment of sophisticated equipment to create stunning and unique pieces of artwork, such as pens, jewelry, wall décor, art and collectibles and more. He also makes similarly crafted “blanks,” which he sells to other artists to create their own masterpieces.

“What I do is resin casting, where I create a hybrid mix of wood and resins or plastics, then add colors and create some effects that result in some really unique objects,” he said. “I like to think that maybe growing up in Alaska and being around water and nature, then combining my technical skills to add color and vibrance, helps me get in touch with my ‘artistic side.’”

Mikulski’s own business has 11,000 followers on Instagram, but he especially enjoys working with other artists who buy his blanks and seeing the whole process come full circle.

“I sell them the blanks, and then I get to see what they make out of it when they sell to the endusers. I get to see the smiles on everyone’s faces, and it’s cool to be involved in the whole process.”

Mikulski’s wife Amy works as an Administrative Coordinator at POET – Portland, and she helps him with the marketing, logistics and shipping of his products. The couple also has three children: Julian (13), Kalli (8) and Logan (4). All three kids are very active in sports, which keeps John and Amy quite busy attending events and providing transport to practices.

Although John usually works late into the night with his small business — most nights getting about five hours sleep — he builds some healthy fences around his “night job.”

“I don’t do any business on the weekends,” he said. “I save it to spend time with Amy and the kids.”

Speaking of Amy, her marriage to Mikulski was serendipitous of him joining the POET – Portland team. It’s where the couple met when she started shortly after him, and the two are very happy being a “POET family.”

“She works in the office, and I’m out in the plant, so we don’t get to spend too much time together, which is probably a good thing,” he laughed. “She’s a people person, and her job fits her very well.

We love working together at the same plant.”

For more information about John’s work, visit his shop at www.midwesthybrids.com

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FEATURE

What’s the Big Idea?

Research & Development, portfolio of patents differentiate POET from the competition

By Janna Farley Sioux Falls isn’t widely recognized as a hub of innovation like Palo Alto. It doesn’t have the buzz of North Carolina’s Research Triangle.

But when it comes to biotechnology research and development, South Dakota is no longer flyover country.

“We’ve got as much innovation going on here as many of those big tech areas,” said Steve Lewis, POET Vice President of Innovation.

The once bucolic farming communities where POET operates are booming with innovative ideas and the people who can turn them into reality.

For more than 34 years, POET’s mission has centered on developing technologies to efficiently produce sustainable biofuels and oil alternatives to clean the air and reverse the dangerous impacts of climate change.

Left: Dave Bushong and Steve Lewis work in the POET lab

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A big part of this involves an intellectual property strategy to manage trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks and patents. The work has paid off, with more than 150 active U.S. patents and applications and another 150 active foreign patents and applications.

“Bioethanol is a commodity product, and POET produces the same bioethanol as its competitors,” said Dave Bushong, POET Senior Vice President of Research. “We wanted to have the most competitive plants and processes out there. We wanted to be a leader for efficiency and overall plant performance. We needed a way to differentiate ourselves.”

POET invested in research and development early on. As the biofuels industry grew, it became more typical for other bioethanol companies to think about research and development, too, Bushong said. Many companies contract with outside researchers, but POET’s R&D has always been homegrown.

“POET’s always fostered that spirit of innovation from within. Innovation is just part of our DNA.” Dave Bushong, POET Senior Vice President of Research

That culture of innovation is what led to POET’s first family of patents: the no-cook BPX® process.

In traditional corn-to-bioethanol production, the corn is ground, mixed with water and then heated in a jet cooker. The resulting material is liquefied and used in a fermentation process, where the starches are converted to sugars and the sugars to alcohol.

POET researchers wanted to optimize the process.

They were first successful in bringing up the gravity, or increasing the solids, in their conventional production process. As researchers increased the solids, they discovered that the levels of residual starch in the leftovers of fermentation increased. The POET researchers began looking into ways to convert these leftover starches into sugars, and ultimately bioethanol, by running tests using raw starch flour and various enzymes. They eventually discovered a side activity in the enzymes that achieved raw starch hydrolysis, the conversion of starches to fermentable sugars, without the cooking and liquefaction steps present in the traditional method.

“This was the serendipitous event,” Lewis said. “We discovered that, with a few changes here, we can actually convert raw starch to bioethanol in a very efficient manner.”

In order to talk about the project with a degree of confidentiality, the new avenue of research was given the code name “Broin Project X,” or BPX. Attempts to optimize the conventional process continued in concert with research into the new raw starch method, but the focus of the company’s efforts soon shifted.

“At some point, we realized that the raw starch process was out-competing the conventional one,” Lewis said. “We were saving in energy, and we had higher yields. It was altogether a much more efficient process. Initially, the raw starch process was just an intellectual curiosity. But as we learned more about its specific advantages, it transitioned from an interesting discovery to an exciting commercial opportunity.

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While much of POET’s research focuses on improving processes for its core bioproduct, like the BPX patent, it’s also about looking for opportunities to expand its bioproduct line.

The family of patents related to extracting Voilà corn oil is a prime example. Extracting the corn oil provides an additional bioproduct stream that can be utilized in multiple markets, including biodiesel and renewable diesel production, mixing into animal feed to improve fat content and even as an additive to recycled asphalt as a natural rejuvenator, Lewis said.

“In the past, this oil would go out with animal feed. Now we’re able to separate the oil during the process and sell it separately.

This is important to POET and the industry,” Lewis said.

Other patents focus on the work POET is doing to decrease the company’s environmental footprint.

The patent related to the Combustion of High Solids Liquid provides a recycled fuel source to help manage energy use at locations with a solid fuel boiler. This source uses syrup, an energy-containing co-product, as an energy source for the biorefinery and creates a local, sustainable energy source.

The Dual Tank Heat Transfer patent was designed to help recover heat loss during condensing of vapors. By capturing this heat and recycling it into the system, less energy is required to run the process, helping to decrease costs and decrease the environmental impacts of energy production.

And the Total Water Recovery patents allow for the reduction of water brought into the biorefinery while also recycling water back into the system to prevent the release of excess wastewater.

“Commercial successes are important, and it’s fun to see the technology work. But it’s most satisfying when you can take a product to the marketplace that improves the environment, improves our standard of living and improves the business.”

Dave Bushong, POET Senior Vice President of Research

Though most of POET’s patents stem from the core research team, innovative ideas can come from anywhere. “That’s one of POET’s core values,” Bushong said. “We really respect and appreciate that.”

A great example is the “Load Toad” patent.

The Load Toad was developed to improve the process of loading railcars with dried distiller’s grains. By allowing for a more consistent flow of the DDGS, the material is distributed more evenly in the railcars, allowing them to be shipped fuller.

“What’s really interesting about innovation is when we discover something and wonder why we didn’t think of that earlier,” Lewis said. “It seems obvious in hindsight, but it’s really novel and unforeseen.”

Not everything will be a commercial success or be a fit for the marketplace, Bushong admits. “That’s research, and that’s business,” he said. “Not everything we do works, even though that’s personally painful for me to have to admit.”

But that’s just part of the process.

“Each day, we find new ways to build a better world for future generations,” Lewis said.

“We’re just getting started.”

Dave Bushong, POET Senior Vice President of Research and Steve Lewis, POET Vice President of Innovation Research

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OUT OF LEFT FIELD

Car Guy

By Scott Johnson, A Thinker of Thoughts (and POET Data Systems Administrator) I’ve never thought of myself as a car guy. But I can relate to the special bond people have with their cars. My early driving years opened up a new world of independence and responsibility I hadn’t experienced before. The cars I drove were more than functional machines. They were friends. Each exuded a unique personality. As an awkward teen trying to forge a path toward adulthood, my equally quirky cars provided a welcoming environment where I could be myself.

First cars should have character. They should have well-used jumper cables and unreachable French fries under the seats. They should have idiosyncrasies and nuance that require some level of explanation when visitors get in. Our vehicle’s flaws only enhance the love we have for our mechanical companions. The quality of the car is inversely proportional to the likelihood of it having a pet name — Rusty, Tank, Lucky, Tinkerbell. Only we can appreciate the beauty beneath the quirks, and suggestions that our cars are anything less than perfect are treated as blasphemy.

If a spam phone call offers an extended warranty for our car, we scoff at the notion and jump to defend their honor. We don’t need no stinkin’ warranty, do we Squeaky?!

The first car I drove was an 1987 Dodge Colt. It had no power windows, no power steering, no cruise control. I believe it weighed 138 pounds and could go 0 to 60 eventually, as long as there was a long downhill stretch of road and minimal headwind. It was awesome.

I was gifted a 1980 Honda Accord for my high school graduation. It was two-toned, avocado green and rust, like a refrigerator from 1970 was left out in the rain. Unfortunately, I forgot to check the oil level for a college semester or two, and the car eventually died. This regrettable experience taught me to love and care for my cars in the future.

The coolest car I ever owned was a cardinal-red 1989 Pontiac Sunbird coupe. Its sleek design included a spoiler and mechanical headlights that would pop up when turned on and retract when turned off. However, one of the lights was stuck open. So, during the day, it looked like it was winking at all the other cars passing by. Such a flirt!

My oldest daughter has reached driving age. Her first car is a 2007 Ford Edge, twice handed down from family members. I can see the familiar bond she has with her car. It’s facilitated her first steps into adulthood, driving back and forth to school and activities. She’s adorned her new friend with a fuzzy steering wheel cover and custom crocheted keychain, enhancing the personal connection.

The car has a few bumps, bruises and quirks, like the stereo that randomly changes time zones and the not-so-faint smell of spilled milk that can be detected on hot summer days. But to her, it only emits a charm and character meant to be treasured.

Her pet name for the car? “My Love.”

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4615 N. Lewis Ave. Sioux Falls, SD 57104

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