Domestic Fuel

LS9 has announced plans to expand its operations at their Okeechobee, Florida demonstration facility with a successful customer trial. The Florida facility was initially designed, and has been used, to scale-up LS9′s fermentation technology and generate large commercial samples for testing and product qualification by key partners and prospective customers. Since the company’s initial run at 135,000 liter scale in the third quarter of last year, LS9 has made several additional fatty alcohol runs of this size as well as smaller production runs of fatty acid methyl esters (biodiesel).

In addition, LS9 has successfully completed a pilot production run at its Florida plant for another advanced bioproducts company, Cobalt Technologies. According to LS9, fermentation scale-up is an expensive proposition and requires the proper facilities and expertise to make an effective run. The need to run trials is also intermittent so it is not cost-effective for many companies in the industry to make the investment in a larger plant.

LS9 says its Florida demonstration plant was designed to manage a multitude of processes, and with this successful customer run, they have proven they can leverage their state-of-the-art facility and the expertise of its operations staff to work with partners to commercialize renewable products. Given the success of the initial production run, says LS9, Cobalt is considering future work at LS9′s Florida facility.

“The capability to transition from the lab to 135,000 liter scale is a key milestone on our road to commercial success, and we know we are not alone in this requirement,” said Tjerk de Ruiter, President and Chief Executive Officer of LS9. “Our ability to support other companies’ technology scale-up activities is not only an example of the flexibility and the capabilities of our team, it is also an excellent example of how, as an industry, we can work together to make a renewable future a reality. This new revenue source, together with a recent $6 million investment from our current investors, positions LS9 to enter into new partnerships with our technology and advance our own products.”

Green Biologics has received funding from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), based in UK, to engineer a bacterial host for biobutanol production. The project is in collaboration with the Clostridia Research Group (CRG) at the University of Nottingham which is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

The goal of the 18 month project is to develop a novel bacterial host for the production of 1-butanol from renewable feedstocks. The strategy focuses on the modification of a clostridium species (Clostridium pasteurianum) for the fast growing renewable chemicals market. According to Green Biologics, this microbe has many desirable features that make it an attractive fermentation host including fast growth rates, robustness and good butanol tolerance, but suffers from technical limitations.

In this project, the partners will deploy advanced molecular biology tools for clostridia and introduce synthetic metabolic pathways that increase the range of feedstocks and also improve butanol production. The deliverable will be a novel engineered strain C. pasteurianum that ferments starch to butanol in high yield.

Sean Sutcliffe, CEO at Green Biologics (GBL), said, ”We are extremely pleased to receive grant funding from the TSB. This award recognises GBL’s leading technical and commercialisation leadership position and also facilitates collaboration with the CRG led by Professor Nigel Minton from the University of Nottingham, a world expert in clostridial gene technologies.”

The CRG, one of the largest labs at Nottingham, develops and patents advanced gene tools for the modification and manipulation of clostridial genomes focused on strain enhancements.

“Green Biologics is developing next generation products using clostridia as production hosts. This project builds on GBL’s extensive industrial strain collection and opens up longer term market opportunities,” added Dr. Edward Green, CSO at GBL. “We are greatly encouraged by the recent alignment between the TSB and the research councils for Industrial Biotechnology which enables meaningful collaboration between academics and SME’s. Funding initiatives are essential to maintain a UK leadership position.”

Amyris has shipped it first commercial product from its plant in Brazil. The facility was the company’s first purpose-built industrial fermentation facility and produces Biofene, the company’s brand of renewable farnesene, to be used in a range of specialty chemical and fuel applications.

“This initial shipment marks the successful completion of our start-up activities. We have operated multiple tanks without contamination or surprises through several production runs during the first month of operation,” said John Melo, President and CEO of Amyris.

“We are now focused on ramping up Biofene production and delivering product to our customers, from renewable diesel for bus fleets in Brazil to squalane emollient globally and soon a range of specialty chemical applications,” Melo concluded.

Amyris’s Biofene plant in Brotas, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, sources its sugarcane feedstock locally from the Paraíso mill. Prior to the start-up of this facility, Amyris relied solely on contract manufacturing for commercial production.

Amyris has announced that it has completed a $42.25 million private placement of its common stock. The company has also begun production of its industrial fermentation facility in Brazil and is producing Biofene, its brand of renewable farnesene, a fragrant oil chemical. When adding a hydrogen molecule to farnesene, you get farnesane, which is the foundation molecule for renewable diesel.

“We are encouraged by the continued, strong commitment from our major investors, particularly as we start up our new industrial fermentation facility for the production of our renewable hydrocarbons in Brazil,” said John Melo, Amyris President & CEO. ”Our own farnesene plant at Paraiso has been successfully commissioned, with initial farnesene production underway. We anticipate sales from this facility during the first quarter of 2013.”

The Company sold 14,177,849 shares of common stock in a private placement to existing Amyris investors. The transaction included $37.25 million in cash proceeds and the conversion by Total Gas & Power USA, SAS of $5 million from an outstanding senior unsecured convertible promissory note.

Renewable fuels and green petrochemical maker Anellotech Inc. has inked a deal with the University of Massachusetts-Amherst that will triple the amount of plastics feedstock made from biomass. The agreement adds a new technology capability to Anellotech’s process that triples the amount of p-xylene used to make plastic bottles, clothing, carpeting, automotive and other products usually made from nonrenewable petroleum but now could be produced from non-food biomass.

Anellotech’s core technology, catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP), was invented in Professor George W. Huber’s laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Anellotech is developing the process to produce benzene, toluene, xylenes and olefins from non-food biomass. The additional breakthrough technology was first reported in an article published in the prestigious journal Angewandte Chemie in October 2012, where Professor Huber, Professor Fan and collaborators describe how to modify the catalyst used in this process to triple the yield of p-xylene within the benzene, toluene and xylenes product stream. The new invention allows the more economical production of renewable p-xylene from non-food biomass, thus enabling the production of lower-cost renewable PET. This research was funded by the Department of Energy Energy Frontiers Research Centers as part of the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation which is led by the University of Delaware. Anellotech is currently working on scaling up the new CFP technology and bringing it to the market place.

“There is increasing demand for p-xylene, particularly for making consumer products” said David Sudolsky, President and Chief Executive Officer of Anellotech Inc. “This new technology we will be developing under license from the University of Massachusetts will enable beverage manufacturers to obtain 100% renewable PET bottles made from green ethylene glycol (already on the market by others) together with Anellotech’s green p-xylene.”

The process could replace some of the petroleum now used to make 54 million tons of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) globally.

Dyadic International has received its 12th patent, U.S. Patent No. 8,304,212 entitled “Methods and compositions for degradation of lignocellulosic material”. The patent covers methods and compositions for using enzymes mixtures to convert plant biomass into fermentable sugars for the production of various products. The patent also covers novel combinations of enzymes including those that provide a synergistic release of sugars from plant biomass.

“In developing and selling industrial enzymes, our customers and partners not only benefit from Dyadic’s patented C1 platform technology but also from Dyadic’s fungal strains and technologies based on the Trichoderma fungal organism,” said Dyadic’s President and CEO, Mark Emalfarb. “Dyadic uses these strains to produce specialty enzymes that can be used for a variety of applications in such fields as animal health and nutrition, biofuels and bio-based chemicals. As with our growing portfolio of patents covering the C1 technology, this patent will provide Dyadic, its customers and licensees with additional protection for our Trichoderma-based enzyme mixtures.”

The patent also specifically describes methods of increasing the yield of fermentable sugars from fermentation of dried distillers grains (DDGs) using enzyme mixtures comprising glucoamylase, beta-glucosidase and alpha-arabinofuranosidase. More specifically, it specifically covers Trichoderma-based enzyme mixtures, which significantly and unexpectedly increase the yield of fermentable sugars from DDGs. DDGs are obtained after the fermentation of the starch derived from a number of grains including corn, wheat, barley, oats, rice, and rye and are typically used for animal feed. DDGs are also a byproduct of ethanol production which creates synergies in using enzymes for both biofuels and animal feed applications.

The Advanced Biofuels Markets conference is underway in San Francisco and many advanced biofuels companies have been making announcements. One of these companies is Cobalt Technologies who has announced that Bunge Global Innovation has joined its Cobalt’s Series E Preferred Stock round an a strategic investor.

The investment comes on the heels of Cobalt’s agreement with Bunge and specialty chemicals company Rhodia Poliamida e Especialidades Ltda. (“Rhodia”) to operate a pilot plant demonstrating the production of n-butanol utilizing sugarcane bagasse as feedstock at the Laboratório Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia do Bioetanol facility in Campinas, Brazil. The partners will also work together to develop a co-located, demonstration scale biorefinery at a Bunge sugarcane mill.

“We are pleased to have forged this strategic partnership with Bunge, one of the largest sugar producers in Brazil,” said Bob Mayer, CEO, Cobalt Technologies. “Bunge’s investment and supply of raw material for feedstock will allow us to begin demonstrating the value of our biobutanol technology and help unlock its potential.”

Ben Pearcy, Managing Director, Sugar & Bioenergy and Chief Development Officer of Bunge Limited, added, “Cobalt’s promising technology presents the opportunity to leverage Bunge’s sugarcane processing assets to produce new high-value products that diversify our revenue streams and enhance returns.”

SG Biofuels has expanded it global network of hybrid trial and agronomic research sites with the addition of eight new JMAX Knowledge Centers located in Brazil, Guatemala and India. The company is also expanding it production facility in Guatemala. Current trials are underway in San Diego, California. The company focuses on the the production of Jatropha for use in biofuels, biochemicals and biomaterials.

According to a company statement SG Biofuels’ hybrids are performing better compared to commercial varieties across multiple geographies in terms of plant vigor, health, flowering consistency, stress tolerance and yield. The success validates the ability to produce crude Jatropha oil for less than $99 per barrel in a range of growing conditions.

“The performance of our hybrids in multiple geographies not only validates the strength of our genetics, but our ability to deploy profitable energy crop projects around the world,” said Kirk Haney, president and chief executive officer. “Through our network of JMax Knowledge Centers, we are developing the highest performing hybrids of Jatropha while establishing best agronomic and production practices for deploying those hybrids at commercial scale.”

According to the company, JMax Knowledge Centers are professionally managed trials using experimental design and statistical analysis to evaluate hundreds of hybrids in a range of environmental and agronomic conditions. The centers serve as outdoor classrooms where SGB agronomists and technical teams conduct training and field tours with customers and growers, develop localized agronomic studies and recommendations and develop high performing Jatropha hybrids for commercial deployment. SGB’s hybrids have been developed following five years of research, drawing from a diverse germplasm library including more than 12,000 unique genotypes.

Hyrax Energy and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) have signed a licensing agreement for a renewable chemical and biofuel production method. The chemical process uses ionic liquids to break down cellulosic or non-food plant-based biomass without using enzymes or the need for pretreatment steps. The technology was developed with the aid of University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemistry professor and Hyrax founder, Ron Raines.

The company’s process creates fermentable sugars, which can be converted into a variety of chemicals, including fuels and plastics. Hyrax says the process developed avoids the need for costly pretreatment efforts typically used to overcome key problems with biomass including its water-insolubility and resistance to molecular deconstruction. The technology avoids these problems by employing ionic liquids to dissolve raw biomass from the beginning.

“Doing the entire conversion process in ionic liquids eliminates enzymes, pretreatment steps and harsh energy inputs and leads to a dramatic reduction in process complexity and capital intensity,” said Raines. Coupled with its scientific significance, the licensing of the new technology marks a major step toward commercializing this approach to biofuel production on an industrial scale.”

Raines said the paten-pending technology has been validated by third parties. He also said that the help of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) and WARF Accelerator Program helped to fund development of the technology and provide the intellectual property protection necessary to support the process of commercialization. Hyrax is the first company that is part of GLBRC to begin the process of commercialization and also won the 2012 Clean Energy Challenge sponsored by the Clean Energy Trust.

In May of 2012, Gevo, Inc. announced the start-up of its bio-isobutanol plant in Luverne, Minnesota. Since then, the company says it has both produced and shipped commercial quality product in railcars for customers. One thing the company has learned is what works well and what needs to be tweaked. So the company has switched the plant to ethanol production while it refines its bio-isobutanol technology.

“To date, we have proven we can produce bio-isobutanol, and do it on a commercial scale – years ahead of the competition,” said CEO Patrick Gruber, Ph.D. “This start-up is very typical of other start-ups we have done: you have to learn a lot in a very short period of time, both what works well and what needs to be adjusted. Early indications are that, while we are making significant progress towards economic production levels, we will not achieve our desired year-end run rate – instead we would expect to achieve that during 2013.”

“While we have made significant progress towards economic production levels, we have decided to optimize certain specific parts of our technology to further enhance bio-isobutanol production rates,” continued Gruber. He said that it does not make business sense to implement adjustments while having the plant in productions. So their strategy is to switch to ethanol production while the technology is refined.

Gevo has agreements in place with Sasol, Total, VP Racing Fuels, Mansfield Oil, and Land O’Lakes Purina. While the company is currently producing fuel for the transportation market, the company is also developing opportunities in the jet, marine and small engine markets as well as looking at the production of bio-isobutanol for biochemicals and biomaterials.

“In five short years, we have gone from start-up to commercial-scale production at the world’s first commercial bio-isobutanol production facility. Production start-ups are never easy, but we are years ahead of our competition and well on our way to realizing economic production levels during 2013,” Gruber concluded.

LS9 has started up its retrofitted demonstration plant in Okeechobee, Florida with an initial production run of fatty alcohols. These will eventually be converted to renewable fuels and biochemicals. Fatty alcohols are long carbon chain alcohols, and used widely in the $5 billion market for surfactants that include detergents. The facility will also be used to test and optimize new process conditions.

“We are very pleased that our very first run at 135,000 liter scale went so well. It is a direct reflection of the strength of our technology team in South San Francisco and our operations team in Okeechobee,” said Ed Dineen, President and CEO of LS9.

At the onset, the facility will be focused on enhancing production capabilities and to generate large chemical samples for testing and product qualification. LS9 representatives said the first run performed well producing several tons of fatty alcohol with excellent replication of technical metrics seen at pilot scale.

“We plan to perform additional fatty alcohol runs to demonstrate the robustness of our technology platform and then switch to diesel fuel and ester chemical production to further demonstrate the production optionality of the technology,” continued Dineen.

Greg Rood, LS9′s vice president of operations, added, “We’d like to thank all of our employees who have been involved with this project, especially Pablo Otero who was the Project Director. In addition, we would like to recognize the support of the Florida Opportunity Fund and all the local contractors who helped us retrofit the facility.”

Renewed World Energies (RWE) has agreed to enter into a partnership with ReVenture Park in Charlotte, North Carolina to develop an algae-to-fuel pilot plant. The Eco-Industrial Park caters to clean energy businesses and will work with RWE to expand its technology from pilot scale to commercial scale. The company is developing different strains of algae that will be utilized to create biofuels as well as health supplements. The pilot facility is expected to be operational September 30, 2012.

There are numerous species of algae and each one has its own unique characteristics. One goal of researchers is to identify and develop strains that are best fits for certain uses, such as to produce jet fuel or for use as a replacement for oil in cosmetics, food and fertilizer. RWE’s system produces algae oil and algae cake, which can be fed as a food supplement to livestock or to make fish feed.

RWE President Richard Armstrong founded his company in South Carolina but chose North Carolina to take it to the next level. “We were attracted to the eco-industrial synergies at ReVenture Park. North Carolina also seems to be more attuned to the renewable fuels, and offers multiple benefits for showcasing new technology.”

ReVenture Park took advantage of nearly 700 acres of abandoned land that was a former textile dye-manufactured site. It is now being transformed into an Eco-Industrial Park focused on research and development of clean technology.

“We are pleased to have struck a deal to have RWE move a facility to ReVenture,” said Tom McKittrick, President Forsite Development. “RWE was attracted to the sites extensive existing infrastructure which then can utilize and there are multiple opportunities for us to collaborate.”

During the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society a new integrated soybean biorefinery was revealed. The technology is designed to create a wider portfolio of products from soybeans.

“Mention soybeans to most people, and they immediately think of the oil,” said Ramani Narayan, Michigan State (MSU) University Distinguished Professor, who reported on the new biorefinery technology. “Soybean oil is the world’s most widely used edible oil. It’s in some margarines, shortenings, mayonnaise, salad dressings, frozen foods, baked goods and many other items. But soybeans are about more than oil. Soybeans are nuggets of green gold that can be a treasure trove of ingredients for other products, and our new biorefinery provides a glimpse of that potential.”

The biorefinery is a fairly new product, often times it is associated with second generation feedstocks such as corn stover, algae and agricultural waste that can produce biofuels, biomaterials and biochemicals. Until now, the mention of soybeans in this emerging environment was rare.

Narayan aid that soybeans pack similar potential as corn as a feedstock but until now, soybean processing facilities have typically focused on producing oils and meal for livestock feed. Switching to the biorefinery concept, the soybean can be transformed into a much wider array of valuable materials. For example, components of a soybean could be turned into polyurethanes, including rigid foam insulation, flexible foams for packaging, as well as coatings, adhesives and elastomers.

The soybean meal could be further processed to yield components used in polyester plastics for fabrics, ropes, car tires, plastic bottles, and LCD screens as well as used in Nylon and Kevlar for bulletproof vests and fire-resistant Nomex. Not enough? Soybeans could also be broken down and built back up as as an ingredient is formaldehyde, a toxic chemical used in a range of products from paint to clothing to children’s toys. And the list goes on.

“The biorefinery can utilize essentially every component of the soybean in the production of bio-based ingredients for high-value products,” Narayan added. “It makes sense from a sustainability standpoint, in which we strive to reduce our dependence on petroleum as a feedstock. It also benefits the soybean farmers and raises the value of the local economy.”

Sweetwater Energy has exceeded its goals for Series A funding raising $9 million, $4 million over its original goal. The New York-based company is developing a process to produce cellulosic sugar that can be used to produce biofuels, biochemicals and bioplastics. The company’s primary target is is refineries.

“As anyone trying to start a business today knows, the economic climate is very difficult for fundraising right now, but we received an incredible response,” says Keith Wilson, Sweetwater’s Chief Financial Officer. “This funding is already launching us into our next stage of development, which includes Sweetwater’s first commercial contracts and the design and fabrication of the first wave of facilities for 2013.”

The company raised $1.2 million in its first round on funding back in 2010 and also secured a grant from New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. In addition, Sweetwater generated some revenue from the sale of cellulosic sugar to the Department of Defense to test for jet fuel production. Today the company is leveraging its work in its pilot scale facility to build a commercial scale facility.

Chesonis concluded, “Ultimately, it’s the economic and cost drivers for lower-cost petroleum substitutes that are fueling the remarkable demand for Sweetwater’s technology. We’re excited to raise this capital and move into the next stage of growth; commercial contracts to fulfill that remarkable demand.”

The Florida Opportunity Fund’s (FOF) Clean Energy Investment Program has awarded funds to LS9 to aid in the company’s grand opening plans for its biorefinery in Okeechobee, Florida. Earlier this year, FOF awarded LS9 $4.5 million to help fund the retrofit of their demonstration facility that when in operation will produce biodiesel and renewable chemical products. With the retrofit complete, the company will begin scaling up its technology to commercial production levels.

LS9 will be hosting a grand opening event on Tuesday, June 12th at its facility to showcase its technology and products. U.S. Congressman Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) will be on hand along with other notable persons and company representatives. The company anticipates production will begin this summer.

“LS9 has been working diligently to complete the retrofit of our Okeechobee facility, and we greatly appreciate the support of the Florida Opportunity Fund on this project,” said Ed Dineen, LS9 President and CEO. “We are honored to have the support of Congressman Rooney for our Grand Opening event and believe this facility can be a magnet for attracting other advanced agricultural and bio-product technologies to the state. Our Florida location is ideal as it allows for prime access to the feedstocks required to produce our renewable products.”

The company plans on producing biodiesel as its first product. In addition, the demonstration biorefinery will produce commercial samples for testing and product qualification by key partners and potential customers. The plant will also test and optimize new process conditions – all in preparation for commercial scale production.

Jennifer Dunham with Florida First Partners, the manager of the FOF Clean Energy Investment Program added, “The State of Florida recognizes the need for adoption of renewable energy products and remains committed to supporting companies, such as LS9, striving to produce these technologies.”