CF Industries and POET launch a pilot project to produce ethanol from low-carbon fertilizers.

Recently, CF Industries and POET announced a joint initiative to launch a pilot project in the United States for the production of low-carbon ethanol using low-carbon fertilizers. The project aims to reduce the carbon intensity of corn cultivation through the use of low-carbon fertilizers and produce low-carbon ethanol. The project has brought together multiple agricultural cooperatives to jointly build a low-carbon fertilizer supply chain from production to farmers. 
The pilot project covers states such as Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska. CF Industries produces low-carbon ammonia at its Donaldsonville plant by capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide, with an annual capacity of up to 1.9 million tons, sufficient to meet the fertilizer needs of 19 to 22 million acres of corn. In the fall of 2025, the project completed the first sale and application of low-carbon ammonia fertilizer. POET will use the corn grown with these low-carbon fertilizers to produce ethanol at its biofuel plants in Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, with an expected output of 5 to 6 million gallons of low-carbon intensity ethanol. 
Bert Frost, president of CF Industries' commercial business, pointed out that low-carbon fertilizers offer a quantifiable and verifiable path to decarbonize the raw materials for bioethanol. Christian McIlvain, president of POET's grain business, said that this move opens up a new way to reduce the carbon intensity of ethanol, with the potential to bring both environmental and economic benefits. The two companies stated that this project marks a deep collaboration between agricultural and energy enterprises in the low-carbon value chain, aiming to promote the sustainable development of the biofuel industry chain.