Advanced Biofuels Community Leaders Meet: Persistent and Dogged in the Throes of a Tough Slog

March 16, 2015

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by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA) Every year, the annual Washington, DC gathering of leaders in the advanced biofuels world at the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference sports a different "vibe." In the early days of the late 2000's, the atmosphere filled with optimism, visionary ideas, hope and more than hope--certainty that we would "get off of our addiction to oil" as President George W. Bush put it, and solve the problems of the world.

Tough Slog

Genera Energy's President and CEO, Kelly Tiller (far right in photo), in her presentation, illustrated her view of the life cycle of an advanced biofuels company. In doing so, she also illustrated the dynamic of the conference moods. Beginning in the early days full of naïveté, optimism, even hype; moving through realistic implementation on an upward trajectory; reaching the top of the cycle, the rollercoaster hill, where it's a tough slog; and, if the idea makes it through that, descending into consolidation and stability which lead to recognizing the need to reform; then development of new exciting ideas and back into the cycle again. She observed that the mood of the 2015 meeting was entrenched in the tough slog.

As if a general feeling of "tough slog" on the business side was not enough to bear, this community was also mourning the sudden, unexpected, untimely suicide of a beloved colleague, Guido Ghisolfi, CEO of Italy's Beta Renewables. Not only a business associate, competitor and crucial leader of technology implementation, Ghisolfi was remembered during opening remarks by a number of presenters as a particularly close friend, as an inspiration, as someone whose loss will be deeply felt on a personal level. An employee of one of his companies said during a break that even her children cried learning of this loss; their families had an informal exchange program to give the children a chance to live in each other's countries. Conference organizer, Jim Lane, presented the annual Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously to his friend, explaining that the presentation came much sooner than he would have liked.

Biofuels Digest Editor Jim Lane introduces Policy Outlook Panel

And that wasn't all. Advanced Biofuels Association executive director Mike McAdams (seated far left in photo above) dropped a policy bomb announcing that the Advanced Biofuels Association was breaking its solidarity with the other renewable fuels trade organizations and calling for legislative reform of the Renewable Fuel Standard. As a former staffer of the organization noted the next day, the Twitterverse exploded upon that announcement; and before the conference session was over, he received tweets from friends who had no connection with the renewable fuels industry, wanting to know what was going on.

To make matters just a bit worse, the Environmental Protection Agency, the agency responsible for success-or-failure regulations affecting this industry, the agency on which all the trade organizations (even the Advanced Biofuels Association) hang their hopes for rigorous interpretation and enforcement of those regulations, refused to participate.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus Explains Advanced Biofuels as Strategic Weapon

US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus receives Global Bioenergy Leadership Award from Biofuels Digest's Jim Lane.

So, heavy stuff going on. But this community (It's hard to call it an industry when so many are still "pre-revenue" or at least "pre-profit.") is used to picking itself up and moving on.

The foremost example of this, Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, in his keynote address upon receiving the Global Bioenergy Leadership Award, firmly explained why we are here, making three clear points. The Navy, Marine Corps and more rely on this developing industry to 1) Diversifying fuel supplies; 2) Stabilize fuel costs; and 3) Reduce overall energy needs.

Why is this important? The urgency stems not only from economic benefits; but most important because diverse energy sources "reduce the ability of people to use access to energy as a geopolitical weapon;" reduces vulnerabilities of being overly reliant on outside sources of fossil fuel to power fleets, aircraft and more. Especially with the US Department of Defense being the "largest user of fossil fuels on Earth;" and with the Navy using one third of that. He pointed out Russia's current use of energy access as a weapon against Ukraine and Europe. And affirmed that losing one Marine for every 50 convoys bringing fuel to the military was an unacceptable price.

The goal he set for the department, 50% non-fossil-fuel use by 2020 will be reached onshore by the end of this year. 2012's Pacific Rim exercises successfully demonstrated use of biofuels in every possible application by the Great Green Fleet carrier strike group. The only difference noticed was that the renewable fuels burned cleaner than fossil fuels, didn't "gunk up the engines" as much. At sea, every one of the aircraft and ships are certified to use biofuels.

Secretary Mabus spoke of the "new normal," that the US military and all of our allies will be using fuel that is partly biobased without knowing the difference or making any special accommodations for it. In response to a question asking what this industry could do to help, he answered that the industry work on a "science project" to develop lubicating elements of the fuel so that instead of 50/50 blends, the Navy can run on 100% non-fossil-based fuels.

Great Green Fleet during RimPac 2012 -- US Navy photo

Attended by ambassadors and other distinguished guests (see list below), this presentation illustrated the resolve of the US Navy and maritime countries around the world, to urge development and deployment of renewable fuels. Make no mistake about it. They presented a quiet, and forceful flank of the battle to achieve that goal of "getting over our addiction to oil" and diversifying sources of energy to reduce the power of energy as a geostrategic weapon.

During breaks and during presentations, there were repeated references to the power of that simple show of force.

How to Achieve These Goals--Practical Advice

Wilson Sonsini's Taite McDonald addresses challenges and solutions as part of one of the "Finance Summit--What's Working Best" panelists.

Throughout the conference many high quality panels presented a range of perspectives or approaches on themes ranging from policy outlook to strategic perspectives to paths to scale and steady-state production, market attitudes toward IPOs, getting through the financing Valley of Death and lessons learned along the road to commercialization. At times, descriptions of company activities got tedious; but every time the speakers did pull out of the spiral to bring up the salient point or the nugget that was worth waiting for.

A unique element this year came from some companies that had made it though enough of the tough slog period that they felt comfortable talking about and even showing photos of the disasters in their past. Important on two levels. First, it was very generous of them to share these anecdotes as a way to encourage others, even potential competitors. Second, there was a feeling that as you strived to survive and thrive you were becoming a part of a very small, select club. Like going through hazing, but not simulated or pretend– very, very real.

Corinne YOung, chief advocate for re:chem introduces discussion of US government agencies' policies.

That brings up another characteristic of this annual meeting. Some people attend church retreats to spend time with people who share their daily life struggles, their aspirations and beliefs. The people making advanced biofuels happen in business, government, finance, science and communities have this conference to come together to encourage, argue, renew alliances, make philosophical stands, gather strength and throw down challenges. Yet, underlying all the competition and disagreement, an element of camaraderie, of shared purpose and shared struggle.

To make advanced biofuels happen requires many types of people who don't necessarily get along. The story at the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute goes that after years of chemists meeting together, they decided to invite chemical engineers, intentionally preparing for the cultural clash. A few years later, they put their toes in the waters of the biology world by inviting Advanced Biofuels USA to exhibit and biologists to present, bridging an even greater cultural divide.

To make advanced biofuels work requires all of these science and technology worlds to merge along with the worlds of commerce, policy, environmentalism and more. Quite a stew. As a stew takes high heat for braising, some boiling and a long simmer and a variety of ingredients to reach its peak, so does the pot of advanced biofuels.

CAAFI executive director Steve Csonka introduces the Aviation & Military Biofuels Summit panel.

Market Factors

More ways that it's not easy? Certainly, expecting the entrenched market leader (oil) to voluntarily take its product out of the market and replace it with a renewable competitor is overly optimistic if not insane. Yet, perhaps thinking that oil companies would diversify into renewables, that's just what the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) did in the Renewable Fuel Standard. It made sense to oil interests to replace fossil-based octane with cheaper ethanol-octane; but beyond there be dragons.

Ben DeVries, Treasure Coast Education, REsearch and Development Authority CEO described involvement with the USDA/DOE/FAA/CAAFI Farm to Fly initiative.

So, corn ethanol secured the 10% of the market that is in the oil company's financial interest. And corn ethanol producers have less reason to give up that portion of the fuel market than oil has to relinquish its market share. More than one presenter admitted that the corn ethanol producers will protect their turf as much as the oil companies protect theirs. It’s reality. Everyone knows that they would do the same. As Mike McAdams noted, the way the RFS has been implemented favors now-entrenched corn ethanol interests.

The main market for advanced "drop-in" transportation fuel molecules is aviation, jetfuel. Talk about a tough slog. Once novel technologies, or even technologies built primarily on existing processes, achieve production, a nearly interminable approval process guarantees only the well-connected survive.

So, recognizing this reality one of the alcohol-to-jet presenters suggested that existing corn ethanol plants bolt on the ATJ technology. It makes market sense for them. With the Obama administration protecting the "blend wall" that supports a 90% fossil fuel market, the choice is to export or find other uses for the ethanol that they have capacity to produce. So, why not? Feedstock might be the limiting factor—which takes us to the question of intermediates produced away from the main multi-product biorefinery, a subject of other articles.

David Dodds moderated the Renewable Chemicals Summit portion of the ABLC conference.

ABLC expanded this year, moving "beyond biofuels" to encompass the entire bioeconomy dedicating stage time to renewable chemicals. Made as a more economical way to develop technologies that may also apply to fuels once chemical markets become saturated; or created specifically for chemical markets, companies large and small made clear their intention to produce the same or better than fossil-based materials at competitive prices.

The finance gurus also had their time in the spotlight. "Tough slog" describes the message embedded in their presentations overall. From price of oil to policy uncertainty to general economic malaise, it became clear that most of the investment comes from large companies interested in diversifying into the renewable space; companies who can take a financial hit for a while as they explore innovation betting on being the leaders as a bio-based, renewable, sustainable future develops.

Feedstock--See you in New Orleans

Although a substantial portion of this conference usually covers feedstock issues, that topic area has grown so much that a full conference dedicated to exploring multiple aspects has been set for June 9-10 in New Orleans.

Marching On

Let there be no doubt about the resolve of the intrepid warriors in the battles toward a renewable, sustainable future denying unbalanced power to fossil fuel energy powers. Dedication, persistence, intelligence and faith in the value of their efforts sustains this growing industry.

US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus with some of the ambassadors and distinguished guests attending the Global Bioenergy Leadership Keynote Address.

List of Ambassadors and distinguished guests, visitors from Pacific Rim and European naval allies:

Ambassador Mirpuri of Singapore
Ambassador Thompson of Fiji
Ambassador Mulina of Papua New Guinea
Ambassador Takesy of Micronesia
Rear Admiral Sekiguchi of Japan
Counselor Gorassen of Sweden
Vice Admiral Francisco Perez Rico of Mexico
Commodore Mehta, Embassy of India
Captain Suvin Jangyodsuk, of Royal Thai Embassy

LISTEN to Secretary Mabus Global Bioenergy Leadership Keynote

Photos by J. Ivancic unless otherwise noted.

Advanced Biofuels USA's executive director, Joanne Ivancic (right) joined volunteer correspondent Lais Thomaz who also volunteered as conference staff.

*Joanne Ivancic, serves as Executive Director of Advanced Biofuels USA. She also served as a lobbyist promoting advanced biofuels research and production on Capitol Hill and with executive agencies. She has observed the development of advanced biofuels’ research and financing for more than fifteen years. From 2010 to 2013 she was voted one of the Top 100 People in Bioenergy by Biofuels Digest readers and editors.