Domestic Fuel

A new report from the Milken Institute, “Turning Plants Into Products: Delivering on the Potential of Industrial Biotechnology,” examines the challenges facing the industrial biotechnology sector and identifies market and policy based responses. In particular, the report found that biotech could play a significant role in the reduction of fossil fuel use, but struggles due to petroleum’s price advantage. The report is a accumulation of the Institute’s Financial Innovations Lab’s results derived from discussions with experts and stakeholders on how the US could facilitate a better flow of private capital into companies focused on the production of bio-based products.

“There is much appeal for policymakers to invest in expanding the biotech-derived chemical industry. In the long term, it has environmental advantages and offers an alternative to foreign oil,” said Joel Kurtzman, executive director of the Milken Institute Center for a Sustainable Energy Future. “In the short term, it offers the immediate benefit of rural employment opportunity.”

Industrial biotechnology uses living materials such as plants, algae, marine life, fungi and micro-organisms and biosolids to produce a wide range of products from chemicals to plastics to cosmetics. But unlike the petrochemicals industry, the industrial biotech industry is not well established and doesn’t have the advantages of economies of scale and established operating efficiencies. So to encourage further development the industry will need an organized cooperation of local, state and federal governments along with support from the investment community, trade organizations and academia.

Turning Plants in Products suggests several courses of action to mitigate current challenges and increase the chances of success: establish concrete, long-term government policies; create prize forums; utilize established resources; and create innovative securitization.

Kurtzman added, “The industry needs to find the momentum to get companies past the funding gaps and on to commercial-scale production. This will require continued investment in R&D, supported by the government and public-private partnerships, to make the investment less risky and to increase the efficacy of the technology. We believe the results will be greatly worth the effort.”

The Financial Innovations Lab that led to the development of the Institute report was funded in part by the Office of Energy Policy and New Uses at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

According to a new study released today by Iowa State University and the University of Wisconsin, in 2010, on average the use of ethanol reduced wholesale gasoline prices by an average of .89 cents per gallon. The research was conducted by a number of economists and released by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) and is an update to a 2009 Energy Policy paper authored by professors Dermot Hayes and Xiaodong Du. The paper, sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), also found that the growth in ethanol production reduced gasoline prices by an average of $0.25, or 16 percent while it was even more significant in the Midwest with an average price per gallon reduction of .39 cents.

“This study confirms that ethanol is playing a tremendously important role in holding down volatile gasoline prices, which are currently inching closer to all-time record highs,” said RFA President Bob Dinneen. “As rising oil prices are contributing to higher retail costs for everything from gas to food to clothing, ethanol is clearly providing some real relief for American families.”

The CARD study also showed that the impact of ethanol on gasoline prices in 2010 was even more significant than the average over the past decade. “In 2010 alone, ethanol reduced the average American household’s gasoline bill by more than $800,” said Dinneen. The number was derived from using data published by the Federal Highway Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Energy. The organizations show that the average household consumed 900 gallons of gasoline at an average price of $2.74 per gallon in 2010. That means the average family’s annual gasoline bill was $2,470, but it would have been closer to $3,270 without ethanol.

Also examined was the impact of removing ethanol from the fuel supply. Today ethanol represents approximately 10 percent of the supply and the authors found that “Under a very wide range of parameters, the estimated gasoline price increase would be of historic proportions, ranging from 41% to 92%.” At today’s prices, that means gasoline prices would increase from roughly $4 per gallon to $5.60-$7.70 per gallon.

The authors point out that this dramatic price increase would stem from the fact that “…the ethanol industry now provides approximately 10% of the gasoline used in automobiles, an amount that exceeds the spare capacity of US oil refineries.” If ethanol suddenly disappeared, they say “[the] ‘missing’ fuel would have to be imported in the short run, and the required volume would be large relative to available import supplies. The only way to solve this short-term supply problem would be to use high gasoline prices to ration demand.”

Dinneen concluded this finding alone should serve as a wake-up call to those who are seeking to reduce or eliminate the role of ethanol in the U.S. energy market at a time when oil markets are increasingly volatile.

In a new study released by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (NPPL), algal fuels could replace 17 percent of the United States’ imported oil by 2020. The paper was published in the journal of Water Resources Research but warned that biofuels production, including algal fuels, can require a lot of water so the study cautioned that being smart about where the algae is grown can reduce the water needed. Researchers concluded that water use could be drastically reduced if the algae is grown in the sunniest and most humid climates including the Gulf Coast, the Southeastern Seaboard and the Great Lakes.

“Algae has been a hot topic of biofuel discussions recently, but no one has taken such a detailed look at how much America could make – and how much water and land it would require — until now,” said Mark Wigmosta, lead author and a PNNL hydrologist. “This research provides the groundwork and initial estimates needed to better inform renewable energy decisions.”

The research team’s goal was to provide the first in-depth assessment of algal biofuels potential based on the amount of available land and water. The study also factored in how much water would need to be replaced due to evaporation over 30 years. The research analyzed previously published data to determine how much algae could be grown in outdoor, fresh water ponds when using current technologies. The study did not factor in algae grown in salt water and covered ponds.

When taking into account various factors, the research team determined that 21 billion gallons of algal oil, the amount equal to the advanced biofuels category of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2), could be produced by algae by 2022.

The researchers found that 21 billion gallons of algal oil, equal to the 2022 advanced biofuels goal set out by the Energy Independence and Security Act, can be produced from American-grown algae. This amount equates to 17 percent of the oil that the U.S. imported in 2008 for transportation fuels. To achieve this amount, the researchers estimate that the amount of land needed to produce this number would be approximately the size of the state of South Carolina. They also found that it would take 350 gallons of water per gallon of oil — or a quarter of what the country currently uses for irrigated agriculture — to produce 21 billion gallons of algal biofuel.

The study also concluded that up to 48 percent of the current transportation oil imports could be replaced with algae, but this higher production level would require significantly more water and land. Therefore the authors focused their research on the U.S. regions that would use less water to grow algae.
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Researchers at the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center may have discovered some clues that could lead to poplar trees as the next candidate for biofuels. The research is being led by Charles Wyman of the Bourns College of Engineering’s Center for Environmental Research and Technology at the University of California Riverside who is joined by teams from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. They published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “Lignin content in natural Populus variants affects sugar release.”

Basically, the team is looking for traits in poplar trees that will lead to better sugar release. The lignin found in the plant’s cells have been a major challenge to overcome in biofuel production because it must be converted to sugar for production; yet, its strong sugar bonds interfere with access to the carbohydrates, and thus access to the sugar.

Wyman explained, “The real driver for bioenergy is how to get sugar as cheaply as possible from these recalcitrant materials. We’re looking for clues as to which traits in these poplar materials will lead to better sugar release.”

The BESC researchers were able to quickly analyze volumes of poplar core samples through the use of a high-throughput screening method. The goal was to better understand the chemical factors that drive sugar yields. The work resulted in finding a correlation between one plant trait, the syringyl/guaiacyl (S/G) ratio, which are the building blocks of lignin, and increased yields.

“The conventional wisdom is that high lignin contents are bad for sugar release,” said lead author Michael Studer. “We unexpectedly found that this statement is only valid for low S/G ratios, while at high S/G ratios lignin does not negatively influence yields. However, replacement of carbohydrates with lignin reduces the maximum possible sugar release. Another interesting result was that the samples with the highest sugar release belonged to the group with average S/G ratios and lignin contents. This finding points to a need for deeper understanding of cell wall structure before plants can be rationally engineered for efficient biofuels production.”

During the project, the research team was able able to pinpoint certain popular samples that produced remarkably high sugar yields without pretreatment – a typical prerequisite in biomass to biofuel production. This could help to reduce the costs of production. The team believes that their research may lead the way for poplar cultivars to be grown for commercial testing and propagation and ultimately for biofuel production.

Researchers from the University of Connecticut have come up with a better way to brew up biodiesel.

This article from PHYSORG.com says Professor Richard Parnas, who you might remember from my story last October also is finding a way to use hemp as a biodiesel feedstock, has developed a patented biodiesel reactor that uses gravity, heat, and natural chemical reactions to make the biodiesel and separate the glycerol in one step:

As the chemical reactions take place inside the giant tube, temperatures reach more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The glycerol starts to coagulate in opaque swirls inside the tube. Because the glycerol droplets are heavier than the biodiesel fuel, they gradually sink to the bottom, where they are siphoned off. At the same time, the biodiesel fuel floats to the top of the tube and is pumped into a holding tank, where it undergoes refinement before being mixed with petroleum-based diesel fuel and used in the University’s bus fleet.

“That motion and those swirls you are seeing when you look at the reactor are the result of both a chemical reaction and phase separation in real time,” Parnas says. “Phase separation is like what happens when you have an oil and vinegar salad dressing … In other biodiesel processes out there, the reactants are very highly mixed and come out of the reactor together.”

While Parnas’ refinery is producing only about 2,000 gallons of biodiesel a year right now, he hopes a $1.8 million grant from the Department of Energy will help them move that production up to commercial quantities soon.

While biofuels development and production have been a bit different, some of the latest efforts to find room to grow non-food feedstocks for biofuels are being found alongside the beaten path. In this case, we’re talking about using areas, such as ditches and medians along the nation’s highways, as good spots to grow the raw materials to keep the cars and trucks running on those highways.

In an interview with the USDA, Michigan State University extension’s Dennis Pennington says those highway right-of-ways and airport grounds can be ideal places to grow biofuel feedstocks.

“I think there’s a number of options we could look at in terms of different kinds of crop.”

Pennington tells the USDA that which crops are best for these non-traditional areas depends on who the grower is and the local market. Right now, they’re looking at switch grass and three different oilseeds crops, chosen also for safety factors, such as wildlife mitigation and sight hazards.

It’s estimated that there’s 10 million acres of available land just alongside our roads that have good potential for growing biofuel feedstocks. Pennington adds that the best matches for areas where biomass for energy production should be grown would be where there is also a local biofuel from biomass production capability because of the high cost of shipping large quantities of biomass.

Here is an interesting story out of Lund University in Sweden. Nadia Skorupa Parachin has discovered an enzyme in garden soil that when used could increase ethanol production by 20 percent or more. Xylose is the second most common sugar found in nature, but today, is not commonly used, if at all, in the ethanol process.

When Parachin tested her enzymes, her results showed that her enzymes bind xylose more efficiently than those enzymes that have been tested previously. She has recently patented her newly discovered enzymes.

“In order for carbohydrates in forestry, plant and waste products to be used for ethanol production, enzymes are required in the yeast that ‘eat up’ the sugar and convert it into ethanol,” said Parachin. “If we just want to make use of the glucose then normal baker’s yeast is sufficient. However, if the xylose is also to be converted to ethanol, then genetic modifications have to be made to the yeast.”

Parachin began by extracting DNA from a soil sample. She chose soil because it is considered the most diverse habitat on earth. Then she cut the DNA into small pieces. From there, she built up a DNA library. Next, she identified the most appropriate genes by coupling enzyme activity growth on xylose.

She discovered that one gram of soil contain 10 billion bacteria. “Enzymes and other proteins are found in almost unlimited numbers and can have all sorts of unexplored properties. I collected the soil sample from a garden in Höör, but any soil can be used,” explained Parachin who notes that this process is not easy and that’s why she believes other researchers have not made this discovery.

Marie Gorwa-Grauslund, Parachin’s supervisor, was the first person to realize that this genetic technique, known as metagenomics and derived from the environmental studies discipline, could work in this specific context. The next step for the team is to apply their modified metagenomics technique in other areas, for example, to isolate enzymes that allow microorganisms to cope with difficult industrial conditions, such as high temperatures and high acid levels.

However, there is still more work to be done on the current research and the team hopes their method can make ethanol production more efficient and economically viable.

A researcher from The Ohio State University has found a way to make a polyurethane foam from a by-product of biodiesel.

Yebo Li, a biosystems engineer with the university’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster, has found a way to turn glycerin into a renewable, cheaper foam:

“Polyurethane foam made with our bio-polyol is renewable, biodegradable and its quality is comparable to petroleum-based foam,” said Jeff Schultheis, chief operating officer of Mansfield-based Poly-Green Technologies, LLC, a start-up formed to commercialize Li’s invention. “And while other bio-polyols now in the market use virgin oils, such as castor bean or soybean, we use a true waste-stream. This makes our product 5-10 percent cheaper than petroleum-based or natural oil-based foams. So we are competing not just on being ‘green,’ but also on overall quality and cost.”

“For every 10 gallons of biodiesel produced, there’s one gallon of crude glycerin left over,” explained Schultheis, an Ohio State alumnus originally from Zanesville, in southeastern Ohio. “In 2011, the U.S. biodiesel industry alone will be producing about 70 million gallons of crude glycerin. So there’s a lot of growth potential for this product, and we feel we will be able to enter into the polyurethane market very easily.”

Poly-Green Technologies officials hope to enter the market between July and September, a market that is worth more than $13 billion in the U.S.

Using consolidated bioprocessing, researchers at the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center have discovered how to develop isobutanol directly from cellulose. The research was led by James Liao of the University of California at Los Angeles, and the results were published in the paper titled “Metabolic Engineering of Clostridium Cellulolyticum for Isobutanol Production from Cellulose,”online in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

“Unlike ethanol, isobutanol can be blended at any ratio with gasoline and should eliminate the need for dedicated infrastructure in tanks or vehicles,” said Liao, chancellor’s professor and vice chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. Plus, it may be possible to use isobutanol directly in current engines without modification.”

According to Liao, when compared to ethanol, isobutanol is a better candidate to replace gasoline because it has an energy density, octane value and Reid vapor pressure that is closer to gasoline.

Producing fuels from cellulose is much harder than corn or sugarcane and takes several steps. So Liao and postdoctoral researcher Wendy Higashide of UCLA and Yongchao Li and Yunfeng Yang of Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a strain of Clostridium cellulolyticum, a native cellulose-degrading microbe, that could synthesize isobutanol directly from cellulose. The work was based on earlier work at UCLA where the team build a synthetic pathway for isobutanol production.

While some Clostridium species produce butanol, these organisms typically do not digest cellulose directly. Other Clostridium species digest cellulose but do not produce butanol. None produce isobutanol, an isomer of butanol – until now.

While there were many possible microbial candidates, the research team chose a genetically engineered strain of Clostridium cellulolyticum, which was originally isolated from decayed grass. The team’s strategy exploits the host’s natural cellulolytic activity and the amino acid biosynthetic pathway and diverts its intermediates to produce higher alcohol than ethanol. The team believes that this research sets the stage future studies that will likely involve genetic manipulation of other consolidated bioprocessing microorganisms.

According to a new report from Pike Research, “Geothermal Power,” geothermal capacity could double in 10 years. The report concludes that increasing investment in geothermal power could result in a 134 percent increase in total geothermal power between 2010-2020. In other words, an increase from 10.7 gigawatts (GW) to 25.1 GW worldwide when based on a high-growth scenario. Using a more moderate growth scenario closer to the current rate of growth, the report estimates capacity would increase 34 percent to 14.3 GW by 2020. Geothermal energy offers many benefits including the ability to provide almost 24 hour per day electricity production with little to no emissions.

“Worldwide potential for geothermal energy is immense but geothermal remains an underutilized resource and represents only a small fraction of the global renewable energy portfolio,” said senior analyst Peter Asmus. “Improved access to resource data, more efficient drilling processes, increased understanding about the industry’s potential, and improving access to financing are driving expanding interest in the sector.”

According to Asmus, the current geothermal capacity is spread across 26 countries with a combined output of nearly 67 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity. The U.S. is the global leader with 3.1 GW of installed capacity while seven countries represent 88 percent of the global geothermal capacity. Although traditional geothermal resources make up the majority of installed capacity, enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) and co-produced wells both offer opportunities for expansion.

The high-growth scenario used in the study assumes continued and persistent volatility in the price of oil, tightening carbon regulations, improved access to capital, standardization of geothermal exploration data, contribution from EGS-enabled and co-produced resources, technological breakthroughs in exploration and drilling equipment, improved access to drills and skilled labor, and sustained policies supporting renewable energy mandates, grants, and tax subsidies.

Asmus added, “Even if progress falls short in these areas the potential for geothermal market expansion remains strong, and even our conservative business-as-usual forecast is consistent with growth rates observed in the industry since 1990.”

In a new study from Air Improvement Resource, Inc. (AIR) commissioned by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), the requirements of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) can be met with ethanol if more infrastructure is put into place. In addition, more flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) are needed. The report concludes that if “blender pumps” are made available at nearly one-third of the approximately 162,000 gas stations in the U.S., and if automakers honor and expand their commitment to produce FFVs, the majority of RFS2 requirements can be met with ethanol alone.

“Achieving the goals of the RFS2 and giving Americans more control over their energy future can be done with smart policies and targeted investment that expand ethanol refueling infrastructure and use,” said RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen. “In a climate of fiscal concerns, this report demonstrates that we can meaningfully expand the ethanol market, reduce our reliance on imported oil, and create jobs without breaking the bank. Addressing the infrastructure needs of America’s renewable fuels policy cannot be based on a wish list. It must be grounded in sound research and analysis that identifies policy needs and the needs of the marketplace. This report clearly highlights part of the path forward.”

The AIR study examines 27 future scenarios regarding available ethanol volumes, FFV availability, ethanol use in non-FFVs, and the availability and location of blender pumps and/or E85 pumps. Based on the results of the scenarios, certain conclusions were drawn about the role ethanol can play in meeting the RFS2, which requires the use of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022.

However, there are concerns growing that RFS2 goals will not be met, in part due to several anti-ethanol amendments in the Continuing Resolution that were passed by the House several weeks ago designed to “balance the federal budget”. The amendments inhibit the EPA from rolling out E15 and also disallow government funds to be used to install blender pumps and ethanol infrastructure such as ethanol pipelines.

According to RFA, expanding the use of ethanol will take a multi-pronged approach. Recently the EPA approved the used of E15 for conventional cars and light duty trucks model year 2001 or newer could help to grow the market for ethanol to 20 billion gallons over the next several years. However, RFA notes that even if E15 is ultimately approved for use in all conventional vehicles, meeting long-term RFS2 requirements will require the use of mid-level blends of ethanol higher than E15 (so fuel blends that contain more than 15 percent ethanol, 85 percent gasoline).
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Several chemists at the University of California, Berkeley have engineered bacteria for biofuels. More specifically, they have created bacteria that will churn out a gasoline-like biofuel at about 10 times the rate of competing microbes. The researchers believe this breakthrough could soon provide “green” gas. The research was published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology and authored by Assistant Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley Michelle C.Y. Chang along with graduate student Brooks B. Bond-Watts and recent grad Robert J. Bellerose.

The research was based on the bacteria Clostridium, where some of the species produce n-butanol, a drop-in fuel many companies are currently pursuing as a replacement for gas and diesel. Many researchers have genetically altered the bacteria to boost its ability to produce n-butanol while others have taken other routes such as plucking enzymes from the bacteria and inserted them into other microbes including E. coli. The results have only provided limited n-butanol production.

Chang and her colleagues emulated the same enzyme pathway into E. coli, but replaced two of the five enzymes with look-alikes from other organisms. This avoided one of the problems other researchers have had: n-butanol being converted back into its chemical precursors by the same enzymes that produce it.

The result was a new genetically altered E. coli strain that produced nearly five grams of n-buranol per liter, about the same as the native Clostridium and one-third the production of the best genetically altered Clostridium, but about 10 times better than current industrial microbe systems.

“We are in a host that is easier to work with, and we have a chance to make it even better,” Chang said. “We are reaching yields where, if we could make two to three times more, we could probably start to think about designing an industrial process around it. We were excited to break through the multi-gram barrier, which was challenging.”

According to an article from UC Berkeley, Chang is optimistic that by improving enzyme activity at a few other bottlenecks in the n-butanol synthesis pathway, in addition to optimizing the host microbe for production of n-butanol, she can boost production two to three times, enough to justify considering scaling up to an industrial process.

In a new paper published online in American Chemical Society’s Journal Environmental Science and Technology when it comes to growing corn for ethanol and using fertilizer – less may be more. Postdoctoral researcher Morgan Gallagher led the research team as part of her dissertation at Rice and discovered that corn, and its stalks and leaves, responded differently to nitrogen fertilizer.

The team found that liberal use of nitrogen fertilizer to maximize grain yields from corn crops results in only marginally more usable cellulose from leaves and stems to be converted into cellulosic ethanol. They also found that when the corn is used for food and the cellulose is processed for biofuel, increasing the rate of nitrogen actually makes it more difficult to extract the cellulose, or lignin, which is converted to sugars and ultimately ethanol, from the corn stover and stalks. This is the case because surplus nitrogen fertilizer speeds up the biochemical pathway that produces lignin.

Carrie Masiello, an assistant professor of Earth science at Rice and Gallagher’s adviser believes that the findings of this research are an important next step in building a sustainable biofuel economy. While some nitrogen fertilizer is needed for plants to grow and function, she noted that for some crops, a little is enough.

We already know too much fertilizer is bad for the environment. Now we’ve shown that it’s bad for biofuel crop quality too,” Masiello said. While farmers have a clear incentive to maximize grain yields, the research shows a path to even greater benefits when corn residues are harvested for cellulosic ethanol production.”

The research showed that although increasing nitrogen improves the plant’s cellulose content, grain yield quickly hits a plateau. “The kilograms of grain you get per hectare goes up pretty fast and peaks,” Masiello said. At the same time, the researchers found only a modest increase in plant and stem cellulose, the basic component used to produce cellulosic ethanol.

The implicit assumption has always been that the response of plant cellulose to fertilizer is going to be the same as the grain response, but we’ve showed this assumption may not always hold, at least for corn,” Gallagher said.

These are just a few of the findings of the research and the team hopes that their methods can be transferred to other energy crops. Click here to read the full release.

In a market research report released today, Algae 2020, Vol. 2, Emerging Markets Online highlights why some algae companies will be winners and some will be losers bringing their product from pilot to commercial scale from 2011-2020. The report concluded that of all the current algae production companies, R&D ventures and public-private partnerships currently in play, less than a dozen will graduate into pre-commercial, deployment-stage algae ventures using pond, photo-bioreactor and fermentation based production systems.

“For the Algae 2020 study, I did my research the old fashioned way, where you conduct an on site visit, you kick the tires, and you say I understand you’re producing algae and you have a pilot project. Show me,” said Thurmond. “While I was on site I conducted interviews with CEOs and various staff scientists, took pictures, analyzed the data, and determined three common strategies of companies that are attracting investment capital and scaling up.” Thurmond interviewed more than 200 algae related companies and visited 30 in person.

The study found three key strategies that determine which companies will attract capital and scale up their enterprises while others will be perpetually stuck in the laboratory or garage, many never even scaling up to small, test-pilot phase.

Strategy #1: Algae Long-Term Winners Focus on Drop-In Fuels and Biofuels. Thurmond notes there are about a dozen leading algae companies that have successfully progressed into pilot and demonstration scale projects. Why? In addition to being able to produce either ethanol or biodiesel, these organizations are also able to produce drop-in replacement fuels like biojet and renewable diesel that are in high demand today by various industries including oil and gas, aviation, petrochemical, and the U.S. military.

Strategy #2 Algae Short-Term Winners Target Diversified Markets. Algae 2020 discovered that most winning algae producers are diversifying their short-term focus on high-value products including: omega 3s, health products, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and specialty chemical uses, and some mid-value markets like livestock and fish meal, renewable chemicals. This allows a company to bring in revenue to pay the bills and establish brand identity while scaling up their operations over time to commercial scale biofuel production.

Strategy # 3 Algae Winners Bring Together R&D Labs, Universities and Public-Private Partnerships. According to Thurmond, the third key finding from Algae 2020 study: among R&D and start-up related algae projects, the winners attracting government grants, funds, or private funds share the following in common. These winners bring together “collaborative clusters” of research labs, industry, government, academia, cleantech investors, and producers to share and collaborate on key technology challenges and market demand-based opportunities.

The report concludes that if algae companies and R&D ventures engage in the above strategies, as detailed in the Algae 2020 study, they are more likely to attract the needed investment dollars, and ultimately more likely to scale up from the R&D stage to demonstration and commercial scale, thus becoming an algae winner rather than an algae loser.

You can listen to my full interview with Will here: Interview with Will Thurmond, Author Algae 2020, Vol. 2

According to a new report, “Making Integrated Food-Energy Systems (IFES) Work for People and Climate – An Overview,” the simultaneous production of food and fuel by farmers can help to reduce poverty in countries such as Africa, Asia and Latin America. This according to FAO who published the report this week.

“Farming systems that combine food and energy crops present numerous benefits to poor rural communities,” said Alexander Müller, FAO Assistant Director-General for Natural Resources. “For example, poor farmers can use leftovers from rice crops to produce bioenergy, or in an agroforestry system can use debris of trees used to grow crops like fruits, coconuts or coffee beans for cooking.”

Müller noted that other types of food and energy systems use byproducts from livestock or biogas production and with this type of integrated systems, farmers can save money – they don’t have to buy expensive fossil fuel or chemical fertilizers. Rather, than can use the slurry from biogas production, a more sustainable, less costly alternative.

“They can then use the savings to buy necessary inputs to increase agricultural productivity, such as seeds adapted to changing climatic conditions — an important factor given that a significant increase in food production in the next decades will have to be carried out under conditions of climate change. All this increases their resilience, hence their capacity to adapt to climate change,” said Müller.

IFES are also beneficial to women as they can eliminate the need to leave their crops to go in search of firewood. In addition, the report concludes that IFES farming can help to mitigate climate change, especially emissions stemming from land use change, because there is less chance land will need to be converted.

In conclusion, Olivier Dubois, an FAO energy expert said, “Promoting the advantages of IFES and improving the policy and institutional environment for such systems should become a priority. FAO is well placed to coordinate these efforts by providing knowledge and technical support for IFES implementation.”