Hot Biofuels Company - A Profile of Coskata, Inc

Based in Warrenville, Illinois, biofuels industry leader Coskata says that with its technology the company can produce ethanol from just about any organic material. Even better, Coskata says it is able to do so for less than per gallon. This claim, and generous backing from venture capitalists and the likes of General Motors, gave Coskata the number one ranking from Biofuels Digest in its list of the 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy.

Unlike most of its ethanol-focused competitors, the Coskata approach is not based on improved cellulosic conversion to fermentable sugars. Rather, Coskata uses already available chemical technology for converting mixed agricultural and municipal waste into a synthesis gas, which consists mainly of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen.

Biotechnology

Then second step is the biological one, relying on the microbial bioconversion of the synthesis gas to ethanol. Coskata claims it produces "99.7% pure ethanol" with its microbe and process, although of course, every other method can also produce 99.7% pure ethanol once the ethanol is refined and distilled. A distinct advantage of the Coskata technology is the use of non-food raw materials, avoiding the problem of diverting food crops to fuels or the crowding out of food crops with fuel crops.

Hot Biofuels Company - A Profile of Coskata, Inc

Coskata's process would produce ethanol from agricultural waste like corn stalks and wheat straw. Another advantage is that Coskata's method for producing ethanol avoids the "negative energy" comparisons that have been so glibly bandied about. Using already available waste means no additional energy cost for growing and harvesting the raw materials it will use as a feedstock, and therefore, Coskata calculates that its ethanol provides 7.7 times the energy required to produce it.

Whether or not this is strictly true, on paper Coskata's process looks far more efficient than corn-based ethanol production.

As for revenues, Coskata has nothing of significance on the horizon. The company's first pilot plant won't be running until the end of 2009 at the earliest, and it will only produce about 40,000 gallons per year. At per gallon, that is a pretty poor return on the approximately 0 million invested. But Coskata claims that the sky is the limit on its future potential, which is why all the money has flowed in from investors in the first place. The first commercial-scale plant producing 100 million gallons per year is scheduled for 2011, and if the company meets that milestone, the future for Coskata will be highly liquid-both with green fuel and greenbacks. 

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David Rozzell maintains a web site and blog dedicated to the latest developments and news in biofuels, biocatalysis, and industrial biotechnology. For informative, sometimes amusing, always opinionated analysis go to http://www.bio-catalyst.com Contact him at david@bio-catalyst.com.

Biofuels - Saving the World Or a Waste of Money?

There is a steady buzz about biofuels, and there are some strong opinions about this timely topic. At one extreme are people who believe that biofuels will save the world from a dependence on evil petroleum and stave off global warming. On the other side are those who say that biofuels are uneconomic and just the latest government-subsidized boondoggle. What is the real story? No short article can cover the topic comprehensively, but this short primer will sort out a few facts so that you can decide for yourself.

Typically, the term biofuels means transportation fuels, replacing or at least reducing the requirement for gasoline derived from petroleum. This is worth remembering because biologically generated ethanol, vegetable oils, and animal fats have been used for centuries for cooking and lighting (think of alcohol burners, old-fashioned street lamps, candles). But today, almost no one is thinking about using biofuels for anything other than powering internal combustion engines (The idea is not a novel as it sounds; Henry Ford originally designed the Ford Model T to run on ethanol, not gasoline).

Biotechnology

Currently there are two biofuels available in large enough quantities to have an impact: bio-ethanol and biodiesel. Bio-ethanol is essentially the same substance humans have been producing for 6000 years in beverages by fermenting sugars present in almost any starchy vegetable or sugary fruit. The main difference is the refining needed following distillation to produce ethanol to the substantial exclusion of water. Only then can it burn efficiently in a truck or automobile.

Biofuels - Saving the World Or a Waste of Money?

Biodiesel is completely different, chemically. It is produced by reacting plant or animal fats with methanol to produce long-chain fatty acid methyl esters, which can be blended in substantial amounts with traditional petroleum-derived diesel and used as a transportation fuel. Biodiesel is, in point of fact, a good fuel, and it is cleaner-burning than traditional diesel. On some farms all the tractors and farm equipment are run on 100% biodiesel.

Both bio-ethanol and biodiesel are considered first generation biofuels: producible now using existing technology. Second generation biofuels are the next wave, comprising compounds that are more fuel-like such as butanol or hydrocarbons. There is a second generation biodiesel as well, using oils produced by algae in place of plant oils derived from soybean, canola or corn.

The real plum will be when biofuels-ethanol first, but eventually second generation biofuels such as butanol or hydrocarbons-can be produced from waste cellulosic materials such as corn stover (the stalk left after corn is harvested), bagasse (the sugar cane stalk left after sugar has been pressed out), corn cobs, wood chips, straw, and the like. These sources are waste products, already produced anyway, so no crowding out of agricultural food products will occur. I don't care whether this is called third generation or not. What is important is that using waste agricultural materials instead of food materials will essentially eliminate the upward pressure that current biofuels production has exerted on food prices.

What is indisputable is that every gallon of biofuels generated replaces roughly a gallon of fuel that would otherwise come from petroleum (the equation is not exact due to the varying energy value of different biofuels). This both reduces our dependence on foreign oil and extends our domestic oil supply. Economics are another matter. Biofuels cannot compete with petroleum at today's (February 2009 when this was written) oil prices of less than per barrel. But biofuels do help set a cap on the price oil. What that price level is remains a subject for debate and varies from one biofuel to another. Delving into the details of the cost of biofuels is a topic we will address another time. It is important, however, to acknowledge that the capping effect on fuel prices exists as long as biofuels are maintained as a viable alternative.

Regarding greenhouse gas emissions there is also a range of opinion. In general, however, most observers agree that corn-based biofuels provide a relatively small benefit in this regard, if any. Biofuels derived from existing sources of cellulosic waste would provide a larger reduction, simply due to the fact that no additional energy to harvest the raw material is required. How important it is to achieve this reduction in greenhouse gases is also debatable and outside the scope of this article.

One take-away conclusion about biofuels is the following: corn-based biofuels, whether first or second generation, should only be considered as a stop-gap measure, to be used until the cellulose-based technology has been sufficiently developed. If, within 2-5 years, the displacement of corn by cellulose-based technology has taken place in the USA, upward pressure on food prices due to biofuel production will have abated, and an alternative to petroleum will exist that both reduces our dependence on foreign oil and helps to put a cap the market price of oil.

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David Rozzell maintains a web site and blog dedicated to the latest developments and news in biofuels, biocatalysis, and indsutrial applications of biotechnology at http://www.bio-catalyst.com

Contact him at david@rozzell.com.

The Case For Biofuels

The internal combustion engine is well-established around the world as crucial for transportation, and those engines require fuel. It is pointless to deny that fact. Although conservation always can and should play an important role in reducing the use of transportation fuels, that use cannot go to zero. Therefore, a steady supply of fuel for engines that power cars, trucks, farm equipment, and airplanes is essential to be able to succeed in the global economy and to maintain an acceptable standard of living.   

Approximately 60% of the world's known oil reserves are in the Middle East, and almost every industrialized country imports at least some oil from that region of the world. Further, since oil is a highly fungible commodity, the decisions on the volume of production of oil by the oil cartel have a major impact on its price. By adjusting production appropriately, Middle Eastern oil producers can exert a lot of control over the supply of oil, and therefore its price. It follows, then, that energy independence is possible only if we either increase the supply of our own oil or find alternative means of producing a suitable substitute.

Biotechnology

Enter biofuels. Defined as any fuel-solid, liquid, or gas-derived from recently dead biological material (as opposed to biological material that has been dead for millions of years), biofuels offer a path to increased energy dependence. Biofuels are renewable, sustainable, and domestically-produced. Indeed, since it is from agricultural feedstocks that biofuels are overwhelmingly derived, one can think of biofuels as a type of solar energy. Through photosynthesis, plants use energy from the sun to grow and accumulate fermentable sugar raw materials and oils.

The Case For Biofuels

Using plant sources we can produce two biofuels now in large enough quantities to have an impact on the market for transportation fuels: bio-ethanol and biodiesel. Although ethanol is only about 60% as good a fuel as gasoline based on energy content, and has other draw backs including its inability to be transported through the existing pipeline infrastructure, it can be blended into gasoline up to about 15% without requiring any modifications to most existing car and truck engines.

Biodiesel is entirely another story. Produced from plant or animal fats, biodiesel can be blended in substantial amounts with traditional petroleum-derived diesel or in some cases used directly as a transportation fuel. Unlike ethanol, biodiesel is a good fuel, and it has the added advantage that it is cleaner-burning than diesel. Its problem is that there is nowhere near enough plant-sourced oil to produce more than a 5-10 percent of our diesel needs. 

Since ethanol can be produced now in vastly larger quantities using existing technology than can biodiesel, it is the only biofuel currently available that can meaningfully reduce our demand for foreign oil. Although ethanol is certainly not the most desirable biofuel, there is simply no other option currently.

That must change if biofuels are to realize their potential as a replacement for petroleum-derived gasoline in transportation fuels. There are three important developments to look for in the near future in the USA. The first is the switch from corn to cellulosic waste as the source of fermentable sugars for biofuel production. Cellulosic pilot plants have already been built and processes are being tested, so this switch will likely begin to happen at the commercial level over the next 2-5 years. Once this shift is complete, the diversion of land and agricultural products from food uses to biofuel production will be essentially eliminated, and the upward pressure on food prices will abate. The second important technological shift will be toward the production of better biofuels such as butanol and hydrocarbons and away from ethanol.

Both butanol and hydrocarbons such as terpenes are much more gasoline-like, have higher energy content, and posses none of the drawbacks of ethanol as a transportation fuel. We already see a heavy investment in research and development in these areas. Once the technology is well-enough developed to be commercially viable, cellulosic-derived, more practical biofuels will enter the marketplace that are ideal replacements for oil-derived fuels. The third breakthrough will be the use of algae as a source of oil for biodiesel production. Technological improvements in the efficiency of growing algae and recovering the oil are needed for algal biodiesel to be economic, but steady progress toward those goals is being made. Once these three developments are in place, we will have taken decisive steps toward energy independence and relief of cartel-imposed price controls. 

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David Rozzell maintains a web site and blog dedicated to the latest developments and news in biofuels, biocatalysis, and indsutrial applications of biotechnology at http://www.bio-catalyst.com Contact him at david@rozzell.com.

A Biofuels Company Without a Bioprocess - Range Fuels

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Range Fuels likes to shine a spotlight on itself. With a tag-line of "Inventing the New Oil" you are bound to garner some attention. Even better is the statement that its most important client is "our planet" - not you the consumer, but good old Mother Earth. An entire section of the company's web site is dedicated to awards that Range Fuels has won. And that's not all. The web site quotes Albert Einstein and seeks to educate the masses about the virtues of ethanol with a tutorial called "Ethanol 101." Broomfield, Colorado-based Range Fuels is certainly comfortable with hyperbole. The question is whether they will be able to back it up with results.

Range Fuels has been able to raise substantial sums of money: approximately $200 million combined from venture capitalists like Khosla Ventures and loan guarantees from the USDA. So, what is all the excitement about? Range Fuels has a technology similar to that of fellow biofuels high-flyer Coskata. Cellulosic waste is converted into synthesis gas using existing technology involving heat, pressure and steam.  Then, the resulting synthesis gas is then converted into ethanol using other chemical catalysts. There is no bioconversion involved at any stage of the process. In other words, there is nothing biological about Range Fuel's process for generating ethanol. In this case, the only part that is "bio" is the feedstock. Raw materials include wood, sawdust, corn stover (the stalk left after the corn is harvested), paper pulp, hog manure, switchgrass, eucalyptus-in short, most any agricultural waste product or even energy crops grown specifically for producing fuels. But what happens to all the waste that does not end up as ethanol? The company doesn't say anything about that.

We will have some idea about the potential for Range Fuels' technology soon. The first pilot plant establishing feasibility of its fully integrated thermo-chemical conversion to ethanol has been operating at the Colorado-based development center since Quarter 1, 2008. The first demonstration plant is scheduled for completion in Soperton, GA later in 2009, using cellulose as the feedstock.  Full-scale production is planned to start up in 2010. The company's business model calls for designing, building, and operating its plants, so Range Fuels will need to capture a healthy percentage of the fuel ethanol market and be cost competitive to earn a reasonable return on the already substantial investment. With fuel prices already substantially lower than they were a year ago, the technology will need to be very good just for Range Fuels to survive.

David Rozzell maintains a web site and blog dedicated to the latest developments and news in biofuels, biocatalysis, and industrial biotechnology. For informative, sometimes amusing, always opinionated analysis go to http://www.bio-catalyst.com Contact him at david@bio-catalyst.com.