News-in-Brief: June 29th, 2011

 Danisco releases its Sustainability Report

Danisco has released its sustainability report, detailing how it has used bio-based materials to reduce its carbon footprint, with a strong focus on Life Cycle Assessment’s role in decision-making. This is the last report of its kind that will report on Danisco-only efforts, as Danisco was purchased by DuPont in January.

Biofuels Take Flight

In Paris on June 18^th 2011 a Gulf-Stream jet makes its landing. What makes this otherwise routine occurrence remarkable is that 50% of its power was bio-based using Honeywell’s Green Jet Fuel (50% here means one of two Rolls-Royce engines), making it the first Transatlantic crossing of its kind. The route closely followed that taken by Charles Lindbergh nearly a century earlier.

This was followed today by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines completed the first passenger flight using biokerosene as fuel, following an announcement last week that 200 flights between Amsterdam and Paris will use a 50/50 blend of petroleum-based and bio-based fuels, starting in September.

With positive test results coming from Gevo, and a recent announcement kicking off the Agri Energy Technology Demonstration in which Michigan State University, Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and Willow Run Airport will collaborate to grow bio-energy crops on site, the sky is the limit for bio-based aviation fuels.

Bunge expands Sugar in brazil, sees biofuels as logical expansion of biz

Bunge plans to expand its sugarcane holdings in Brazil, adding 25,000 hectares to the 200,000 hectares it already has. “You want to make sure your cane is expanding at a slightly faster pace than industrial capacity,” said Ben Pearcy, Bunge’s chief development officer and managing director of sugar and bio-energy.

Bunge owns eight mills in Brazil, and this expansion is part of an initiative to get them all producing at peak capacity, with the plan to increase its sugar unit to match the size of its agribusiness unit (its largest).

From Fuels to Chemicals

Gevo to convert ethanol plant to isobutanol plant, seeing more value in chemicals supply chain than in the gas pump.

Bayer off on the right foot

Bayer’s Green Shoe Concept.

News-in-Brief: June 28th, 2011

Light Green Is The New Shade for Cleantech VC

In a post financial-crash economy and with few successful exits on the books for green energy projects, VC’s identify “light green tech” (software and components versus capital-intensive large scale energy projects) as a potential new entry point, says Reuters.

Gevo/Toray Renewable Plastic Collaboration Is A Success

After a successful collaboration with Toray to produce fully renewable and recyclable form of PET (a plastic commonly used in packaging and other consumer goods applications), green chemicals manufacturer Gevo announces plans to scale-up production to meet “strong customer demand”.

Industry and Academic Biotech Partnership a Winning Play for Ohio

While most people associate The Buckeye State with football and farms, Ohio is also the number one manufacturer of polymers. By combining the latter two strengths the Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center, founded in 2005, is now yielding strong economic results.

Louisiana's Climate and Soil Are Assets for Algal Biomass Producers

Formerly of Maryland, Aquatic Energy finds Louisiana’s warm climate and clay soil an ideal place to grow and harvest algae for food and fuels.

News-in-Brief: June 27th, 2011

Amyris Finds Strength In Collaborations in Asia and Latin America

Synthetic biology company Amyris, Inc. will collaborate with Asian agribusiness giant Wilmar to develop NPE-alternative surfactants for use in consumer goods, personal care products and industrial applications and tackle the billion-dollar NPE surfactant market.

Amyris also entered into a joint venture with Brazilian biofuels manufacturer Cosan S.A. forming Novvi S.A., to scale-up the production and commercialization of renewable base oils, diversifying the uses for its green molecular building block Biofene.

Nestlé Talks Renewable Product Packaging 

Nestlé’s Global Head of Packaging and Design, Dr. Anne Roulin comments on the future of bioplastics and renewables for Nestle and the food industry.  

European Bioplastics Holds Board Elections

European Bioplastics elects a new Board: Rainer Barthel (Danone), Francesco Degli Innocenti (Novamont), Joeran Reske (Interseroh), and Harald Käb (narocon). Andy Sweetman (Innovia Films) was confirmed as Chairman. Jens Hamprecht (BASF) and Mark Vergauwen (NatureWorks) are Vice-Chairmen.

Dutch Company Avantium Completes Financing Round, Adding New Investors

Avantium has completed a EUR 25 million financing round with new investors Sofinnova Partners, Aster Capital and De Hoge Dennen as well as existing investors Aescap Venture, Capricorn Cleantech Fund, ING Corporate Investments and Navitas Capital.

Bioplastics to double from 2010 to 2015

Global production is expected to pass 1 million tonnes in 2011, according to industry association European Bioplastics, up from 700,000 in 2010 to reach 1.7 million in 2015, based on current trends. Biodegradable biobased plastics initially dominated production and will continue to grow strongly, however biobased commodity plastics (which are not classed as biodegradable) are expected to overtake biodegradable plastics by 2015. They claim the expansion of bioplastics into an increasing range of applications will fuel this growth. While Europe is the largest market for bioplastics and the biggest R&D player, most production (and growth) is taking place in Asia and South America; the organization encourages European governments to support local bioplastic production.

Zeachem partner with Procter and Gamble to develop drop-in biobased chemical platform

ZeaChem Inc. announced a joint development agreement with Procter & Gamble to maximize the sustainability of P&G’s products and packaging. ZeaChem specialize in biomass-to-chemical refineries, using renewable feedstocks such as poplar and biobased fermentation technologies, which they claim produces high yields and low carbon emissions. The agreement centers on ZeaChem’s C2 platform which produces “drop in” biobased chemicals such as acetic acid, ethyl acetate and ethylene glycol which are used in a number of P&G products. Together ZeaChem and P&G will develop and scale-up the platform, so that P&G will have a reliable supply of renewable materials for their own manufacturing processes.

Bioplastics are in first place for the London Olympics

Organizers have decided that compostable materials, such as starch and cellulose derived bioplastics will be widespread in food packaging at the 2012 London Olympics. It is estimated that 3,300 tonnes of tood packaging waste will be created during the Olympics; John Williams, Head of Materials and Energy at the NNFCC (National Non-Food Crops Centre) claims that this gives “a unique opportunity to showcase the benefits of using compostable packaging, particularly for food, and recovering its stored energy at end-of-life using anaerobic digestion.” The NNFCC has been working closely with organizers to minimize the amount of waste that goes to landfill after the Games; setting a target for at least 70% of waste to be recycled. “Using renewable materials at the Olympics is a great way to demonstrate to the public how seriously the packaging industry is taking sustainability,” says Andy Sweetman, Chairman of the European Bioplastics Association.

Agrivida’s GM crops with built in cellulases might make ethanol cheaper

Agrivida has created genetic technology, dubbed GreenGenes, which causes a crop to begin producing a cocktail of cellulose-degrading enzymes. These enzymes will be activated after the crop is harvested to increase the yield of ethanol from this biomass when it is fermented; the sugar content can increase 50% in some crop species using GreenGenes. Crops engineered this way would make cellulosic ethanol production cheaper as the enzymes are produced by the crops themselves, improving yield with minimal changes to existing processing technology.  

Enerkem secures $59 million in financing

Enerkem Inc has secured financing from an intriguing mix of investors such as Valero Energy Corp, Waste Management, Rho Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures and Cycle Capital to a total of $59 million.  Vincent Chornet, CEO of Enerkem, stated that “With Valero joining Waste Management as a strategic investor, Enerkem becomes one of the very few renewable products companies that is aligned with industry leaders from both upstream and downstream parts of the business”. This waste-to biofuel/chemicals company plans to use the money to invest in 10 ethanol plants throughout the Midwest and future projects.

A*Star’s enzyme tech can convert unrefined vegetable oils to Biodiesel

After degrading fats into fatty acids, they can be reacted with methanol to produce Biodiesel. If enzymes are used for this reaction, they are usually destroyed by methanol but A*star’s Chemical and Engineering Sciences Department found a way to keep the enzyme separate from the methanol during the reaction. This means that using their method, enzymes can be used to speed up the reaction and increase the yield. The main benefit of this technique, however, is that it will work on vegetable oils that have not been purified and refined; allowing the production process to be simplified and made cheaper to run. Researchers at A*Star are continuing to develop this technology for industrial production.  

Braskem green plastic qualifies for the Ok Biobased seal

The OK Biobased seal is a symbol from Vinçotte, designed to identify products which meet their criteria for being renewably sourced, and is one of the most widely recognized certifications for Biobased products. Braskem’s high and low density green polyethylene (produced from bioethanol), meets these criteria and received the highest quality rating Vinçotte offers. It is fully recyclable, renewable and captures 2.5 tons of CO2 per ton of plastic produced.

Shell and Cosan Launch Sugarcane Ethanol Joint Venture

Shell and Brazil-based Cosan are set for a joint venture named Raizen. Peter Vosser, Shell’s CEO, noted:  "We are building a leading position in the most efficient ethanol-producing country in the world.” Shell’s global network and research expertise will be used to develop and distribute ethanol and Cosan will use its 24 mills to process 62 million tonnes of cane a year into ethanol. Together they will produce 2 billion liters of ethanol a year.

Gevo to Retrofit Ethanol Plant for Isobutanol Production

Gevo plan to produce Isobutanol using an ethanol plant they purchased in Luverne from Agri-Energy in 2010; they will retrofit the plant for producing the chemical. Could ventures like this help ethanol manufacturers?

Isobutanol is more energy dense than ethanol; as a fuel, this makes it useful. It also behaves more like gasoline physically which means it fits more easily into existing vehicle fuelling infrastructure. It also is of value to chemical markets, as it is used to produce a range of common chemicals and plastics. Gevo’s Executive Vice President for Corporate Development, Jack Huttner, claims that biobased isobutanol can be produced more cheaply than petroleum based isobutanol.

By 2012, Gevo plan to be producing isobutanol on a commercial scale at a plant formerly dedicated to bioethanol fuel production by fermentation of corn and believe the venture will be profitable by 2014. The retrofit involves using a strain of E.coli geared to isobutanol (rather than ethanol) production and the installation of a separator for constantly removing isobutanol from the fermenter.  While they say isobutanol can be produced cheaply at the moment, they anticipate that as cellulosic ethanol technology develops, the cost of producing isobutanol can be decreased along with ethanol. Gevo and ethanol manufacturer Poet actually have claimed that ethanol and isobutanol production go hand in hand; to the point that supply chains for the two could be joined without being in competition. Huttner and Jeff Laut, Poet President, both expressed interest in cooperation between the ethanol and isobutanol industries.

Gevo have also decided that they will not buy corn; they will make agreements with consumers of isobutanol for the consumers to buy the corn and will pay Gevo to refine it for them. This measure is intended to protect against price fluctuations in their consumer markets. Huttner said "Most of the big chemical companies are used to dealing with commodity hedging and pricing and are willing to deal with that themselves. It makes good business sense to share commodity risk with your customers." How this arrangement works for Gevo will be worth watching; this removes the feedstock cost for Gevo and ensures that they will always have buyers for their product, but how many consumer companies will be willing to enter into such an arrangement with the increased risk? Also, would this arrangement have an impact on the eligibility of Gevo for subsidies for biofuel production? 

Could isobutanol production be a way for ethanol producers to add value to their operations? The plant in Laverne formerly produced 20 million gallons of ethanol a year and by the middle of next year Gevo expects to be producing 18 million gallons of isobutanol. Accounting for the difference in energy density between ethanol and isobutanol this actually could mean an overall increase in the mileage the plant’s output produces, if all of the output were to be used in fuel. However, isobutanol is primarily used by the chemical industry at present, which is generally more stable than the biofuel industry, operating with higher profit margins. This could provide ethanol manufacturers with a safety net, something to keep revenue coming in if there are fluctuations in ethanol markets. As the supply chains between the two are so close, ethanol and isobutanol could be produced in parallel with less difficulty; perhaps by using a “double” culture of E.coli (one strain for ethanol and one for isobutanol) and some separation equipment.

Angel Labs MYT engine to generate energy from Titan’s Biodiesel

Angel Labs, LLC has entered into a three-way partnership with Industrial Green Power Inc and Titan Biodiesel to produce renewable electricity for small scale applications, such as home generation or as a portable power supply for construction work or similar. Industrial Green Power will distribute their 40kw generator powered by Angel Labs MYT (Massive Yet Tiny) engine which will be supplied with 55 gallons of biofuel refined by Titan, with a discount offered biodiesel from Titan. The engine is also optimized to run on Titan’s biodiesel, running the generator on other fuels would void the warranty. They claim the MYT engine consumes half as much fuel as other comparable engines on the market for the same output, resulting in fuel savings for consumers. The small size of the MYT engine also means that the product is light; while a normal 40kw generator might weigh 3000lbs, this generator weighs 500lbs.

Bill to extend the duration of DOD Biofuel contracts

U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) have introduced legislation to extend the length of contracts between the Department of Defense and biofuel producers. The Domestic Fuel for Enhancing National Security Act would allow the DOD to increase contracts with biofuel producers from 5 years to 15 years for biofuel supply. As the DOD is the largest US consumer of energy (2% of the total US output), this legislation would add stability to their long term efforts to reduce its dependence on imported oil and promote renewable energy in keeping with the DOD’s renewable energy initiative.

DuPont-Danisco merger update

DuPont announced the formation of two new stand alone business units, Industrial Biosciences and Nutrition & Health. Danisco’s food ingredients division will be integrated into the Nutrition & Health unit to form a $3 billion business. Genencor will be integrated into DuPont’s Applied Bioscience unit. DuPont’s president of Nutrition & Health Craig Binetti and James Collins, DuPont’s president of Industrial Biosciences will join the boards of Danisco.

Maine to explore alternatives to Ethanol

A bill has been presented in Maine with the intention of creating a group to explore alternatives to ethanol in gasoline. Supporters of the bill claim ethanol damages engines and pushes up food prices, but critics say it is pointless due to the federal mandate for ethanol use in the state. The group which would be created by LD 839 will study the impact of ethanol on the state’s compliance with the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments and the negative impacts of ethanol.

MBD Order OriginOil Algae Extraction Tech

Australian MBD Energy placed an order for a large scale algae extraction system from OriginOil, which will be able to process 300 gallons of algae culture a minute. The system will extract CO2 from the emissions of one of MBD’s coal power stations for absorption into a one-hectare algae production facility. MBD intend this to be a trial of OriginOil’s technology, with a planned second 80 hectare facility and potential further expansion. Riggs Eckelberry, the MBD CEO, claimed that OriginOil were chosen for the simplicity and efficiency of their extraction methods, which he believes can be used to produce algae biofuel that is cost competitive with petroleum.

Boosting Photosynthesis to Boost Feedstock Production

Research finds the efficiency of photosynthesis could be improved by synthetic biology, using solar power technologies as a template, which could be valuable for boosting crop yields.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) reported in Science that lessons learned in the course of photovoltaic research could be used to make photosynthesis more efficient and in turn, increase the productivity of crops. In the paper, titled “Comparing Photosynthetic and Photovoltaic Efficiencies and Recognizing the Potential for Improvement,” researchers conclude that under optimal conditions PV is 30% more efficient than photosynthesis, as more energy is consumed in photosynthesis to synthesize biomass. They theorize that it is possible to use common principles between the two areas of inquiry to produce both more efficient photovoltaics (for higher efficiencies in energy production) and more efficient cellular machinery for photosynthesis (resulting in more energy-dense crops). This could be done by expanding the range of light that can be absorbed by plants; naturally they only absorb a narrow range of light frequencies at the blue end of the spectrum. However, with synthetic biology this could be expanded to absorb light from across the spectrum, as is often the case in advanced solar cells. Also, if the mechanism of photosynthesis was mapped to identify inefficient parts, synthetic biology could be used to optimize them. This could be done to produce plants that convert light into usable energy with efficiency comparable to the best solar cells on the market.

Michigan State University Professor of Photosynthesis and Bioenergetics, David Kramer:

“This is critical since it’s the process that powers all of life in our ecosystem. The efficiency of photosynthesis, and our ability to improve it, is critical to whether the entire biofuels industry is viable.”

“Plants are less efficient at capturing the energy in sunlight than solar cells mostly because they have too much evolutionary baggage. Plants have to power a living thing, whereas solar cells only have to send electricity down a wire. This is a big difference because if photosynthesis makes a mistake, it makes toxic byproducts that kill the organism. Photosynthesis has to be conservative to avoid killing the organisms it powers.”

Professor Kramer’s own research suggests that replacing some of the photosynthetic machinery of the plant cell with that of a certain species of cyanobacteria could widen the range of light frequencies that can be converted into usable sugars. This would be ambitious, but a more easily achievable prospect in the near-term than a ground-up redesign.

Many genetic modifications developed for increasing crop yields do so by making the crop resistant to something which decreases the yield (such as drought or pests) rather than a modification which is aimed at increasing the growth of the plant in general. GM technology often involves “stacking” traits; a crop might be pesticide resistant, herbicide resistant and drought tolerant and optimised photosynthesis mechanisms would be a useful trait to stack with other common modifications to further increase the productivity of these crops. It could also be argued that optimized photosynthesis would be a “cleaner” modification than some common modifications; for example herbicide resistant crops which result in greater herbicide use which in turn has a negative environmental impact.

Regulatory hurdles for such crops will have to be overcome for this ambitious project to bear fruit. For example, in the EU there is a requirement for products with more than 0.9% GM material to be labelled, necessitating analytical methods which are capable of quantifying the amount of GM material in a sample which recognizes this new modification.

India Could Become a Major Biofuel Supplier, Says Study.

Next generation bioethanol, produced with waste from India’s massive agricultural industry could be a major earner for the country in the future. Potentially, this could result in the creation of over a million jobs and displacement of 59% of gasoline used in the country with ethanol by 2020. In 2020, India’s 125 million tonnes of agricultural waste could be converted to  34bn liters of ethanol a year, according to a study by Bloomberg News Energy Finance. The study is titled Next-Generation Ethanol: What’s in it for India?, and was commissioned by Novozymes A/S.

Novozymes Executive Vice President, Thomas Nagy:

"By converting agricultural residues into fuel ethanol, India has the potential to reduce its dependence on imported petroleum. What’s more interesting is that this can be achieved without changing today’s agricultural land-use patterns or cultivating new energy crops. In addition, we already have the technology ready for deployment."

The study also found that a clear government mandate for next-gen ethanol use (rather than ethanol derived from food crops) as well as incentives for farmers to collect agricultural waste to be used as biofuel feedstock (rather than being left in fields or burned) would be necessary for this to be achieved, however.

The Open Fuel Standard Could Make A Healthier Ethanol Industry

The Open Fuel Standard intends to bring fuel competition to the pump, ensuring that a growing percentage of new cars are warranted to operate on a range of alternative fuels and helping the ethanol industry out of a dead-end for growth.

The bill was introduced by congressmen John Shimkus (R-IL), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD)and Steve Israel (D-NY);  requiring 50% of new cars to be warranted for alternative fuels such as flex-fuel, biodiesel, hydrogen, bioethanol and a range of others by 2014. This would increase to 80% by 2016 and 95% by 2017. They claim the bill would allow consumers to choose; either for cost or for fuels from a particular source. They also claim that the bill would reduce dependence on foreign oil and would be a step towards sustainable fuel use. The idea is that this Act would provide certainty to investors that backing alternative fuels would be a growing investment and would also encourage fueling stations to supply a range of alternative fuels. Importantly; the bill is technology neutral, not specifically backing any one fuel type and if it passes, the bill will provide a better environment for alternative fuel growth and proliferation.

In 2008, GM, Ford and Chrysler stated that they were willing to make 50% of their new vehicles flex-fuel by 2012, which they estimate can be done at a cost of $100 per vehicle; not a great deal in the grand scheme of new car prices. This modification would allow the same vehicle to use a range of alcohol fuel blends in addition to gasoline so that consumers could respond to variation in fuel prices; effectively allowing an open market to select the most effective fuels. As it stands, alcohol fuels have the best position given the relatively large amount of infrastructure in place, investment and current research on the technology.

The Methanol Institute has declared its support for the Open Fuel Standard Act.

Methanol Institute Executive Director, Gregory Dolan:

"The Open Fuel Standard Act is all about choice. By ensuring that new cars can operate on something other than gasoline, Americans can reap the benefits of multiple alternative fuels. Methanol in particular is poised to play significant role in reducing our dependence on gasoline, as the most affordable, easily deployed, sustainable fuel available that would retail at the pump today for just $3.19 per gasoline equivalent gallon."

Methanol fuel is one of the alternative fuels that could benefit from the OFS; it can be produced from natural gas or from biomass and can be produced relatively cheaply, though most engines are not designed to use it in high percentage blends and can be damaged by its use over time. With the increase in vehicles that can use alternative fuels, the methanol fuel market would be well placed to expand as it can be at pumps for $3.19 a gallon; less than current US gas prices. As gas prices continue to increase and alternative fuel producers strive to drive costs down, we might well see greater competition at the pumps and cheaper fuel.

The bill addresses a problem that has been ongoing in biofuels; it provides a longer term solution to the ethanol blending wall than simply increasing the blending limit.The bill is not specific to fuel type, however in practice the fuels it will most likely benefit are alcohol based fuels by increasing their consumer base over the next few years and making room for growth. Growth in the ethanol fuel market at present is limited by blending restrictions; even with legislation to increase the limit from E10 to E15 in normal cars, this is only a short term fix. US ethanol production will catch up with this limit within a few years, a limit which is already being criticized for the damage E15 might do to normal gasoline engines. With more vehicles on the road which are warranted for using high percentage alcohol fuels such as E85, this would give the US ethanol industry more headroom to grow, more healthy competition and more incentive to implement more advanced production technologies to make a larger impact on future ethanol markets.

EZBiodiesel distribute homemade biodiesel processors

EZBiodiesel sell DIY biodiesel kits which they claim can be used to produce biodiesel for $1 a gallon and also offer an advisory service for how to get the most from these systems, which are manufactured by Summit Enterprises. Prices start at around $2500 for a basic, ready to run unit. Many small businesses have invested in one of these DIY biodiesel systems, as have a number of schools as tools for teaching about green energy. They can be used to produce biodiesel from oils, the availability of which is the limiting factor for anyone thinking of making biodiesel in their garage. Waste cooking oil is a common option, lending the processors well to use by restaurants and the like as a way to turn waste into value.  

Welcome to Dispatches from the Bio-Based Economy!

Greetings and welcome to Dispatches from the Bio-Based Economy! I’m Yale Deskins, an event designer at Infocast, and I’ll be covering the key deals, trends, and technologies of the rapidly growing industrial biotechnology sector.

Perhaps better than most, as a business event designer I’m keenly aware that truly valuable insight on the promise and perils of any industry is a hard-won commodity. This is especially true of the bio-based economy, the continued expansion of which will touch nearly every aspect of modern daily life, and the bottom lines of the companies (big and small) that supply the products that enable it.

Infocast has established itself as a leading source for industrial (or "white") bio-tech business intelligence, successfully organizing summits and meetings on biomass, bio-fuels, and bio-chemicals for many years. By leveraging our experience and strong network of bio-tech players, I’ll be able to feature round-ups of interesting happenings, trend analysis, and interviews with the business leaders and tech innovators that are shaping the future of bio tech. What I’m most interested in however is the discussions that readers will generate. Who knows? It is very possible the brief comment you leave today will become the business opportunity of tomorrow.