The Accelerator is the first project of North Carolina’s Biofuels Campus, a partnership between the Center and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS). Over the next decade, the Campus will take shape as the nation’s only large-acreage site for biofuels trial-growing, company incubation and partnerships, demonstration and pilot facilities, and public education.

The Campus also contains a newly constructed biodiesel plant capable of converting virgin or recycled fats and oils into 35,000 gallons per year of high-quality biodiesel. The NCDA&CS Oxford Tobacco Research Station will operate the plant to produce a significant portion of its annual diesel fuel needs, using recycled cooking oil from the North Carolina State Fair. The facility has 15,000 gallons of storage capacity in a 1,200 square-foot tank farm. In addition to being a working biodiesel plant, the facility will serve as an educational resource to farmers and the public.

A range of regional and state policy, corporate, agricultural, agency, and environmental leaders will address these useful Campus facilities as well as state and national framework for the growing biofuels sector. Speakers will include:

• Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
• Congressman G.K. Butterfield, U.S. House of Representatives, First District
• Representative Jim Crawford, N.C. General Assembly
• Steve Troxler, Commissioner, N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
• Adam Monroe, President, Novozymes North America
• W. Steven Burke, President and CEO, Biofuels Center of North Carolina

3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Tours and Information

Tours of the Biofuels Company Accelerator, trial feedstock-growing plots, and the biodiesel plant will be provided. In addition, presentations will be given on the 10-year Campus Master Plan.  READ MORE

Sustainability Starts at Home. From left Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory; GWU Assistaint Professor of Geography, Melissa Keeley; Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle; moderator Frank Sesno; (hidden) DC Mayor Vincent Gray; GWU President Steven Knapp

For me, the best part of the summit was the session featuring the mayors of Washington, DC; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Huntsville, Alabama.  It was encouraging to hear these cities implementing ideas that I proposed in my campaign for Alderman of a small city in Maryland in 2005 and that Advanced Biofuels USA board member, Bob Kozak, urged in his campaign for Congress in this same area the next year.  The panelists all affirmed that incorporating sustainability into all aspects of government decision-making results in improved economics that override any short-term initial investment.

For example, Mayor Mark Mallory of Cincinnati described the financial and PR success of solar panels installed over the parking lots of the local zoo, not only providing power for the zoo operations, but earning their keep from sales to the grid; and pleasing zoo visitors by shading their cars.

Mayor Mallory also talked about Cincinnati’s court-ordered improvements to separate runoff from sewage.  He didn’t mention that the grease obtained from cleaning up that waste water was to be used to produce biodiesel.  Again, investment in sustainability that includes an element of payback.

A theme that was repeated throughout the summit was the importance of education.  Again, Advanced Biofuels USA has been on that bandwagon for more than four years; it’s core to our mission.  As the mayor of Huntsville said over and over, education and training in practices and values of sustainability has to begin in elementary school.  The Green Team concept in his city extends from elementary students to all parts of society. It begins with teaching children not to litter, to pick up trash, to turn off lights to conserve use of water and to generally develop sensitivity to better stewardship of resources.  This not only provides a foundation for understanding the value of investment in sustainable infrastructure and conscientious decision-making, but, as echoed by moderator and Planet Forward creator Frank Sesno, it becomes shared with parents and other family members.

Engineering students Matthew Wilkins and Jon Torrey and business school student Chris Deschenes talk about bamboo bikes.

GWU president Steven Knapp’s participation on this panel and through the entire event showed his commitment to improving sustainability throughout the GWU community as do his plans to have all new construction LEED certified, to use multimedia events such as this summit to educate and engage an extended community; and to encourage students, whom he sees as sustainability “missionaries” to bring him ideas to expand sustainability on campus and in the world.

The later was exemplified by a group of GW students who won the Clinton Global Initiative University Challenge with their “Panda Cycles” made from bamboo.

Vincent Gray, Washington, DC’s mayor, has an easier time than most with the live/work/play idea.  The Office of Planning oversees his 9-area plan (Built Environment, Waterways, Food, Waste Recycling, Transportation, Green Economy, Government, etc.) to avoid the “silos” problem which also got extensive attention at the summit.  Panelists in all sessions remarked that sustainability can’t be pigeonholed as just an environmental issue, or just a transportation issue, or just an energy issue, not just a food issue.  It encompasses all those and more.  Implementation requires cutting across all disciplines of government.

That concept also drives the new Sustainability Minor launched this week at GWU. Intentionally not a new “school” and not housed with an existing school (law, engineering, arts & sciences, international affairs, etc.) the Sustainability program lives in the Provost’s Office of Sustainability, reinforcing the value of academic pursuits’ impact on practical implementation and visa versa.  In addition to a foundational course, students must take courses in three different tracks: Environment/Earth Systems; Society and Sustainability; and Policy, Organization and Leadership.  Recognizing that cross-cutting nature of work with sustainability projects, Academic Program Director for Sustainability, Lisa Benton-Short encourages those who have majors in one of the tracked areas to choose to focus on the other areas to enhance the value of this multidisciplinary minor.

Dr. Debra Rowe, President of the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development, presented one of the challenges of providing relevant education at all levels from K-12 through community colleges and academic institutions.  Teaching skills and knowledge for work in “green jobs,” means nothing if those jobs aren’t there.  For example, knowing how to install solar panels has no value if people are not installing them.  Panels also discussed the related issue of jobs in America.  Even if policies, incentives and social attitudes supported the installation of solar panels or windmills, unless  the components are manufactured here, training for those component manufacturing jobs—from research, development, engineering and project management to installation and operations—is useless.

Again illustrating the importance of all aspects of society working together toward common goals.

Other discussions at this event concentrated on ideas related to creating a “smart grid” as a means to improve conservation of energy use and on corporate policies and practices in this regard.  And on discussion of questions such as “How can we be a catalyst for innovation?”  and on whether the current low price of natural gas due to fracking extraction will prove a “bust” to investment in renewables (“Why should we put any tax or policy incentives to support renewable if natural gas is so inexpensive?”  For a biofuels-based response to this question, see Biofuels Digest’s article: Falling natural gas prices and the bio-based opportunity)

In that regard, Reed Hundt, CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital illustrated the value of consensus on energy policy issues, consensus that clearly does not currently exist.  His questions, drawn from the above discussions were, “If inexpensive natural gas is such a “blessing for the United States,” why not keep it in the US?” Or, he wondered, will the pressure of high prices paid in the EU and Asia lead to putting government-supported and private investment into creating export infrastructures resulting in increasing prices in the US as the market becomes global as it is for oil?

Many want domestic energy feedstocks to be exploited now; but it is not clear if the intent is to create policies and incentives to use them here; or to make them available to the broader global markets.

One speaker wondered if we were living in a “post-policy” world.  If so, it makes it difficult for professionals and students alike to focus on solutions to our sustainability challenges because although they may solve a pressing problem; that economic element of the sustainability triad (economic, environmental and social) may prove the default factor determining the chances for success and the ability to effect the environmental and social values of the solution.

The summit and other Sustainability efforts at GWU and elsewhere this Earth Day Week are today’s steps in the direction of tomorrow.  Let us hope that we are creating the clearer heads that we need to prevail if we want to avoid a Mad Max future of struggle for essentials and instead enjoy a truly sustainable renewable future.  Photos by J.Ivancic

Summit Topics and Speaker Line Up

Pre-Summit Tour: National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Chas Eggert of OPX Biotechnologies got in some green chemistry philosophy; that this is not just about replacing existing petroleum chemicals, but creating new “good chemistry.”

The key is to find a solution to a problem according to Jere Kolstad of Rivertop Renewables.  His tweetable message:  “Make sure you are right because there are a lot of technologies in search of a problem.”  And, recognizing the problem of patent applications providing a recipe to a company’s “secret sauce,” he advised innovators to keep and protect trade secrets instead.

Kolstad also praised the innovators who went for “something unique, not drop-ins; something unknown” as a preferred business strategy consistent with the green chemistry philosophy touted by the company.

Solazyme’s Jonathan Wolfson’s advice?  Fail fast, learn enough from the failure to be able to move forward further than you would have without the failure.

“Dirty, Dangerous and Demeaning” could be the mantra for some small companies looking for a niche based on a “market pull model” rather than a “technology push model.”

Avello Bioenergy’s Dennis Banasiak referenced the company’s Scientific Advisory Board AND Strategic Advisory Board illustrating the value these days of finance and project development experts to “position the business in a much more favorable light.”  He also introduced the idea of leveraging existing resources, an idea which got a lot of air time in many presentations.

John Kasab of Ricardo, Inc., emphasized “more power out of smaller engines” as he explained the value of higher octane for engines that will be built to meet proposed US fuel economy (CAFÉ) standards.   His 15 minute presentation could not do justice to the subject and he was surrounded after his presentation.  A conference June 18-20, 2012, will explore next generation engines, fuels to feed them and related regulatory issues.  Click here for more information.

No tweets from Canadian-born Ensyn Technologies, but Stefan Muller’s story of their growing from a college project in 1984 to a multi-national presence in 2012 illustrates the path that this industry would have taken had the US government’s policy not focused on biofuels, including waving incentives at entrepreneurs to spur development of transportation fuels to replace petroleum-based fuels.

Ensyn  began making renewable replacements for petroleum chemicals and is only now moving into the liquid fuels market via RFO, renewable fuel oil.  They financed development of technologies to produce lower value fuels with sales of high value biochemicals; the path that most of this industry would have taken had they followed market incentives rather than government incentives which have recently been discontinued, effectively pulling the rug out from under this nascent industry.

Tom Burton of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo  at the project finance sessions echoed Paul Stuart of EnVertis who spoke at the Forest Biorefinery Workshop in urging companies to “keep the end in mind from the beginning.”

Burton gave scant comfort to the audience with his observation that venture capitalists “travel in herds” with the herd munching on social media these days.   That said, those funds that were active in biofuels seven years ago, he noted, are the same ones active now and they can be expected to continue to work in the biofuels space in the future.  Their experience with this sector that is seen as high technology risk and high financial risk apparently gives them a greater level of comfort.

Donald Roberts of the CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) provided meager optimism that some companies “have lots of financial capital to invest” but they are worried, anxious and need to be educated about advanced biofuels.

To deal with the perception of advanced biofuels as a strange high risk sector, ZeaChem did some “out of the box” thinking, explained Joseph Regnery, creating “Delay in Opening” insurance to address the realities of “never been done before” industrial innovations. The plant might not run right on the first day; but that is not  unexpected and improvements need to be made.  “Failure” then is not declared during the birth pains of the first year of operation.  If three years go by without meeting anticipated goals, then the investors may have a problem on their hands.

To bring greater understanding and appreciation for the realities of this developing industry to investors, Gary Luce of Terrabon suggested that we need to adjust our language.  Instead of talking about “technology risk” the reality, as illustrated in the ZeaChem experience, is actually engineering and scale-up risk.  If investors automatically run the other way from “technology risk” without deeper exploration of the opportunities, perhaps language that better describes the situation enables them to stay for a longer look.

Unfortunately the pithy wisdom from Mike McAdams of the Advanced Biofuels Association appeared in his “Policy Support Chart,” rather than in words.  The picture is a bell curve with years from 2004-2012 on the x-axis and level of policy support along the y-axis.  Informal discussions starting in the early 2000s build to bipartisan support for the 2005 initial Renewable Fuel Standards to the highs of 2007-2008 with the EISA’s RFS2 expansion. Then the line falls off the cliff during the recession to take us to where we are today, back to the level of square one as far as certain policy support goes.

Thus, the word “Uncertainty” got a lot of play in any discussion of policy.  Who knows what this Congress or this Administration will really do?  Even stated policies announced with flair at White House events, such as support for new vehicle efficiency standards (CAFÉ), have stalled.

Advanced Biofuels Industry Barometer

This conference provides a barometer of what is going on in the industry, with more CEOs and high level executives from all aspects of the advanced biofuels industry presenting, attending and discussing deals during networking breaks.

The sense this year was of a very weary and determined boxer picking himself again off the mat, away from the ropes and steadying for a renewed fight, digging into inner strengths, convinced of eventual victory by being able to outlast and endure whatever punches are being thrown.  And also a sense of knowing that the advanced biofuels contestant bears scrutiny and must strive to fight with integrity not demanded of the opponent.

Bets are on.  Odds are set.  In the movies, the underdog with the “good chemistry,” with “something unique” and good intentions to help solve this world’s energy problems should win.  The leaders of this industry are convinced that the sleepless nights, the “going where no one has gone before” vision and their persistent efforts to learn from set-backs and to move further forward than they would have without them will make them winners.  My money is with them.  READ MORE  and MORE  and MORE (Biofuels Digest) and MORE (ICIS Green Chemicals)

Great Networking Opportunities   As was the case for the 33rd SBFC, there will be 3 concurrent sessions except for poster and special topic sessions. With the two poster sessions, mid-session breaks, a free Wednesday afternoon, and the banquet/reception, there will be ample opportunities for technical discussions and networking across four days of stimulating programming. We encourage you to take full advantage of the meeting by active participation. Again, this year’s Symposium is made possible through the hard work of the staff at the Society for Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology. Remember book your rooms early, Jazz Fest draws a huge crowd from out of town.   READ MORE

The program at the inaugural All Florida Ag Show will cover industry-centric topics such as addressing the big issues (i.e., labor and water) and finding solutions, figuring future consumer trends, alternative energy and crop opportunities, how innovation and technology is transforming the farm, marketing in the information age, and more.

The All Florida Ag Show also will feature an expansive tradeshow exhibit area with industry suppliers ready to share the latest product and service innovations with growers. This unique event will take place at the brand new Highlands County Fair Convention Center in Sebring — a central location in the heart of Florida, easily accessible from all points.

All Florida Ag Show Highlights

• In-depth education sessions covering a wide array of timely, business-management topics
• Impressive lineup of expert speakers, industry representatives, and other ag advocates
• Expansive tradeshow area for hands-on, up-close previews of the latest products, equipment, and services
• The ability to network with and learn from other industry professionals across all segments of Florida agriculture  READ MORE

Times: 9:00 am − 2:00 pm or

5:30 pm − 10:00 pm

Register: www.rfa.traincaster.com

Who Should Attend:

• Emergency Responders
• Fire Departments
• EMTs
• Local Emergency Planning Committees
• Police
• Safety Managers   READ MORE

BDC will host its Spring Symposium in Knoxville, Tennessee on May 7-9 at the Airport Marriott Courtyard.  The Symposium includes tours of the Oak Ridge National Laboratories and DuPont Cellulosic Ethanol before and after a day of panels focused on “Opportunities for Bioenergy” all day on May 8.

The panels include:

• Value Added Biochemicals,
•  Bio-waste to Bio-products,
•  Bio-oil and Lignin Opportunities,
•  Financing Opportunities, and
• Updates from government agencies

A key representative from the Army’s Energy Initiative Task Force (EI-TF) will discuss the Army’s goals and recent RFP, while Todd Campbell and Bobby Goode from USDA will discuss  current and future funding opportunities, as will Neil Rossmeissl from DOE.  This will be the first time that BDC has hosted a military representative at the meeting but won’t be the last.  Since the military has land, facilities, and demand for biofuels and power, this presentation will be worth attending to hear.

For more information and to learn how to register to attend,  contact Bob Cadwalader at Robert.Cadwalader@bioenergydc.org or at (630) 858-4897.     READ MORE and MORE