The 2025 AFCC Global Biobased Economy Performance Award Winner Announced

(Alternative Fuels and Chemicals Coalition) This award is given to an organization or an individual in the organization in recognition for advancing our sector, achievements in advancing science, assisting, and taking appropriate measures for initiating the production, manufacture, and commercialization of industrial biotechnology products. Their contributions can be measured in making our planet an environmentally cleaner and safer place to live in. The award is meant for an individual in an organization or is awarded to the organization. The award is sponsored by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publisher of the Journal Industrial Biotechnology.

This year's award is presented to Dr. Paul Schubert in recognition for advancing science and introducing new industrial biotechnology pathways to sustainable synthetic alternative fuels (SAF)!

A first-generation tech entrepreneur dedicated to decarbonization and growing the bioeconomy, Dr. Paul Schubert is the CEO and founder of Strategic Biofuels which is developing the Louisiana Green Fuels Project in Caldwell Parish in Northern Louisiana.

He started his 50 years of professional experience as a lab technician running analytical tests and washing laboratory glassware in South Arkansas for Lion Oil and Great Lakes Chemical. This has grown into being an inventor on 16 US patents and an author of over 50 professional publications. This all has been underpinned by his academic training of a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry summa cum laude from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, and graduate studies in business at San Jose State University.

He started his career doing research, development, and commercialization of conventional petrochemical technologies including heavy oil cracking catalysts for Engelhard Corporation (now part of BASF), and olefin and polymerization technologies for Phillips Petroleum. He moved into environmental technologies at Catalytica including waste chemical recycling and stack gas emissions monitoring. He has been working in the synthetic fuels space with including reforming, Fischer Tropsch synthesis, and hydrocarbon upgrading with Syntroleum and Velocys for the past 30 years, with the last dozen years in renewables. This has included projects in the US, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia. Between those two synthetic fuels companies Dr. Schubert worked for SGS, the world’s largest testing, inspection, and verification company in a senior management role over asset integrity and process safety management.

For the past five years Dr. Schubert has led the Strategic Biofuels team in their Louisiana Green Fuels Project. This novel project integrates biomass power production, biomass-based gasification and Fischer Tropsch SAF production, with carbon capture and sequestration. A unique aspect of the project is that Strategic Biofuels has developed its own carbon sequestration reservoir which lies beneath the project site. This has involved drilling the stratigraphic test well and performing injection testing to validate the geologic strata and the injectability of the reservoir, followed by state-of-the-art reservoir modeling, all of which is required for its Class VI sequestration well permit from the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources.

A key contribution from Strategic Biofuels to renewable fuels project developers using forestry feedstocks has been a two-year cooperative program with the US Forest Service and the US EPA with strong support from Weaver. AFCC was essential in initiating the project and input was obtained from developers in the AFCC’s Alternative Feedstock group along with timber owners, forest managers, and loggers. Its report, “The Practical Guide to Forestry Feedstocks Under the Renewable Fuel Standard” has been recommended by the EPA for use by developers.

Dr. Schubert said, “I am honored to accept this award and feel quite humbled by it. I have truly been blessed to have worked together with innovative scientists, engineers, and business leaders throughout my career. My current team at Strategic Biofuels is exceptional. It has empowered us to continue to rethink approaches to technology deployment, adjust to changes in the macro environment, push the boundaries of what is possible, and contribute to strengthening the national biobased economy. In doing this, we recognize the contribution that AFCC has made to our success thus far through facilitating cross fertilization of ideas and introductions to new partners and collaborators.” READ MORE

Excerpt from Strategic Biofuels: This Guide provides details regarding the information and documentation required for woody biomass to qualify for use as feedstock under the RFS. Project developers are encouraged to work directly with the EPA and third-party compliance auditors regarding qualification and documentation of their specific intended feedstock. Below are some key summary points from this guide:

• Management plan or timber harvest plan. For virtually all feedstock coming out of the forest, a management plan or timber harvest plan is a requirement to clearly document the intent for removal of the material from the tract. EPA expects and assumes that the removal of feedstock from the forest is incidental to normal forestry management and does not change or drive forest management practices.

• Logging. Currently, for materials to be considered qualified feedstock, they must be generated from logging operations or from downstream lumber processing / wood product manufacturing. These materials could be whole trees (“pre-commercial thinnings”) or slash generated from logging. Slash that has accumulated in a forest as a result of a storm, wildfire, or similar disturbance is not currently usable as EPA is having internal discussions related to this material.

• Qualified feedstock. Per the RFS regulations, qualified feedstock can take the form of slash, thinnings, or milling or manufacturing residues. Slash and thinnings are relatively straightforward in terms of qualification, however milling or manufacturing residue, particularly sawmill waste — as a significant subset of residue — has unique challenges to use due to the potential for incoming RFS-qualified raw material to be mixed with non-RFS-qualified material during the storage and/or milling processes, and traceability concerns.

• Areas at risk of wildfire. Wood from federal and non-federal lands is allowable under the “areas at risk of wildfire” renewable biomass category; however, this wood cannot practically be used at this time because it is not included in the existing RFS pathways. A new facility-specific pathway petition would have to be filed with and approved by EPA prior to being able to use this material.

• Tribal lands. Based on a recent EPA ruling, wood from tribal lands may be usable under the RFS program. • Current View. The conclusions and findings in this Guide are based on the current views of the authors, and it is acknowledged that these views could change in the future.

• Decision Matrix. A high-level decision matrix/flowchart regarding qualification of feedstock is located in Appendix A READ MORE and MORE