“We do full service restaurant care, which includes grease trap cleaning and maintenance, plumbing, water systems repair, and grease recycling,” Borish said. “The cooking oil is one of the waste streams we bring back to our plant, where we process it, recycle it and sell it to commodities brokers [for use] as feedstock for the biodiesel [industry] or as animal feed,” he continued. Borish estimates that his company currently sells approximately 18,000 gallons of recycled cooking oil into the biodiesel industry each week.  READ MORE

…Enerkem, which in the first three quarters of 2011 lost $19.1 million while recording $887K in revenues (primarily government grants) becomes the 15th company to file for an IPO in the industrial biotech boom, which began with a successful listing on the NASDAQ by Codexis in 2010.

…Here’s the F-1 registration, in a conveniently downsized 10-minute Digest version – with some commentary along the way as to what is driving value in the Enerkem model, opportunities for the intrepid investor, and some risks which we have translated from the ancient and original SEC into modern English.

From the F-1:  “We develop renewable biofuels and chemicals from waste using our proprietary thermochemical technology platform.

We intend to take advantage of the abundant supply of municipal solid waste, or MSW, which we expect to be paid to use as feedstock, to profitably produce cellulosic ethanol, a second-generation biofuel. We believe that our waste-based biofuels provide one of the most advanced solutions to the growing world demand for renewable sources of energy, while also addressing the challenges associated with waste disposal and greenhouse gas, or GHG, emissions.

Our pilot facility in Sherbrooke, Canada has been in operation since 2003 and has a throughput capacity of 4.8 metric tons per day. We have successfully increased, or scaled-up, our throughput capacity tenfold, or 10x, to 48 metric tons per day in our commercial demonstration facility in Westbury, Canada. The Westbury facility has a production capacity of 1.3 million gallons per year, or MMGPY.

Our first standard 10MMGPY commercial facility is currently under construction in Edmonton, Canada. We have developed a modular, copy-exact and scalable approach for equipment production and installation that we anticipate will allow us to have our systems manufactured by third parties as pre-fabricated, replicable modules under fixed-price contracts.

The Technology   From the F-1: “Our proprietary technology platform converts MSW and other heterogeneous waste feedstocks, consisting of mixed textiles, plastics, fibers, wood and various other forms of waste, into a pure, chemical-grade synthesis gas, or syngas. This syngas is then converted into biofuels and chemicals through well-established catalytic reactions. …

The Market    MSW Market. The United States generated 435 million metric tons of MSW in 2009, of which approximately 289 million metric tons, or 66% was landfilled. The company projects that approximately 140 million metric tons is suitable for ethanol production through gasification, yielding up to 14 billion gallons of ethanol annually.  READ MORE and MORE (Bloomberg) and MORE (PR NewsWire)

It’s a concept which the near-to-commercial Joule Unlimited has been exploring – where they use a modified microorganism that uses sunlight, water, CO2 and nutrients to directly produce renewable fuels and chemicals while bypassing the biomass stage…

Where an acre of, say, sugarcane can yield perhaps as much as 800 gallons of fuel, Joule Unlimited’s system, which looks like a field of solar panels, can generate up to 25,000 gallons of ethanol per acre, the company says.

New research is exploring the boundaries between bio and solar in a way that suggests that the two fields may ultimately converge.

You see, what is great about solar is the way that systems can achieve very high photosynthetic efficiencies. As high as 15-20 percent using today’s technology – whereas a plant might convert just 1-2 percent of the solar energy it receives into biomass.

Conversely, what is cool about bio is a lot more. Bio-based systems can utilize other inputs, such as CO2, or water. They make molecules, that can be used in zillions of useful ways, instead of just electrons that drive power systems.

… To produce the energy, the scientists harnessed the power of a key component of photosynthesis known as photosystem-I (PSI) from blue-green algae. This complex was then bioengineered to specifically interact with a semi-conductor so that, when illuminated, the process of photosynthesis produced electricity. More on that technology here.

… Enter the chemolithoautotrophic organisms. Now, try saying that three times real fast. What are those? These are organisms that can obtain energy from an inorganic material, instead of from sunlight.

…BioSolar has developed a technology to produce bio-based materials from renewable plant sources that will reduce the cost of photovoltaic solar panels.  READ MORE

First, the development of economically feasible technologies. Second, the financing and construction of new capacity, including any bolt-ons, restarts or retrofits of existing capacity. Third, the distribution of the fuel, whether through existing blending waivers (e.g. E10 ethanol or B10 biodiesel), expanded waivers (e.g. E15 ethanol), higher blends through flex-fuel car manufacturing (e.g. E30, E85), or drop-in fuels.

Work is underway on all three fronts – all have proven supremely difficult.

36 billion gallons, the easier way     Now, there’s no requirement of law of economics that mandates the scenario that we will present below. What it does represent is, we believe, the lowest-cost, lowest-risk path to meeting the RFS based on what we have learned to date regarding the three Grand Challenges.

12 billion gallons of corn-starch based biobutanol.   …But the RFS does not mandate ethanol. We believe that the fleet can convert to biobutanol by 2022. They would do so, to produce higher value molecules, and working around the E10 “blend wall” which limits the US to around 13.5 billion gallons of ethanol via blending at the refineries. …

3 billion gallons of agricultural residue-based biobutanol, using the existing corn ethanol fleet.    Why 3 billion? POET tells us that you can add about 25 percent to existing corn ethanol capacity by having farmers from the same geography bring in their baled cobs and corn stover, while leaving enough biomass on the field for soil quality purposes.

Now, because this is biobutanol, it counts for the equivalent of 3.9 billion gallons of ethanol-equivalent under the RFS.

6 billion gallons of algal-based biofuels or solar fuels, utilizing the existing corn ethanol fleet. …But BioProcess Algae has its groundbreaking today, for a algal-based fuel system that does just that – uses the CO2 (and process heat) from the Green Plains corn ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa.

This has the equivalent of up to 10.2 billion gallons under the RFS.

2 billion gallons of biodiesel, using existing US capacity. …

3 billion gallons of cellulosic biobutanol, utilizing new capacity, or 2.3 billions gallons of renewable diesel.  READ MORE and MORE (Biofuels Digest follow up with readers’ comments)

Excerpts from follow-up:  The readers respond

From readers (who generally wished to remain anonymous), we had the most negative feedback on three items.

1. We ignored the stronger GHG emissions reduction opportunities available via ethanol.

2. It will take years to convert the corn ethanol fleet to biobutanol, and the industry is at the ethanol blend wall now, so ignoring, for example, blender pumps, does the industry a disservice.

3. Consumers will not pay more for isobutanol than for ethanol (on an energy value), so how will producers make more money, and why would companies sell a molecule as a $3 fuel instead of a $5 chemical?

Key takeaways from Butamax and Gevo

1. The Butamax joint venture intends to sell isobutanol into the fuel markets at a competitive price (on an energy-equivalent basis) to ethanol.  …

2. The Butamax JV will be capable of and focused on, with its engineering staff and the staff of their proposed partners, conversion of multiple ethanol facilities at one time – rather than onesy-twosy.

…The retrofits are, in the case of both Gevo and Butamax, focused on three key units at the ethanol plant. Namely, the units for fermentation, separation and distillation.  …

3. What’s the proposition to the bioprocessor, the actual ethanol plant? Higher value molecules, for sure. Also, as a lesser point but still important, less exposure to issues such as the ethanol blend wall.

The Digest’s Take

…Well, we certainly agree that, in an ideal world, ethanol might well rule and certainly an “all of the above” portfolio strategy that embraces all fuel molecules is more robust than an “eggs in one basket” strategy.

However, we note the financing and construction timelines, and warn industry that unless they develop an affordable, reliable strategy – which does not cost many more federal dollars – for reaching the RFS targets, the RFS will be opened and revised. Downward, in an investor-crushing manner.  READ MORE

For deficit-burdened governments, allocating public money to help feedstock providers plant energy crops and fuel producers build biorefineries may not get the priority aviation wants. And without considerable government support for continued research and early commercialization—and for the military to act as the “first adopter”—aviation will miss its targets in increasing biofuel use and reducing carbon emissions.

…The most sustained and rigorous airline trial to date, Lufthansa’s BurnFair project consumed more than 1,500 metric tons of blended fuel in 1,187 flights between July 15 and Dec. 21, reducing carbon-dioxide emissions by a calculated 1,471 metric tons—almost a 60% saving over conventional kerosene. The biofuel used was supplied by Finland’s Neste Oil and derived from camelina (80%), jatropha (15%) and animal fat (5%).

The $8.5 million project was supported with $3.2 million in subsidies from the German government, which helped offset a biofuel price a bit more than double that of conventional jet fuel. While the Lufthansa trial found no technical barriers to use, it did show that hydrotreated renewable jet fuel provides a 1% energy benefit over conventional kerosene.  READ MORE

Joule’s plant initially will encompass 5 acres, with the potential to scale up to encompass 1,200 acres.  READ MORE and MORE (Xconomy)

…Regarding biopower, Kelly said that Portland General Electric in Boardman recently came to an agreement with state authorities to phase out the use of coal at its power plant by 2020. As an alternative, Kelly said, the company has been considering fueling the plant with giant cane. They’ve been working with several entities within the state to develop the biomass feedstock, specifically by working with farmers and evaluating logistics and infrastructure needs.

…Greenwood, which grows poplars, boasts the largest tree farm in the U.S. While the resulting woody biomass has traditionally been used to produce wood for moldings, the farm recently agreed to supply feedstock to ZeaChem, which converts the biomass to produce acetic acid and ethyl acetate. The company also eventually plans to produce cellulosic ethanol.

Meanwhile, Kelly said Trillium FiberFuels Inc. is working on enzymatic isomerization. Essentially they are looking at how to increase yields by utilizing five-carbon sugars with traditional yeast. The process converts xylose so traditional yeast can ferment it.  READ MORE

In the United States, LanzaTech is developing a facility to produce renewable fuels and chemicals from regionally sourced waste wood in Soperton, Georgia – the old Range Fuel site, now named Freedom Pines. http://www.freedompines.com/ In addition, the company is working with the U.S. Department of Energy, the Department of Defense (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – DARPA) and the Federal Aviation Administration, to adapt its technology to produce aviation fuels for commercial and military use.

…Meanwhile, plans for the Freedom Pines facility in Georgia are as yet unfinalized, but the company is expected to have its plans in place before August of this year. For now, the expectation is that the bulk of the company’s development of its chemicals opportunities will take place in Georgia.  READ MORE and MORE (Forbes)

USDA funding will be used to construct a 55,000 square foot facility that will produce cellulosic ethanol by converting municipal solid waste and other industrial pulps into advanced biofuels, as well as using conventional renewable biofuel derived from seed corn waste. When operational, the facility is expected to produce approximately 3.6 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year.

Fiberight’s Targeted Fuel Extraction (TFE) process recognizes that sold waste is neither homogeneous nor fully convertible to energy. Fiberight’s system bifurcates organic and inorganic wastes and converts them according to type. The TFE process separates, cleans and processes organic and hydrocarbon fractions then converts the organic fraction into cellulosic biofuel, the hydrocarbon fraction into plant energy and electricity, and the inert fraction into recyclables or beneficial products.

Novel technologies such as enzyme recycling and cellulosic sugar concentration have been developed to control costs and the company has tested these processes on a commercial scale. During 2009, Fiberight achieved high yield conversion factors at its Lawrenceville, VA pilot plant due to the evolution of the enzyme catalysts used in strategic partnership with technical partner, Novozymes.

The process will use a cellulosic microbe to produce up to 15% more ethanol than traditional fermentation technology, and reduce energy inputs in the fermentation and distillation process.  READ MORE and MORE  (Biofuels Digest) and MORE (USDA) and MORE (Ethanol Producer Magazine) and MORE (Southwest Farm Press)