Top biofuels execs identify alliances, focus, finance, and scale as key bioenergy challenges
Jim Lane
At the 2010 Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference yesterday, delegates heard yesterday from C-level executives at numerous “50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy,” including Coskata, Cobat Technologies, TMO Renewables, Iogen, Sapphire Energy, PetroAlgae, LS9, SG Biofuels, and Solazyme, as well as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan.
Merrigan noted in a keynote address that a partnership approach to commercializing biofuels was driving USDA’s activity within the US Interagency Working Group as well as the partnership in Hawaii with the Department of the Navy to develop solutions that would reduce Hawaii’s oil imports, which are the highest by percentage in the nation, as well as developing rural economies.
“I have been in Washington for a long time,” observed Merrigan, “and recently we started hearing about a new acronym, USG, and a number of us asked each other, what is that agency? But it actually stands for the United States Government – meaning government-wide projects,” crossing over traditional turf barriers to drive innovation. Merrigan also noted that a goal of the USDA was to create larger grants for scientific research that would power deeper innovation in rural-based technologies.
Among other highlights, PetroAlgae chairman John Scott, described the process of targeting the development of microcrop-based biomass that to address increasing shortages in petroleum residuals for cokers, by quoting President Dwight Eisenhower, who once said “if you’re going hunting, go where the ducks are.” Scott said that PetroAlgae is now in discussion with 300 companies in 41 companies regarding licensing its technology, and said that the development of a low cost, passive light exposure control had been crucial to the development of its system.
Sapphire president C.J Warner said, in offering “lessons from the field (or rather, pond)”, said that one of the most important drivers towards commercialization was training company-wide focus on strategic objectives, noting that “a classic failure mechanism for innovative companies is always moving on to the next big thing” before commercializing prior breakthroughs. Sapphire confirmed that it is on track to break ground on its 300-acre pre-commercial facility later this year.
