Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference—Thoughts and Tidbits from Day 1

March 01, 2018

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by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA) The ABLC 2018 conference began at the US Department of Agriculture headquarters with a focus on feedstock. Jordan Solomon, Managing Director & CEO Ecostrat Inc.. kicked off the event with news of new US national standards for biomass supply chain risk that intend to enable investors and others to evaluate investment opportunities and biofuels/bioenergy/renewable chemicals projects on a more apples-to-apples/oranges-to-oranges basis. Watch for details.

The USDA/DOE project panel provided an overview of who’s who at USDA these days, including just-approved Bill Northey, former Iowa Agriculture Secretary, as USDA's undersecretary for farm production and conservation. During presentations about various programs, projects using coffee grounds as feedstock for ethanol, enzyme ladders linking multiple enzymes, the MARINER kelp project and combining food and dairy wastes to improve anaerobic digestion got audience attention.

Unfortunately, it became clear that the US Department of Energy still concentrates primarily on intergrated biorefineries that encompass the entire process from raw feedstock to final fuel or chemical products. This flies in the face of so much research (including that funded by federal government) which shows the benefits of partial processing of biomass to sugars, oils, precursors or biointermediates closer to the harvest site, what one speaker called “depots.”

USDA’s Bill Goldner spoke about NIFA’s role in facilitating the development of regional systems for the sustainable production of biobased fuels, chemical, and products, financed via a grant program known as Coordinated Agricultural Projects (CAPs). Through this program, USDA has invested $186 million on nine regional projects, most involving lignin-heavy feedstocks such as woody biomass and grasses, although, he noted, they have branched out to fund an oil seed project using carinata.

A key element of the CAP programs is the education component (research, education and outreach/extension), looked at as workforce development and involved with affecting social dynamics of getting producers to change their ways to grow new crops.

From watching presentations and listening to hallway conversations about the CAP grants, my impressions of what makes a winning project include the following. As there is a CAP grant application process in progress, these thoughts might be useful to potential applicants.

The requirements for business involvement should be met by having not just start-up or early stage companies involved and supporting the project, but large established companies (like Bridgestone which has facilities and equipment used for research and pilot production) or companies that have a clear track record and have produced sufficient end product to illustrate low technology risk.
Fuels do not have to be the main focus or product. The rubber/resin project is still looking for technologies to convert the residue biomass/bagasse to jetfuel and are welcoming inquiries and demonstrations from potential partners on this aspect of their grant.
Advisory boards or committees of substantial numbers that show support for and engagement with the project and that include not only academic, business and community organizations or leaders, but also a national laboratory and environmental groups.
Significant matching funds may not be required, but they will give a significant boost to the application both as a sign of serious commitment by partners and as a way to mitigate USDA risk.

Another CAP team will present as part of the jetfuel track.

On the Algae Front

Although it seems that algae production has pivoted to high value uses such as nutrition, cosmetics, feed, and such, algae for fuels is not completely dead.

However, algae presenters Matt Carr of the Algae Biomass Organization and Jacques Beaudry-Losique of Algenol agreed that it would take $100/barrel oil prices to make algae biofuel commercially competitive without other incentives. They also noted that although genetically modified algae might be used for industrial purposes, it is not now suitable for the food/nutrition purposes where algae is finding popularity today.

Cellana CEO Martin Sabarsky said he was telling “not your father’s algae story, rather, a story “from high value to high volume from the same damn crop,” meaning the same strain of algae that is being tested in a modular Hawaii demonstration will be used for low value fuels and high value nutrition. To provide some reality testing for those looking at investing in this area, he noted that over seven years, they have spent 30 Million dollars and are still not commercial. And, they are going for Omega-3 markets initially, rather than fuels.

*Joanne Ivancic serves as executive director of Advanced Biofuels USA.

Photos: JIvancic