Advanced BioFuels USA

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … As President Xi visits North America, China signs 3 major deals in industrial biotechnology.  The East is Red, it’s been said, and the future looks that way too.  The US is no place to deploy advanced fuels technology these days, many say. The costs are high, the politics stink, resistance to change is everywhere and the carbon mentality is not to be believed.

Go West, young friend, so far you reach the East, and in China grow up with the planet.

If there was much doubt that Horace Greeley’s 19th century advice to “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country” still applies — but simply might be extended 7000 miles — three industrial biotech deals aimed at scaled-up operations in China were announced this week, a pace more than an order of magnitude faster than development in the US or Europe.

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Under the framework of the MOU between Boeing and the National Development Reform Commission, Boeing and NDRC announced a new initiative to turn agricultural waste in China into sustainable aviation biofuel. Boeing will partner with NDRC to turn items from farms, such as corn cobs and wheat stalks, into sustainable jet fuel as a way to reduce aviation’s carbon emissions.

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Also on Thursday, Inventure Renewables announced construction of a commercial scale plant for Wilmar (China) Oleochemicals Co., Ltd. The commercial scale plant will be used to convert a waste vegetable oil byproduct into intermediate materials, which can be further processed into higher value food, feed and industrial products, including biodiesel.

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Algenol will partner with ZYNE to develop projects throughout Southern China, utilizing carbon emissions to create renewable fuels. The goal is to provide solutions for China’s three biggest challenges: access to clean air, clean water and sustainable fuels.

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10 Top China and Taiwan deals this year

In addition to the Boeing, Inventure and Algenol deals, here are the other 7 top deals this year

1. DuPont, New Tianlong Industry Co. ink Cellulosic Ethanol pact; China’s first Advanced Renewable Fuel Project on the way

In July 2015, DuPont and Jilin Province New Tianlong Industry Co. announced a licensing agreementto begin the development of China’s largest cellulosic ethanol facilities.  …

2. China Steel green-lights commercial-scale LanzaTech advanced biofuels project

In July 2015, Taiwan’s China Steel Corporation announced formal Board approval of a $46M capital investment in a LanzaTech commercial ethanol facility. …

3. Cathay Pacific makes strategic biofuels investment in Fulcrum, signs $1B+ jet fuel deal

In August 2014, Cathay Pacific Airways announced a strategic investment in Fulcrum BioEnergy, and negotiated a long-term supply agreement with Fulcrum for an initial 375 million US gallons of sustainable aviation fuel over 10 years (representing on an annual basis approximately 2% of the airline’s current fuel consumption) that meets all the airline’s technical requirements and specifications. …

4. M&G Chemicals, Anhui Guozhen ink pact to build world’s largest cellulosic biofuels plant

In July 2014, M&G Chemicals announced a joint venture with Anhui Guozhen CO, using PROESA technology licensed by Beta Renewables to convert 970,000-1,300,000 metric tons per year of agricultural residues into cellulosic ethanol, glycols and by-products such as lignin in Fuyang City (Anhui Province, PRC). …

5. Edeniq signs R&D agreement with China’s Global Bio-Chem Technology Group

In December 2014, Edeniq announced a Joint Development Agreement with Global Bio-chem Technology Group Limited Following a letter of intent forged in July, the companies further cement their cooperation on developing the lowest cost process for converting corn stover to cellulosic sugars for use in the production of bio-based chemical products. …

6. Novozymes sees China building second-gen plant in next two years

In China, Novozymes expects a commercial-scale second-generation plant to be online within the next two years, with between 50,000 and 100,000 tons of capacity, with several more plants online in five years. …

7. Methanol’s Moment: With low prices, and proven process, is meth your new best friend?

In China, there’s a lively market for methanol, generally produced from coal and blended in 5-15 percent ratios with gasoline.We profiled the biobased methanol options in this special report.

…   READ MORE and MORE (Boeing/PR NewsWire) and MORE (Inventure/PR NewsWire)