The jobless recovery, biofuels, eency-weency balance sheets, and you

http://biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2011/06/30/the-jobless-recovery-biofuels-eency-weency-balance-sheets-and-you/

By Jim Lane

June 30, 2011

In Washington, President Obama launched the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership – ho-hum, you say, and I think I hear you yawning.

But get a cup of coffee, and read on. This item is important.

Why is the President focused on innovation and competitiveness? It means jobs, but of a special kind. High technology workers on average earn 50 to 100% more than the average of workers in all other fields, according to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

But more than than – he’s addressing the “jobless recovery” that has been experienced in the US in the aftermath of the 2007-09 global financial crisis. Leaders are worried about it. There are only so many McDonald’s and Wal-Mart jobs that the community can add, if the value-add manufacturing base is not in place. “Invent here, make elsewhere” is a failed industrial policy, according to a PCAST report, “Ensuring Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing,” released this week, and downloadable here.

But what about you? If you are building, thinking of building, or helping someone to build – one of those 600 new, advanced biofuels facilities that will be required to meet the 2022 Renewable Fuel Standard – this means spurring investment in…you.

Government can’t get anything done, I hear you say. Well, they sure as shootin’ aren’t going to get this done alone. You have some shoveling to do, too. Let’s look at that.

Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Biofuels and You

If there another industry proposing to build 600 high-tech manufacturing sites in the US over the next 11 years, we’d sure like to know about it. And no one is trying to build more capacity off eency-weency balance sheets than the US biorefinery industry.

So, you have more at stake, and more to gain, from this initiative, than any other single US industry.

So, let’s get behind it.

The Victory Plant

Our goal: to launch a collaborative industry dialogue, and a Biofuels Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, that will set companion goals for advanced manufacturing in biofuels in April 2012, at the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference, to dramatically reduce the investment, timelines, and risk for building advanced bioenergy projects – both in the US and around the globe.

The biofuels industry should set a goal of cutting in half, by 2022, the time necessary to plan, finance, build, and commission an advanced bioenergy plant, from 36 months to 18 months.

Let’s call it The Victory Plant. Low-cost, low-risk, high-speed manufacturing will spur stakeholders to meet the Renewable Fuel Standard targets, and reduce the capital and operational cost of these projects.

That’s victory over a jobless recovery, victory over energy dependence, victory over carbon, and victory over a failed dialogue on food-vs-fuel that can be resolved by advanced biofuels.

We can’t disagree our way out of these problems. Or complain, scold, shame, or squat our way out.

But we can hire and manufacture our way forward. Let’s do that.

In the Second World War, 20 million victory gardens were planted, according to the USDA. By 1945, half of the US fruit and vegetables harvest (as much as 10 million tons) came from home and community plots was estimated to be 9-10 million tons. In the early 1941, the average Liberty Ship was built in 230 days. By 1943, the average dropped to 42 days, and three ships were completed each day.

The Digest will add speakers, content, and collaborative discussion on Advanced Manufacturing Leadership and Innovation at the Advanced Biofuels Markets conference (we will be announcing complete details on the full program next week), and companion talks at the Biofuels Canada conference October 3-4 in Calgary.

I’ll be delighted to hear from you (contact me here) – industry leaders at the verge of scale-up, government, or academia — if you would like to take a leading role in shaping this effort.

More on AMP

The AMP will provide the platform for similar breakthroughs in the next decade, by building a roadmap for advanced manufacturing technologies, speeding ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor, scaling-up first-of-a-kind technologies, and developing the infrastructure and shared facilities to allow small and mid-sized manufacturers to innovate and compete.

The initiative is based on a report titled “Ensuring Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing” from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which you can download here.

Of the 36 stakeholders that lent time to the report’s development, you see six investors in advanced bio-based projects: Proctor & Gamble, Boeing, Lockheed, DARPA, Synthetic Genomics, and Blue Marble Energy.

Some AMP highlights

The Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Energy, Agriculture, Commerce and other agencies will coordinate a government-wide effort to leverage their existing funds and future budgets, with an initial goal of $300 million, to co-invest with industry in innovative technologies that will jumpstart domestic manufacturing capability. Initial investments include small high-powered batteries, advanced composites, metal fabrication, bio-manufacturing, and alternative energy, among others.

A Materials Genome Initiative, would invest more than $100M in research, training and infrastructure to deploy advanced materials at twice the speed than is possible today, at a fraction of the cost.

Plus:

DARPA will explore new approaches that have potential to dramatically reduce – by up to a factor of 5 – the time required to design, build, and test manufactured goods while enabling entrepreneurs to meet Defense Department needs.

MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Berkeley, and Michigan will form a multi-university effort to share best practices relating to advanced manufacturing and its linkage to innovation. The universities, industry and government agencies will define research opportunities and identify key technology priorities.

Commerce Department will develop an advanced manufacturing technology consortium, starting with $12 million in FY12, to identify public private partnerships to tackle common technological barriers to the development of new products.

The PCAST report that spurred all of this

PCAST called for:

Incentives for clean energy manufacturing innovation and investment, including the expansion  of the Clean Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit from $2.3 billion to $5 billion, with the goal of incentivizing $11.7 billion in private sector investment in clean energy manufacturing projects, firms, and jobs. The current tax credit program has been oversubscribed, and has had proven successful in leveraging private sector investment and creating jobs.

Creation of a public private partnership program to support platform technologies that will support innovation in manufacturing. The budget calls for $12 million in 2012 to fund these partnerships via the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia (AMTech) program, and for $75 million to be dedicated to PPPs via the Technology Innovation Program (TIP), in particular for technologies that could improve manufacturing processes.

Allocation to NIST laboratories of $760 million to support development of measurements and technological advances in areas including nano manufacturing, network security, and bio manufacturing, with increases of $120 million directly for advanced manufacturing.

Allocation to DOE of $500 million to support energy related advanced manufacturing technologies, such as flexible electronics and ultra light, ultra durable automotive materials.

New E15 label gets like, not love, from ethanol industry

http://biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2011/06/29/new-e15-label-gets-like-not-love-from-ethanol-industry/

By Jim Lane

June 29, 2011

In Washington, the EPAissued fuel pump labeling and other requirements for gasoline blends containing more than 10 and up to 15 percent ethanol, known as E15.  These requirements will help ensure that E15 is properly labeled and used once it enters the market.   
The new orange and black label must appear on fuel pumps that dispense E15. This label will help inform consumers about which vehicles can use E15.

This label will also warn consumers against using E15 in vehicles older than model year 2001, motorcycles, watercraft, and gasoline-powered equipment such as lawnmowers and chainsaws.

Over the past year, EPA issued two partial waivers under the Clean Air Act that in sum allow E15 to be sold for use in model year 2001 and newer cars and light trucks.  EPA based its waiver decisions on testing and analysis showing that these vehicles could continue to meet emission standards if operated on E15.

Industry reaction:

Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of the American Coalition for Ethanol

“EPA’s final label is more informative than their initial label which seemed inflammatory.  We remain concerned EPA feels it must say E15 may damage some motor vehicles without the evidence to prove that, however.  ACE will continue working aggressively to make E15 workable, “Jennings said.

Ron Lamberty, the Vice President of Market Development for the American Coalition for Ethanol:

“This is an improvement over the proposed label, and we appreciate the fact that some of the changes recommended by our industry were adopted. It is unfortunate that the “may cause damage” language was used in the absence of any proof that it might.  We’ve been concerned that the strategy of E15’s opponents to provide anecdotal “spook stories” instead of science, might be successful, and we will need to overcome this to make E15 workable.”

Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis

“We appreciate EPA finally releasing this rule in response to Growth Energy’s E15 petition. This is another step in the process to get E15 into the marketplace later this year, which will create U.S. jobs, improve the environment and strengthen national security by displacing foreign oil.”

EPA Cuts Cellulosic Ethanol Requirement in Fuel for 2012

http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-national.php?Id=1366&yr=2011

June 28, 2011

An energy law passed in 2007 mandated that the U.S. was to use 500 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol in fuel by 2012. But the Environmental Protection Agency says the fuel hasn't been made in significant enough quantities to meet that goal and the EPA is now proposing a cut back on the goal. 

Cellulosic ethanol comes from non-food crops and the EPA had expected the use of this sort of ethanol produced from plants like switchgrass, waste products, and woody pulp to increase significantly. The problem is that the mass production of cellulosic ethanol hasn't happened the way the EPA envisioned. 

The EPA wants to cut the goal back to no more than 12.9 million gallons of the cellulosic ethanol in fuel next year and based on market availability of the fuel that number could be far less. The Detroit News reports that this is the third year in a row that estimates for cellulosic ethanol use have been slashed. Previously the target for 2012 and 2011 for cellulosic ethanol use were 100 million gallons each year, which was cut to 6.5 million gallons for each year.

To reach the future goals for cellulosic ethanol production, the government is looking to help companies break ground on new refineries to produce cellulosic ethanol. 

The U.S. Senate recently voted to repeal the subsidy on ethanol of $0.45 cents per gallon.

South Carolina, Australian partners to develop algae-biodiesel

http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/articles/7879/south-carolina-australian-partners-to-develop-algae-biodiesel

By Luke Geiver

June 28, 2011

In South Carolina and Queensland, Australia, researchers are hoping to push the boundaries of biofuels research. Through a memorandum of understanding, South Carolina-based Clemson University has partnered with the University of Queensland to further develop biofuels research, technology transfer, training and the eventual commercialization process for the research. The partnership happened in part, because of Peter D. Beattie, a special advisor for economic policy and development for Clemson. Beattie was formerly the premier of the state of Queensland. In a statement on the partnership, Beattie said that “this partnership…puts both universities at the forefront of future energy research.”

The scope of the research will range from cellulosic ethanol optimization to algae-based biodiesel production. The first area of research the universities will work on will be with switchgrass and sweet sorghum. Through the partnership, “Clemson will provide comprehensive access to information developed for conversion of sugar cane bagasse to ethanol.” The second area of research will involve the development of a pilot-scale sugar cane-to-ethanol process in Queensland. And, the last area of research will include work in cellulosic monomer conversion to biodiesel technology. Through the partnership, the two universities will work on a process to convert algae into biodiesel used for military, mining, industrial and personal transportation, according to the statement.

Clemson has already established a bench-scale process to convert switchgrass and sweet sorghum to ethanol, and has also looked into coastal loblolly pine. The bench-scale work was done in conjunction with Savannah River National Laboratory.

In addition to development of processes potentially used for biofuels production, Clemson’s vice president for economic development pointed out another positive aspect of the partnership. The two universities “understand the importance of collaboration, both within an academic setting and in a corporate environment,” John Kelly, vice president for economic development said. “This exchange of information and ideas, coupled with a joint approach to external funding opportunities will be of enormous benefit to both states.” Kelly added that from an economic development standpoint, the partnership will bring rich rewards.

In addition to the research efforts, both schools will seek out funding from private and federal sources to help build the pilot-plants. “The development of clean fuels for the future is one of the most urgent challenges facing society due to the need to address climate change and secure fuel supplies,” said Paul Greenfield, vice chancellor of the University of Queensland.

Feinstein: Senators close to ethanol deal

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/168811-feinstein-says-ethanol-deal-with-klobuchar-thune-in-place

By Ben Geman

June 28, 2011

A trio of senators is nearing agreement on a plan to end a major ethanol tax credit and import tariff while extending incentives for next-wave biofuels.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that she had reached an agreement with Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and John Thune (R-S.D.), although the lawmakers say there is not yet a final deal.

“There are discussions, and Sens. Klobuchar, Thune and I have come to an agreement,” Feinstein told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday, although shortly after she noted “I think there will be agreement to this, and then we will then proceed to announce what it is.”

Feinstein said she would like the agreement, which she said would help reduce the deficit, to be part of legislation to raise the debt ceiling, citing the absence of a tax bill to serve as an obvious vehicle.

According to Feinstein — who along with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has led the charge to kill ethanol subsidies — the planned deal would quickly end the ethanol blenders’ credit, which is worth an estimated $6 billion annually, and the tariff.

“The [volumetric ethanol excise tax credit] is gone, the tariffs are gone, as of July 1,” she said, while noting the deal would extend incentives including credits for producing next-wave cellulosic ethanol.

Klobuchar cautioned that a final agreement is not in place. “We are still in the proposed-agreement stage,” she said, noting that negotiations continue. 

An aide to Thune also said that discussions continue. “All sides continue to talk but nothing has been finalized,” said Kyle Downey, Thune’s communications director.

The Minnesota and South Dakota senators oppose plans to simply kill ethanol subsidies without including other industry assistance, and have been negotiating with Feinstein to reach a compromise.

Klobuchar said she is meeting with Thune and Feinstein later Tuesday to review a proposed agreement. She confirmed there would be “longer-term cellulosic tax credits” but said she didn't have an exact date. 

Klobuchar said the money saved by killing the blender’s credit midyear — currently slated to expire at year’s end — would help pay for deficit reduction, funding for cellulosic ethanol credits and ethanol infrastructure at service stations.

“This is a way to use the existing $2.4 billion that is still out there for the rest of the year, to use a big chunk of it for the debt and then the remaining money for the cellulosic tax credit and the blender pumps,” she told reporters.

The potential agreement between the lawmakers comes roughly two weeks after the Senate voted 73-27 for a Feinstein-Coburn proposal to kill the blenders’ credit and import tariff. 

Thune and Klobuchar, who are allies of ethanol producers, opposed that plan and instead floated an alternative that would kill the ethanol credit but maintain a smaller and “variable” blender’s credit for three years when oil prices are below certain levels.



The proposal they circulated this month would steer some savings from ending the credit to deficit reduction while also extending credits for cellulosic ethanol production and small ethanol producers and installing alternative fuel pumps.

Feinstein said the deal with Thune and Klobuchar would be spelled out in a letter that the three are preparing to send to President Obama, Vice President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Feinstein acknowledged Tuesday that her amendment, despite the overwhelming June 16 vote, didn’t have a clear path to become law because it was attached to a wider economic development bill that was subsequently derailed.

“We won a tremendous victory in eliminating the subsidies,” Feinstein said. “But it is on a bill that was taken down and therefore isn’t going to go anywhere.”

While the blenders’ credit is slated to expire at the end of the year, Feinstein — noting that she’s looking toward the debt ceiling — stressed the importance of finding a vehicle for eliminating it well before that to realize savings.

Feinstein said Coburn isn’t signing onto the new agreement but did not provide details as to why. She said she spoke with Coburn Tuesday morning and that he indicated that “he couldn’t support it.”

Fueling its future | Biobutanol holds promise for the next phase of Old Town Fuel & Fiber

http://www.mainebiz.biz/news48120.html

By Carol Coultas

June 27, 2011

Four years ago, Dan Bird and Dick Arnold stood in an office within a 125-year-old paper mill and looked out the window to an empty plant. The room, once the controller’s office of previous occupant Georgia Pacific, was laid bare: no phones, no computers, no remnants at all of the Atlanta-based paper giant that vacated the Old Town mill to seek higher profits and lower energy costs in warmer climes.

The previous day, Bird and Arnold had attended a press conference with then Gov. John Baldacci, who announced new owners and new investment for the mill that at one time provided 400 jobs in this part of eastern Maine. It was up to the pair — both veterans of a changing paper industry — to bring the mill back to life.

“OK, I guess we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Bird recalls Arnold saying.

And so they have. Today the plant, now Old Town Fuel & Fiber, produces 600 tons of kraft pulp a day to feed a growing global demand. More importantly, the pulp process provides feedstock for a new sustainable fuel derived from wood: biobutanol, a renewable energy substitute for gasoline. The mill, which creates its own power, employs 205, and next month will begin building a biorefinery to make biobutanol for commercial consumption on a site that once housed tissue-making machines. The transformation from a typical paper mill to a value-added, sustainable and diversified manufacturer reflects the business philosophy of the company’s new private equity owner, Lynn Tilton of Patriarch Partners, and holds potential to drive the local economy once again.

“It’s a new chapter for us,” says Bird, who oversees Old Town Fuel & Fiber’s human resources and IT departments. “It was pretty bleak there for a while.”

Market forces

The bleak times started in 2006 when the market for pulp began to change at the same time paper-making operations were moving off shore. At the time, GP was producing about 600 tons a day of pulp, 200 of which fed its own machines to make napkins, toilet paper and paper towels under brand names such as Vanity Fair and Brawny. The other 400 tons were baled and sold as dry pulp. But rising energy costs prompted the company to consider warmer locations where balmy river water didn’t need as much energy or time as the frigid Penobscot’s to reach temperatures hot enough to generate steam to turn turbines and power the plant.

“There was a huge cost differential,” says Bird, between the Maine mill and its southern competition.

GP shuttered the plant, intending to raze it until Baldacci stepped in with a group of investors, pledging to use the mill as a learning laboratory to make cellulosic ethanol, another wood-based biofuel that had been pioneered at the University of Maine. Operating as Red Shield Environmental, the mill restarted the pulping operation in the spring of 2007, then closed in November to reconfigure two digesters to work sequentially, rather than independently — a key component in the pulping process that creates the organic byproduct used in cellulosic ethanol and biobutanol.

But what worked in the lab didn’t quite work in the real world, says Bird. Glitches in the technology created delays. The band of investors, who bought the mill for $1 and lined up millions in financing, needed the revenue from making pulp to sustain it while the kinks were worked out of the cellulosic ethanol process. Facing new competition from overseas and a glut of paper, the domestic pulp market began a slide that didn’t turn around until 2010.

In spring of 2008, Red Shield applied for a $30 million Department of Energy grant to work on cellulosic ethanol — a gasoline additive, not a substitute like butanol — and was approved. But it was too late. In May, the mill shut down for scheduled maintenance, which cost the investors several million dollars, while the pulp market continued to plummet. The following month, nearly everyone was laid off and Red Shield filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

“They just didn’t have the financial wherewithal to ride it out,” says Bird, who worked with Red Shield as its human resources director.

Financial wherewithal isn’t something Lynn Tilton worries much about. Fierce in her business dealings and flashy in her appearance, Tilton is on a crusade to bring back American manufacturing. Her New York private equity firm, Patriarch Partners, controls companies with a combined 12,000 employees and sales of $8 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Forbes is so intrigued by her, it’s begun a series to discover if she’s the country’s richest, self-made billionaire.

Her modus operandi is to scoop up distressed properties and turn them around, with a portfolio so extensive, she “basically lives on her jet” visiting her companies, says Bird. And that was part of the hook that attracted Tilton to easten Maine. The R&D under way at the University of Maine had the potential to lead to affordable jet fuel, a prospect Tilton was willing to wager on when she bought the mill at auction for almost $19 million.

But it was the mill’s energy self-reliance that first attracted her to Old Town, she says. “I really believe in putting idled assets and idled people back to work with innovative manufacturing,” she says. “Obviously you can’t do the same thing as before, but I’m not a believer of throwing out old industries and the people who worked in them. I’m drawn to those industries.

”What I liked a lot about Old Town was the work to become a greener facility,” she says. “With the biomass boiler, it’s a net generator of power, not a net user.”

A lesser draw was the potential to make biofuels, but Tilton sees the mill’s investment in that arena as part of a strategy to diversify revenue and maintain consistent cash flow for long-term success. Although the cellulosic ethanol didn’t work for Red Shield, it led to a new process, also developed by the University of Maine’s Forest Bioproducts Research Institute, to make biobutanol. Butanol is an industrial solvent, but when certain enzymes are added to a pulp byproduct and fermented, it becomes biobutanol, a gasoline substitute extracted from renewable organics.

According to Professor Hans Blaschek, head of the Center for Advanced Biorefinery Research at the University of Illinois, biobutanol produces less carbon dioxide, contains more energy density — a measure of how much energy it produces by volume — and fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional gasoline, and can be blended with gas or used alone in combustion engines. It also can be transported via existing gas pipelines, an advantage over ethanol.

Blaschek says a company he helped found, Chicago-based TetraVitae Bioscience, is one of a handful gearing up to commercially produce biobutanol.

“There are five or six companies in a dead heat to produce this on a commercial scale,” he says. “The market is huge.”

Bird says Old Town expects to produce biobutanol for commercial use within two years. Although he, too, sees a huge market (some experts put the number at $5 billion), the mill is too small to produce vast quantities of the biofuel. Instead, the greater value will come from refining the extract process in a proprietary technology that will belong to Patriarch Partners.

“We could potentially realize more value in licensing our intellectual property than the biorefinery and the pulp developments,” he says.

Under construction

In a far off corner of the mill where tissue machines once hummed, gleaming new equipment has been erected to bring the production of biobutanol that much closer to reality. Construction on the next phase of that $60 million project starts this summer, says Bird. He credits Tilton with convincing DOE to let her keep its $30 million grant and apply it to biobutanol research rather than cellulosic ethanol, and lining up matching funds.

“People here love her,” says Bird as he pauses to look at an array of photos taken during Tilton’s visit to the mill last July. Clad in black with waist-length blond hair cascading from under a hard hat, she acquiesced to safety standards by replacing her high-heel boots with hot-pink high-tops, helpfully provided by her makeup assistant, who accompanies Tilton everywhere.

A graduate of Yale and Columbia universities, Tilton is decisive about her companies. Bird says as long as Old Town Fuel & Fiber is operating in the black, it has her support. “She says she only flips and strips her men, not her mills,” quips Bird.

And she’s open to additional diversification of revenue for the old mill, including future potential as a data center site, offering data protection and storage separate from the physical locations of computers.

“There’s several companies that would like to take advantage of our behind-the-gate power, especially our power for cooling,” says Bird, noting it’s possible the mill would consider leasing space for a data center and selling its excess power directly to that tenant, rather than the grid. “There are ways this could make sense for us,” he says. “It’s all in keeping with diversifying the operation and the revenue stream.”

Qteros and UMass Amherst Bolster Patent Portfolio for Ethanol-Producing Microbe With Issued and Allowed Patents in the United States and Japan

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/qteros-and-umass-amherst-bolster-patent-portfolio-for-ethanol-producing-microbe-with-issued-and-allowed-patents-in-the-united-states-and-japan-124586773.html

June 27, 2011

MARLBOROUGH, Mass., June 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Qteros, Inc., the developer of a unique and highly efficient Consolidated Bioprocessing (CBP) platform for the lowest-cost production of cellulosic ethanol, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, today announced two significant intellectual property (IP) advances that extend the patent estate for their unique ethanol-producing microorganism, Clostridium phytofermentans, also known as the Q Microbe®.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued US Patent 7,943,363 B2 covering genetic constructs of Clostridium phytofermentans. This patent is significant as it provides intellectual property protection for genomic development and the use of gene combinations in Clostridium phytofermentans and other microorganisms to enhance an organism's innate ability to hydrolyze biomass and improve the efficiency and yield of ethanol produced by an organism.

In a second but related advance, the Japanese Patent and Trademark Office allowed a patent titled, "Systems and Methods for Producing Biofuels and Related Materials."  The patent describes the novel creation of products through the fermentation of biomass by Clostridium phytofermentans. Patent allowance in Japan represents significant progress towards the broad, global protection of Clostridium phytofermentans bioprocessing outside of the United States. A patent has already been issued for this technology in the U.S.

Both patents are based on the discovery of Clostridium phytofermentans by microbiologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Qteros is the exclusive licensee of the patent.

John A. McCarthy, Jr., Qteros' President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Each of these key patent achievements expands and further bolsters Qteros' already strong IP portfolio and represents the latest successes in our proactive and aggressive intellectual property strategy. Combined with the broad protection enabled by Qteros' current patent estate, these patents reinforce the uniqueness and the potential of our biological platform and enable Qteros to achieve an important milestone as we and our partners rapidly progress towards commercialization of our platform to produce lowest cost cellulosic ethanol at commercial scale."

Qteros' CBP Platform: Enabling Lowest Cost Production of Cellulosic Ethanol

The uniqueness of Qteros' CBP platform is centered on the Company's proprietary microorganism, the Q Microbe® (Clostridium phytofermentans) - a naturally occurring "biorefinery" that produces virtually all enzymes required for biomass degradation into pentose and hexose sugars, while simultaneously co-fermenting all these sugars into ethanol as its natural metabolic end product. The organism's innate biological ability to produce ethanol from biomass enables Qteros to focus its development efforts on optimizing the organism's effectiveness for industrial-scale production. This highly streamlined engineering solution therefore results in significantly lower operating and capital costs of production for producers versus other competitive technology solutions. Moreover, the Q Microbe® is feedstock flexible, producing high yields of cellulosic ethanol from a broad range of non-food biomass materials, including, among others, sugarcane bagasse, corn stover and cobs, and a broad variety of energy crops.

About Qteros, Inc.

Qteros' mission is to accelerate the global commercialization of large-scale, lowest-cost cellulosic ethanol production. Qteros has teamed with a core group of world-class strategic partners that complement and leverage our advanced microbiology and process engineering expertise. Working closely with its strategic partners, Qteros expects to rapidly scale its highly efficient, lowest-cost Consolidated Bioprocessing (CBP) platform for converting non-food biomass into biofuels. Qteros is funded by leading investors in the alternative energy industry including, among others, Venrock Associates, Battery Ventures, BP AE Ventures, Soros Fund Management LLC, and Valero Energy Corporation. For more information, please visit www.qteros.com.

About The University of Massachusetts

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is one of the nation's pre-eminent public research universities. More than 24,000 students from all 50 states and over 70 countries attend the university. Home to New England's premier honors college, UMass Amherst has more than 85 undergraduate majors, 68 master's and 48 doctoral degree programs– many the top programs in the nation and world. The faculty, dedicated teachers and world-renowned, recently received a record breaking $170 million in sponsored research. The student body is the most academically competitive in its history, and participates in over 240 co-curricular organizations. A recent facilities renaissance includes new buildings in the sciences, the arts, and recreation.

Renewable energy in Gainesville - More than just an idea

http://www.examiner.com/renewable-energy-in-gainesville/renewable-energy-gainesville-more-than-just-an-idea

By Jamie Cohen

June 27, 2011

In February of 2010, Gainesville Renewable Energy Center, LLC was issued final permit approval from the FDEP to go ahead with plans for a 100 megawatt biomass power plant.  The facility will be owned and operated by Amercian Renewables, with Gainesville Regional Utility (GRU) purchasing 100% of the energy produced, contracted between the two for thirty years.

Located in GRU's Deerhaven Generating System Property, it is expected to meet some of Gainesville's energy needs for the next three decades.  American Renewables is responsible for building the plant, with the project  expecting to take three years to completion.   Clean woody biomass will fuel the plant which is stated to be cost effective, reliable energy that is also carbon neutral.  The woody biomass will come from urban wood waste and left over wood generated from paper pulp and chip and saw timber.  With proposed legislation concerning clean air and energy restrictions, this plant is another way for energy needs to be met in a carbon neutral manner, promoting responsible forestry and giving cleaner air to the north central area.

On the job front, expectations are to add 700 permanent jobs to north central Florida.  And concerning price increases to the customer, bills should not show a small increase until late 2013, for fuel adjustment fees.  For more information on this plant and on woody biomass, go to:https://www.gru.com/AboutGRU/NewsReleases/Archives/Articles/news-2010-05-27.jsp

US EPA Keeps 2012 Renewable Fuel Standards on Track

http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/policy/i/4211/

June 27, 2011


The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week announced the 2012 renewable fuel standards that will keep the US on track to reaching 36 billion gallons in 2022.

Annual renewable fuel volume targets were established under the auspices of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. To meet the volumes, the EPA calculates a percentage-based standard each year that defines the minimum volume of renewable fuel which must be used in transportation fuel.

Next year, those targets will be total renewable biofuels of 15.2 billion gallons (9.21%), 2 gallons of advanced biofuels (1.21%), 1 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel (0.91%) and 3.45-12.9 million gallons of cellulosic biofuels (0.002-0.01%).

But the cellulosic volume for 2012 is, in fact, lower than the target set out in the Energy Independence and Security Act because availability is such as issue. The Agency says, however, that it expects commercial availability to increase in coming years.

Meanwhile, the 2012 volume for biomass-based biofuel is somewhat higher than laid out in the Act.

The EPA’s proposed volumes and standards are now open for comments until August 11, after which they will be finalised.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has welcomed the EPA’s 2012 fuel standards and particularly the agency’s “painstaking assessment” of cellulosic biofuels.

“Advanced biofuel technology is ready for commercial deployment, but access to capital remains a challenge for the industry… The Renewable Fuel Standard provides the stable, market-based policy mechanism that advanced biofuel producers and investors have been looking for,” says Brent Erickson of BIO.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has identified four areas covering 19,000 acres in Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania where the cultivation of giant Miscanthus, a grass that can be converted into biofuel, will be encouraged.

The Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) will provide financial incentives for producers establishing energy crops.

First shipload of wood pellets arrived in the Netherlands

http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/522380/rwe-innogy/renewable-energies/biomass/power-from-biomass/waycross-georgia/

26 June 2011 – First shipload of wood pellets arrived in the Netherlands

At the end of June, after 14 days at sea, the first shipload of wood pellets from Georgia, USA, arrived at the port of Dordrecht in the Netherlands. The transport ship had 23,000 tonnes of the climate-friendly fuel on board.

The wood pellets continued by barge to RWE Essent’s Amercentrale coal-fired power station, where they are being used to generate electricity and heat.

One of the world’s largest pellet factories
In order to achieve the targets for cutting carbon emissions in Germany and in Europe as whole, the use of biomass for power generation is essential. The increasing demand for resources in this fast growing sector cannot, however, be satisfied by the European wood market alone.

That's why we are operating one of the world's largest green wood pellet plants in the south of the US Federal State of Georgia. The total investment volume amounts to approx. €120 million and is a strategically important step towards securing our fuel base.

Each year, the Waycross pellet plant will produce some 750,000 tons of wood pellets for use in Europe, shipped from the port of Savannah. These pellets will be used primarily at the existing coal-fired power stations of RWE. Replacing hard coal with biomass will allow us to achieve consider-able cuts in carbon emissions.

The production of pellets requires approx. 1.5 million tons of green wood each year. Unlike Europe, the USA has substantial unused wood resources. This is particularly true in Georgia, where the rate of timber growth far outstrips consumption. Over the past years, the withdrawal of the pulp and paper industry has freed up even more capacity.

Coskata taps Fagen to engineer landmark advanced biofuels project in Alabama

http://biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2011/06/26/coskata-taps-fagen-to-engineer-landmark-advanced-biofuels-project-in-alabama/

By Jim Lane

June 26, 2011

In Illinois, Coskata announced today that it has issued a Letter of Intent with Fagen for engineering, procurement and construction services for the construction of its commercial cellulosic ethanol facility in Boligee, Alabama, that will be designed around the Coskata technology. Fagen and Harris Group will lead an EPC process that will include in its scope the project detailed design, procurement, construction and commissioning.

Coskata received a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee from the United States Department of Agriculture, and is working on the details that will be necessary to close the financing for the project.  The facility will convert sustainably harvested wood biomass into ethanol, a high-octane renewable fuel, and is expected to bring approximately 300 construction jobs and 700 direct and indirect jobs to Greene County, Alabama.

EPA reduces target for cellulosic ethanol

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110626/BUSINESS/106260327/Green-Fields-Vilsack-uses-Paris-trip-to-promote-biofuels

Written by Dan Piller
June 25, 2011

In a move that surprised no one, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday cut the proposed target for cellulosic (read: noncorn) ethanol from the original 500 million gallons to 15.7 million gallons.
For this year, the EPA had slashed the original 250 million-gallon target to 6 million gallons.

The reason is the same: Efforts to make ethanol out of grass, corn residue, algae or other noncorn feedstocks are coming along much more slowly than anticipated. The U.S. this year will use an amount of ethanol just short of 14 billion gallons, of the 130 billion gallons of motor gasoline consumed.

"Biofuel producers face not only the challenge of the scale-up of innovative, first-of-a-kind technology, but also the challenge of securing funding in a difficult economy," the EPA stated.

Iowa has two cellulosic ethanol plants in the planning stage, by Poet in Emmetsburg and DuPont-Danisco in either Nevada or Fort Dodge. DuPont-Danisco, which received a $9 million grant from the Iowa Power Fund, has said it will go ahead with financing on its own but Poet is awaiting federal grants to add to the $20 million in state money it already has received.

Forest Service Awards Nearly $3 Million for Woody Biomass

http://www.kentuckyagconnection.com/story-state.php?Id=522&yr=2011

June 23, 2011

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Wednesday announced the award of nearly $3 million in grants to 17 small businesses and community groups to develop wood-to-energy projects that require engineering services and will help expand regional economies and create new jobs.

"Biomass is a vital part of America's clean energy future as we work to decrease our dependence on foreign oil," said Vilsack. "Projects like these will help grow regional economies, create new jobs, and improve and protect our environment. We will need architects and engineers to design these plants, skilled laborers to build them and well-trained technicians to operate them."

These projects will use woody material removed from forests during projects such as wildfire prevention, and that woody biomass will be processed in bioenergy facilities to produce green energy for heating and electricity. The awardees will use funds from the Woody Biomass Utilization Grant program to further the planning of such facilities by funding the engineering services necessary for final design, permitting and cost analysis.

Examples of possible projects include the engineering design of a woody biomass boiler for steam at a sawmill, a non-pressurized hot water system for a hospital or school, and a biomass-power generation facility. The grant program helps applicants complete the necessary design work needed to secure public or private investment for construction.

The Forest Service Woody Biomass Utilization grant program has been in effect since 2005 and has provided more than $33 million toward various projects, ranging from biomass boilers for schools and prisons, to helping businesses acquire equipment that improves processing efficiencies. During this time period, 140 grants have been awarded to small businesses, non-profits, tribes and local state agencies to improve forest health, while creating jobs, green energy and healthy communities.

The Forest Service selected 17 small businesses and community groups as grant recipients for these awards. According to the requirements, all 17 recipients provided at least 20 percent of the total project cost. Non-federal matching funds total nearly $8 million.

The Forest Service's State and Private Forestry, Technology Marketing Unit, at the agency's Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wis. administers the grant program. The recipients were chosen from 34 applications.

EcoPower Generation, LLC, in Lexington, Ky., was awarded $250,000.

Explosion damages Waycross plant; no injuries reported

http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2011-06-21/story/explosion-damages-waycross-plant-no-injuries-reported

 Posted: June 21, 2011 - 12:00am

By Teresa Stepzinski 

 

jacksonville.com Copyright 2011 The Florida Times-Union. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

June 21, 2011 - 12:00am

Explosion damages Waycross plant; no injuries reported

An explosion damaged the Georgia Biomass wood pellet processing plant near Waycross early Monday, crippling production at the factory that began operations a little more than a month ago.

No injuries were reported in the blast that occurred about 8 a.m. at the plant in the Waycross-Ware County Industrial Park about five miles west of Waycross off U.S. 82 and U.S. 1.

"It did extensive damage to the processing end. ... They'll probably be down an extended period of time," Ware County Fire Chief Dennis Keen told the Times-Union.

Georgia Biomass is a subsidiary of RWE Innogy of Germany, one of the top five electricity and gas companies in Europe. An estimated $175 million investment, the factory is deemed "the world's largest wood pellet plant."

Plant manager Ken Ciarletta, however, said the damage looks worse than it actually is.

"I wouldn't say the damage is extensive. It's in a very small portion of our facility," said Ciarletta, who described the incident as "a small fire."

Plant operations, however, have been suspended.

"We're off line because of it," Ciarletta said "We haven't determined how long we'll be off line. We're still in the assessment mode."

As they assess the damage, company officials are searching for the "root cause" of the problem, so they can resolve it and prevent future mishaps, Ciarletta said.

Employing about 80 people, the plant began operating May 12. Using yellow pine timber from throughout Southeast Georgia, its goal is to produce about 750,000 tons of wood pellets annually. Wood pellets are used as fuel — a cleaner-burning substitute for coal — primarily in Europe.

"Fortunately, no one was in the area of the explosion when it occurred," said Keen, who praised the company's fire suppression system and emergency procedures.

Ciarletta said the plant was evacuated "to ensure proper control of the situation."

"They made sure everyone got out all right and were accounted for." Keen said.

Keen stationed a fire truck at the plant Monday as a precaution against flare-ups or other problems as authorities and company officials searched for the blast's cause.

It's possible, Keen said, that dust might have caused the explosion.

"It may take several days to figure out what caused it," Keen said.

Describing it as a "flash-type explosion," Keen said the blast damaged equipment included a cooler, a section of the conveyor belt system and a storage hopper for the pellets.

Firefighters arrived in less than five minutes after the blast, which some residents said rattled windows in homes about five miles away near the Okefenokee Heritage Center.

Because it was early in the investigation, a dollar estimate of the damage wasn't available, Keen said.
"The most important thing is, nobody got hurt. Thank God," Ciarletta said.

teresa.stepzinski@jacksonville.com, (912) 264-0405

DeKalb approves renewable energy plant

http://www.ocgnews.com/index.php/local-news/521-dekalb-approves-renewable-energy-plant-

Written by Valerie J. Morgan

In a tense showdown, DeKalb County commissioners unanimously approved Green Energy Partners’ application to build a $60 million biomass gasification plant just outside of the city of Lithonia.     . Neville A. Anderson, managing director of Green Energy Partners (center), and supporters listen intently to the debate concerning the planned project. The approval came after protestors battled  the project for months, saying they believed  the plant would be harmful to residents’  health, exposing them to carcinogenic emissions. They packed the board’s meeting to show  their opposition. So did proponents who said the biomass green energy plant represents the future —and jobs in DeKalb. They turned out in  large numbers dressed in green T-shirts to show their support.  Neville A. Anderson, managing director of Green Energy Partners, said construction on the 79,710-square-foot plant is expected to start in September. The facility will be built in Southeast DeKalb County on Rogers Lake Road, just outside the city of Lithonia, on the same street as an existing landfill. Green Energy plans to covert wood chips that are hauled to the site into energy that will be sold to Georgia Power. An application must be submitted to the Environmental Protection Division before work can start, Anderson said. “I am grateful to the board of commissioners and the Planning and Zoning Department who researched the facts and decided to move forward,” Anderson said. Despite the Board of Commissioners’ approval, opponents say the battle is not over. They say they are planning to file an injunction to halt the project and they are organizing a recall to oust DeKalb County Commissioner Lee May. Opponents are upset with May, whose district includes the site where the project will be built, because he supported the project. “They were derelict in their duties to vote for this project. There was overwhelming opposition—more than 1,000 signatures collected—and they still approved it,” said John Evans, who heads Operation Lead, a civil rights organization. Evans said his organization is working on the injunction and recall, as well as writing letters to the U.S. Justice Department and EPD. May said he felt confident that he and the commission acted in the best interest of the county. He said he believed opponents to the project based their position on misleading information they received. “President Obama is pushing for green energy because renewable energy is much better for the environment than coal, which is what 90 percent of our energy is produced from right now,” May said. May said the commission approved the project with 18 conditions, which included the establishment of a citizens’ advisory board that would be appointed to oversee the plant. May said the conditions also stipulate that the plant will only use wood debris and yard waste to produce energy and that no carpet, tires or other debris could be used at the site. The hours of operation will be restricted with the plant open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Trucks delivering the wood chips must be covered. To read DeKalb Commissioner Lee May’s open letter to the community, visit the Speak Out section on the homepage

Green Energy in South DeKalb?

http://southdekalb.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/green-energy-in-south-dekalb/

June 15, 2011

 

Biomass proposal draws protesters, wins DeKalb support  | ajc.com.

DeKalb County says it is the greenest county in America. And to help bolster that claim, they have approved a green energy facility that will have little or no pollution, and can generate electricity for 7,000 homes. At least that is the sell that Green Energy Partners has told DeKalb County. Residents in that part of the county are not impressed. They had been fighting to keep the facility from being built, but their pleas fell on deaf ears as DeKalb commissioners voted unanimously to approve the plant.

Green Energy Partners is not the only group to attempt to open a biomass facility in DeKalb. In 2009 Southeastern Renewable Energy asked the county to rezone some land on Briarwood Road near I-85 and North Druid Hills Road so that they could build essentially the same type of facility. In fact if you read the SLUP for both, the purpose is exactly the same with the exception of who is requesting, and where it is located. Here is the stated purpose of each:

Green Energy

Application of Patrick Ejike to request a Special Land Use Permit to operate a utility generation facility (Biomass Renewable Energy Facility) within the M-2 (Industrial) zoning district. The property is located on the east side of Rogers Lake Road,
approximately 446 feet south of Lithonia Industrial Boulevard at 1744 and 1770 Rogers Lake Road. The property has approximately 483 feet of frontage along Rogers Lake Road and contains 21.12 acres

Southeastern Renewable Energy

Application of Raine Cotton to request a Special Land Use Permit to operate a utility generation facility (Biomass Renewable Energy Facility) within the M-2 zoning district. The property is located on the southwest side of Briarwood Road (vicinity of Georgia Power Easment)approximately 880 northwest of Interstate 85 (vacant land, no address). The property has approximately 150 feet of frontage on Briarwood Road and contains 3.16 acres

So what made the Green Energy application so much more plausible than the SRE application? After all, the planning department denied the SRE application based on several issues including “..anticipated significant impacts on water quality, air quality, noise impacts and transportation impacts.” Yet they recommended referral for the Green Energy application. Commissioners repeatedly deferred the SRE application from 2009 until April of 2010 when the application was finally withdrawn. So here are two facilities that use similar technologies to produce energy, yet one is considered a health hazard while the other is given the go ahead to operate. I am also wary of the timing of this entire thing. In April of 2010, DeKalb commissioners entertained the idea of this plant from Green Energy. A week later SRE’s application was withdrawn. In July of the same year, the commission voted to sell the very wood chips Green Energy says it will use in it’s facility for five dollars a ton. And now they have approved the facility in southeast DeKalb. If I lived within a half mile of this thing, I would definitely want to know more about how this whole thing wound it’s way through the county leadership.