EMMETSBURG, Iowa (AP) — An executive with a Netherlands-based biotechnology company has been asked to lead a joint venture that is building a new type of ethanol plant in northern Iowa. Royal DSM, based in Delft, the Netherlands, has teamed with Sioux Falls, S.D.,-based POET to create POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels. The joint venture is building a plant in Emmetsburg that will make ethanol from corncobs, leaves, and husks. It’s expected to initially make 20 million gallons of ethanol a year. The technology created to make the so called “cellulosic” ethanol will be licensed to others in the industry.

Steve Hartig, a vice president with DSM, has been named general manager of the joint venture and he will be responsible for the licensing of the technology.