Biobased Chemicals Europe-Building the Value Chain: Infocast in Milan Summary and Trends.

The event held by Infocast in Milan on the 8th-10th of February was a great success. A number of important speakers were present and a good cross section of the industry was present. Industrial Biotechnology is beginning to mature as an industry. It is finding its practical strengths and intelligent solutions are being found to address some of its weaknesses. Customer demand is rising and the market share of Industrial Biotech is increasing.

All parts of the value chain were present; feedstock companies, chemical companies, technology companies, biorefineries and a number of other groups such as R&D companies, downstream users and NGOs were also present. Industry segments such as bioplastics, biobased chemicals and biofuels were represented. Market research companies such as Lux Research were involved as were consultants such as Corinne Young.

From looking at this cross section of the industry, there are a few clear trends that showed in their presentations and in interviews. Many manufacturers are aiming to provide sustainable alternatives to current products sourced from petrochemicals. Biobased chemicals are generally seen as the most viable segment of industrial biotechnology. Genomatica focuses on sustainable chemicals production and is closing in on to the goal of producing basic and intermediate chemicals from bio feedstocks in a way that is competitive with products manufactured from petrochemicals. The strength of biobased chemicals is in the logistics as lower volumes of product and feedstock are involved and also in the environmental benefits, which are more pronounced and easier to maintain at this smaller scale. Biofuel is seen as less viable at present; pressures from the volume at which biofuels need to be produced and competition with existing petrochemicals is still a challenge to the industry that has ended many start up projects. However, an interesting point was made by Corinne Young regarding existing vs developing biofuel technologies. Food crops such as wheat have been bred for thousands of years for easy cultivation and high yields, while many of the second generation biofuel crops currently under development haven’t had such a period of domestication and optimization. She also highlighted market forces which mean that food and fuel prices don’t necessarily compete with each other.
 
All segments show signs that they will grow and that their market share will increase relative to petrochemicals. Part of this is likely to be due to consumer pressures, for example, in bioplastics there is consumer and regulator pressure to replace petrochemical derived plastic bags with biodegradable bioplastics. Genomatica found 57% of companies believe that in general we should be moving away from petrochemical based products. The prices of various bioderived feedstocks are much less volatile than the price of oil, which is an attraction to manufacturers who are worried about how the rising price of oil will affect their business. In many cases biofeedstocks are cheaper than oil, however the processing step adds to the cost. An interesting point that was made was over using natural gas as a feedstock; its price is much less volatile than the price of oil. In some cases biofeedstocks will have to compete with natural gas which could prove a greater challenge than petrochemicals. Growth is seen to be most likely for bioproducts which are feeding into existing markets rather than those which are novel, which is particularly true for bioplastics. Drop in, chemically identical products sourced from biofeedstock rather than petrochemicals are the products that are performing the best. Prices of biotech products are mostly driven by supply, rather than demand as is the way with petrochemical products, so as manufacturing volumes increase biotech products will become more attractive to consumers.

A number of practices are becoming more common among manufacturers. Life cycle analysis and supply chain approaches to technology development are being used extensively by a number of manufacturers, for example Chemtex. They approach technology development from three angles; feedstock production, feedstock conversion to fermentation feed and finally biofuel production by fermentation. Natureworks analysed the production of their Ingeo polymer with a “cradle to factory gate” approach, comparing it to a range of other polymers in a similar way and reaching the conclusion that their manufacturing process produced the least carbon emissions of the polymers they looked at. Analysis of this kind is proving useful to ongoing R&D, as it highlights areas for improvement; Natureworks are aiming to keep driving down the CO2 emissions of Ingeo production. Flexibility is also an important development for some companies; the prices of various biofeedstocks fluctuate depending on a number of factors, so at some times it makes more economic sense to use different feedstocks. Having technology flexible enough to do this gives an advantage to the manufacturer.

Automotive applications of biotechnology are becoming more common. Aside from the obvious use of biofuel in cars, a number of manufacturers are looking at the use of biopolymers. Often these applications are for bioderived fibers, as interior upholstery or for plastics to use in panels. Some high performance bioplastics are used in engine components such as seals.

Algenol acquires Cyano biofuels to boost their algae technology

Algenol, an algal biotechnology company recently named as a market leader by Lux research, has acquired Germany-based Cyano Biofuels, a spin out company from the Institute of Biology at Humboldt University.

Algenol co-founder and CEO, Paul Woods;

"Combining our companies will accelerate our ability to fully develop Algenol's DIRECT TO ETHANOL® technology and move us more rapidly toward commercialization. The Berlin area is well known for its world-class research on microalgae and is a perfect place to hire talented scientists and technicians. We plan to continue Cyano Biofuels' collaborations with German universities and believe these collaborations will add significant new technology and new capabilities to our Company."

Algenol specialize in producing ethanol fuel and biobased chemicals from hybrid algae, which can theoretically produce high yields of product more easily than from other feedstocks. Algae can also be grown using only carbon dioxide, water and sunlight. They have recently built new labs in Florida and have plans to begin construction of a pilot scale biorefinery in 2011. The blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) used in their DIRECT TO ETHANOL process are grown in aquaculture as opposed to on agricultural or marginal land as many other biofuel feedstocks are. 

Algenol has access to a wide variety of algae strains. Cyano is an R&D company which specializes in algal biology. The two companies have been working together for several years. After partnering with Algenol in 2010 and holding a minority stake in the company, it was announced that Cyano had been acquired by the company in March 2011. This move will significantly boost Algenol’s R&D capabilities and algae portfolio and also give the company access to more European expertise in the algal biology field as Cyano is closely linked to a number of German universities. This acquisition forms part of Algenol’s efforts to move the company from the development to a fully commercial company.

This acquisition reflects the stage of development at which the algal biotechnology industry is at; many start ups are still at the development stage, however these companies are trying to move forward to commercialization. The difficulty for algal biofuel is the amount of new technology development that needs to be done; as well as developing the pre-processing and conversion steps of the process, algae production methods have to be developed as well. Solazyme is one of the projects that have moved past the development stage, filling large orders from the US military for algal biofuel. A number of other companies are active in algal biotechnology, researching the possibilities for producing chemicals and pharmaceuticals from algae rather than using conventional chemistry or from other microorganisms. Some of these companies are edging closer to commercialization as well.

UCLA researchers examine the potential of algae proteins as Biofuel

At present, most of feedstock used for biofuel production is either carbohydrate for producing various alcohol fuels or lipid for producing biodiesel. However, the possibilities for using proteins to produce biofuel had not been much explored. The UCLA research project found that there is potential for proteins to be used as biofuel and doing so would result in environmental benefits. The paper was published online in the journal Nature Biotechnology. The team is currently looking at ways to develop large scale systems and extract protein economically.

UCLA Engineering research scientist, Kwang Myung Cho;

"Proteins had been completely ignored as a potential biomaterial because they've been thought of mainly as food. But in fact, there are a lot of different proteins that cannot be used as food. These proteins were overlooked as a resource for fuel or for chemicals because people did not know how to utilize them or how to grow them. We've solved these problems."

"This research is the first attempt to utilize protein as a carbon source for energy production and biorefining. To utilize protein as a carbon source, complex cellular regulation in nitrogen metabolism had to be rewired. This study clearly showed how to engineer microbial cells to control their cellular nitrogen metabolism."

Proteins are very common in nature; alongside lipids and carbohydrates they are some of the most abundant biomolecules in the world. When fast growing micro-organisms are growing in a nutrient rich conditions (such as in a bioreactor), proteins make up the largest portion of the cell mass and accumulate quickly, lending itself well to production in continuous systems. Protein can also be easily digested by microbes, making the preprocessing steps for fermentation simpler. Typically, the proteins would by broken down into its constituent units and then converted into chemicals. However, this step happens to present the greatest challenge. Most bacteria don’t convert their proteins into other chemicals under normal conditions; they retain them as protein or recycle them and re-use the subunits.

This challenge was met by reprogramming the way the cell handles protein; they used an existing cellular mechanism to export ammonia and carbon sources that can be used to produce fuel from the cell. Regulation of how the cell uses proteins for growth was altered, so that the cell would degrade protein without using it for growth. The ammonia is recycled and used as fertilizer for the algae bioreactor, to be incorporated into proteins to be recycled again. This strategy can be tweaked to fix more CO2 from the environment and to achieve higher yields of algae.   

An interesting point was made by the research group on nitrogen pollution; nitrogen fertilizers are a well known cause of ecological damage but in a system such as the one this group is considering nitrogen run off would not be an issue. Also, in the natural environment exposure to various conditions nitrogen containing residues (which are produced by other fermentation processes) can be converted into nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas which is 300 times more potent than CO2. The ability to utilize the protein content of feedstock in addition to the carbohydrate/lipid content for generating biofuel would allow biofuel to be produced more efficiently, therefore decreasing the area of land that is needed to grow energy crops to meet demand for fuel.
 

Next Gen Polymeric/Nano-Membranes Could Boost Bio-Manufacturing and Water Treatment

New research from the University of Buffalo could result both in cheaper water purification and improved constant flow bioreactors.

This research, led by UB Chemist Javid Rzayev, involves a kind of molecular net made out of block copolymers and nanomaterials. By varying the pore size microbes can be filtered. Using block copolymers the research team produced pores approximately 55 nanometers in diameter, allowing water molecules but not bacteria to pass through. The configuration used by the team results in a self-assembling structure with evenly spaced pores. Clearly, this has value to the water treatment industry-- clean drinking water being one of the biggest global challenges in the coming century.

A secondary application of this device would be in the construction of constant flow bioreactors. Fermentations are done either in batches or constant flow. Batch fermentations are the most common; the culture is grown until nutrient depletion or toxin build up become limiting, then stopped and the product extracted. This involves down time as the reaction vessel must be cleaned and reset after each fermentation. In constant fermentations however, the culture is provided with nutrients and the product removed over time; because often the product limits the growth rate of the culture, this can result in higher yields. One of the problems with this method is extracting the microbes from the reaction mixture.

This is where these co-polymer nano-membranes could come in, given a pore size allowing only small molecules to pass. Using a dialysis-like setup, the products and toxins could be prevented from accumulating while leaving the microbes in the vessel. This would increase yields and minimize downtime. The technology could significantly increase the overall efficiency of biomanufacturing of chemicals and other products.

Infocast in Milan: Natureworks Ingeo biopolymer fibers

The Natureworks Ingeo Biopolymer has significant environmental benefits over many other polymers and is suitable for a wide range of applications, which Stephane Cavallo gave a presentation about at the recent Infocast event in Milan.

The carbon credentials of Ingeo are impressive, having been published in the Industrial Biotechnology Journal in 2010. The findings were from “cradle to factory gate”; the kg of CO2 emitted per kg of polymer for the current Ingeo production process is 1.3 kg. This is 60% of what was emitted by the version of the process used in 2005, showing that Natureworks is successfully working to reduce the environmental impact of its production methods, which they are still developing. The study also compared emissions to other plastics. The emissions of the current Ingeo production methods were the lowest of the plastics tested in the paper. The next lowest carbon emissions were from PVC (suspension) and Polypropylene; 1.9kg C02/kg polymer. By comparison, PET (amorphous) emissions are 3.2 kg C02/kg polymer and polystyrene emissions are 3.4 kg C02/kg polymer. Polycarbonate emissions are 7.6kg C02/kg polymer and nylon 6 emissions are 9.1kg C02/kg polymer.

Ingeo is a polylactide produced from dextrose, which Natureworks sources from biological feedstocks, which in turn goes on to be used in a variety of applications. Ingeo is applicable in the packaging sector, disposable items, bottles, fibers and also in durable items. As part of their research and development, Natureworks initially developed Ingeo for single use applications and then expanded it to more durable products, now being able to apply the technology for example in the casings of products such as computers (such as some Fujitsu laptops) and consumer electronics (such as the housings for some Samsung cell phones). Ingeo is also used in a number of semi-durable products such as credit cards. It has even been applied in the automotive industry; Toyota uses Ingeo in a range of applications, including spare wheel covers and floor mats. Ingeo has also been applied in textiles, being used for carpets and bedding.

What makes this flexibility of application possible is the different grades that Ingeo platform is produced in, some being more stable and suited to durable products, others for single use and intermediate grades which was done by tailoring the way the polymer forms to increase its stability and physical performance. Tailoring the polymer to more durable applications often conflicts with biodegradability of the product, but Natureworks has been finding ways to overcome this.

Alongside flexibility, Natureworks claims that biobased feedstock is much less volatile in price than oil which is an attractive prospect. The polymer itself is UV transparent, able to resist a range of chemicals and compatible with a wide range of additives/polymers, which adds to the flexibility of Ingeo. Natureworks is still looking at the next generation from Ingeo however. They are researching the next generation of monomers to use in its next platform of biopolymers.

Infocast in Milan: Peter Nieuwenhuizen on Challenges and Opportunities for Biobased Chemicals

Peter Nieuwenhuizen, until recently an Arthur D Little Strategy Consultant, now Director of Future-Proofing supply chains at Akzo Nobel, presented on the opportunities and challenges for biobased chemicals, particularly for automotive applications.

In recent times new partnerships and investments are announced frequently in the biobased chemicals sector, for example recent high profile partnerships between Dupont and Danisco, Shell and Cosan, BASF and CSM. Numerous parties have made projections for the value of various parts of the bio based economy, for example Cereplast putting the value of the US bioplastics sector at $10bn by 2020. New demonstration facilities have been announced; for example, BioMCN’s new 2nd gen biofuel plant with a 250 million liter annual output and Abgenoas demonstration plant with an output of 2,500 tons a day. 

Biobased chemical industry at the moment is small in relation to the conventional chemical industry, but its market share is growing and this is expected to continue due to preferences for renewable feedstocks. Based on growth patterns from 2003, they predict that biobased chemicals will have grown 40% on 2003 levels by 2013. Annually, they predict growth of between 5% and 10% for the biobased chemicals industry through to 2025; growth that is ahead of the petrochemicals industry.

ADL looked at the impact that Industrial Biotechnology will have on the petrochemical industry and found that a useful way to view the issue is in three platforms; dedicated production, Biofuel derived and in planta. Dedicated production refers to chemicals which are the focus of supply chains, such as fine and specialty chemicals. Examples would be penicillins, amino acids and stereospecific chemical isomers (which are easier to produce with Biotechnology). The most common production methods here revolve around fermentation and biocatalysis. Biofuel derived refers to chemicals produced either as a side product of biofuel production, or non-fuel uses of biofuels as platform chemicals in the chemical industry. For example, using bioethanol in the chemical industry, or producing 1,3 propandiol from glycerol. Finally, the in planta platform refers to producing chemicals in crops and extracting them after harvesting. In the pharmaceutical industry, producing drugs in crop plants by GM is known as pharming, but the concept is applicable in the chemical industry. This is largely theoretical at the present, though a natural example that doesn’t involve GM is production of natural rubber (isoprene).

They predicted the growth of each of these platforms in a number of scenarios; Stuck, Green Bloom, and Electrified. Across these scenarios, the dedicated platform consistently performs well. Stuck refers to a scenario where there are no significant technology breakthroughs and in planta/biofuel derived chemicals don’t take off. This scenario still sees the value of dedicated production increase by approximately 100-150% from 2007 to 2025 with a 7% market share. The Green Bloom scenario is a “best case“ scenario in which biofuel production grows strongly and in planta production becomes commercialized. The value of all three platforms grows by a combined total of approximately 300-700%, with dedicated production and in planta production making up the largest portions. The overall market share of biobased chemicals in this scenario is roughly 17%. The electrified scenario is one in which green technologies other than biobased alternatives proliferate and the price of oil drops. In this scenario, biofuel does not grow, oil remains the preferred feedstock of the industry (so the dedicated platform doesn’t grow a great deal either), however in planta production grows strongly. Due to growth in in planta production, from 2007 to 2025 they predict the industry will grow by 150-400% with a 10% market share.

What they did not consider was the likelihood of each of these scenarios occurring. Given recent trends, growth and regulatory reform in the biofuel industry, and also limited market penetration of other green energy technologies, we might be more likely to see a reality between the Stuck and Green Bloom scenarios rather than the Electrified scenario. From this, we can conclude that operations in the dedicated platform are safer investments for growth, in planta production is more of a variable prospect, but the more investment it receives the more likely it is to yield high returns. The biofuel derived platform depends on the growth of the biofuel industry, which is generally predicted to grow in coming years but by how much relies on a number of factors such as regulation and the price of oil.

ADL also considered the applications of biobased chemicals in the automotive industry, which are potentially broad. Excluding fuel applications of biotech, a large number of components in cars can be made using various biopolymers. From biopolyesters and biopolyols used in the interior furnishings an upholstery to using bio-derived isoprene in the tyres (as Goodyear and Danisco recently partnered to do). There are applications for biopolyamides and PLA in the engine of the car, due to their higher thermal stability and performance. A number of automotive manufacturers such as Toyota, Ford, Honda and Mazda are exploring and applying these biobased alternatives in their new cars, largely in the interiors due to the energy saving use of these materials gives when a life cycle analysis is carried out.  

Infocast in Milan: Nova-Institut Analyses Feedstocks and Feedstock Competition

Michael Carus of the Nova Institut gave a presentation at the recent Infocast event in Milan regarding recent developments at the Institut around feedstocks, policy and markets for Green Chemistry and Biopolymers.

The Institut has a number of areas of activity; Resource management, Industrial use of these resources and building the political/regulatory foundations for a sustainable bio-based economy. Resource management covers feedstocks; their production, cost and competitiveness with fossil fuel feedstocks. Industrial use of resources refers to a range of applications for industrial biotechnology; bioenergy/biofuels, bioplastics and bio-based chemicals. Their efforts are around the whole process, taking the feedstocks, converting them to products and taking them to market.

Prices of feedstocks are something that the Nova institute monitors and prices are rising across the board. The price of oil is at its highest point in February 2011 in 25 months, since the price spike in 2008. The price of wheat has also increased, largely due to droughts in 2010. Corn prices have risen sharply in 2011 due to poor harvests and some say demand for corn ethanol is also a factor. Increasing demand for corn in general is also a factor; more of it is being used for food markets and in non-industrial applications, such as bio-based chemicals. Sugar prices are also high due to a drought in Brazil; before the drought prices were amongst the most stable of all the feedstocks they looked at. Markets for renewable feedstocks from agriculture have been growing steadily for the past few years. While consistently larger and generally growing, markets for non renewable feedstocks fluctuate much more. The point was made that the prices of renewable feedstocks are driven by supply, but prices of oil are driven by demand, a product of the pressures on renewable feedstock production. Rising GDP of developing countries is also expected to affect the prices of these feedstocks, most likely resulting in a rise in 2011/2012.

Since renewable feedstocks prices are more dependent on supply, increasing this supply is one of the most fundamental ways of making these feedstocks more competitive with oil. Increasing yields is one way of doing this. It is not only a technological challenge, but also a challenge to regulatory frameworks in developing countries; often the methods for increasing yields common in developed countries are unavailable. Investment and reform is the answer here. This is a clear area for improvement that the Nova Institut has identified. Another method for increasing renewable feedstock supply is to increase the available land for growing crops; they estimate between 0.6 and 1.6 billion hectares could be used for agriculture with minimal impact on protected and urban areas. They also see GM technology as a potential technological contributor, but one that is less significant than these two other options according to Nova.

They looked at the food vs fuel issue in some detail and concluded that the issue has been oversimplified: they say the real issue is how to get the best yields out of agricultural land. Interestingly, centuries of selective breeding actually mean that food crops result in better yields than some of the crops currently used as non-food alternatives. Again, as prices of these feedstocks rely more upon supply rather than demand, increased demand for them from biobased fuels and chemicals won’t have as much of an effect (though scarcity might become an issue). Nova claims what is needed is not a shift from food crops to non-food crops, it is better use of agricultural land. But, the land available to produce renewable feedstocks will become limiting unless productivity is greatly increased and more land efficient options are used (such as solar or wind power). They also recommend food and feed crops are given higher priority over crops to be used for other applications.

Nova also made some interesting projections for the biobased chemicals market in 2025. They predict market penetration of biobased fine and specialty chemicals will roughly double (to make up approximately 50% of the market) from present levels. Biopolymers will also double (to around 15% of the market). Biobased commodity chemicals will increase its market share from 1-2% to 6-10% in that time, according to Nova. It can be said with reasonable confidence that fine and specialty chemical production will be one of the most solid growth areas for industrial biotech, as a number of other studies have reached the same conclusion. For example, the IBLF in the UK concluded that these sectors were relatively sure for growth in a number of scenario predictions for the 2025 time frame. Nova also found that use of biobased feedstock to produce biobased chemicals rather than fuels was a more efficient way to use land.

Infocast in Milan: Biomass to Sugar with PRO ESA Technology

Chemtex representatives made a presentation on their PRO ESA technology at the Infocast event which took place in Milan from the 8th-10th of February. They discussed the efforts of his company to enable the bio-based chemicals market.

Chemtex is a R&D subsidiary of Italian chemicals giant Gruppo MG. They operate in a number of sectors, one of which being the renewable sector. Their efforts here centre on first generation bioethanol, second generation lignocellulosic ethanol development, bioethylene and biodiesel. Their main aims are for their technology to be competitive with fossil fuel alternatives, to be sustainable and for feedstocks to be easy to grow. One of their key platform technologies to meet these goals is PRO ESA.

The Chemtex’ PRO ESA technology has three stages: Agronomy, Pretreatment and Hydrolysis/Fermentation. Agronomy refers to the process of producing feedstock; the breeding and growing various energy crops. The main concerns here are for the crops to be easy to grow, non-competitive with food and high yields of useful chemicals. They found that the Giant Reed Arundo donax is a useful feedstock that meets these criteria. Pretreatment is the conversion of the biomass produced by feedstock cultivation to building blocks for the synthesis of the final product; generally pretreatment involves breaking down the biomass into its constituent sugars or other substances, but in the case of PRO ESA it is concerned with conversion to sugars alone. Chemtex spent some time scouting technologies for new developments here before attempting to scale it up. This seems to have paid off as the lignocellulosic ethanol technology they use can achieve high yields from a variety of feedstocks. The last step, Hydrolysis/Fermentation can involve either hydrolysis or fermentation, depending on what the desired final product is. After a period of R&D, the company settled on a continuous reactor which had a design focus on efficiency, getting the highest yields for the lowest energy input. Over the past four years the company has been working to take their ideas from the lab and bring them to market. Chemtex constructed a 40,000 ton/year industrial pilot facility and it is seeing its first year of operation. This plant can produce C5 and C6 sugars to convert into ethanol , and can recycle lignin to produce energy to power the plant. The C5 and C6 sugars, along with the lignin can also serve as feedstocks for producing a variety of industrial chemicals sustainably. In terms of raw materials, there is great value in pursuing the technology; while a barrel of oil costs $70, the raw materials needed to produce an equivalent volume of biofuel cost $6.5. Chemtex believe this justifies high R&D costs for the moment, as once commercialized the process for manufacturing these chemicals will be cheaper, cheap enough to realistically out-compete petrochemical products.

Infocast in Milan: Planting the seeds of Industry Transformation with Genomatica

At the Infocast event Bio-based Chemical Europe: Building the Value Chain held in Milan from Feb 8th-10th 2011, Christophe Schilling, CEO of Genomatica laid out his company’s ideas for transforming an industry from one that relies on fossil fuels to one that runs on renewable resources.

Genomatica is a sustainable chemicals company: the company’s products are intended to be direct “green” replacements for intermediate and basic chemicals. They intend to affect this change by transforming the economics of the industry with technology. They want to replace petrochemicals by outcompeting them with green technology. Their first major product was 1,4-Butanediol (which uses vegetable sugars as a feedstock), which is now being produced at a 15 thousand liter per year integrated demonstration plant.

Schilling made a convincing case for the green chemicals industry based on some solid market research; 57% of companies in their survey believe that they should move away from petroleum based commodities, showing clear consumer demand for a different way.

They also found evidence of customers seeking out greener options; 57% report their customers expressing interest in sustainably produced chemicals. Finally, 46% of respondents are of the opinion that there is an economic advantage to using renewable feedstocks over petrochemical (23% didn’t know and 31% didn’t think there was an economic advantage), showing there is confidence in sustainable technology. He then went on to examine the place of renewables in existing markets; as of 2007, industrial and electricity sectors had the highest percentage (each 9%) of renewable supply in the mix. He also made an interesting point about natural gas; in industrial and residential sectors, natural gas makes up a significant part of demand so renewable technology may have be competitive with crude oil prices and natural gas prices, and natural gas is relatively cheap at the moment. 

Schilling went on to look at the state of the Industry at present: what kinds of product are presenting the biggest opportunities for new biotechnologies. Novel biodegradable polymers created from bio-based feedstocks are serving a smaller market; this is likely to be due to how young the technology is and consumers are likely to stick to products they know. The markets for these new products will also take time to grow. Bio-sourced replacements, chemically identical to their petrochemically derived originals can penetrate a much larger market; large markets for these products already exist and confidence in the product from consumers is less of an issue. For example, polyethylene is still polyethylene no matter what feedstock. 

He had words of wisdom for those trying to make their companies a success in the industry. The production costs of bio-based chemicals are still relatively high, and only niche markets will pay more for greener products solely on the grounds that they are greener. This means companies that focus on bio-based chemicals rather than bio-based fuels (a more cost-limited sector) will see better profits and stability. Simplifying production processes and integrated processing will be important for reducing productions costs and allowing the market to expand in future. Also, with respect to novel biopolymers, it will take time to create markets (15-20 years, Schilling says) so it will be some time before the profitability of these technologies becomes high, but they are set to grow. 

The path forward to ensure the growth of the industry, according to Genomatica is to “make changes as close to the source as possible” to “build towards using a variety of renewable feedstocks” and to turn the transition to sustainability into a chance to make businesses more profitable. These first two would make the bio-based chemicals sector flexible; flexible enough to deliver multiple products to established markets using whichever feedstocks make the most economic sense at that point in time. The third and final point really is about ensuring the uptake of new bio-based chemicals technology. The ultimate way of promoting the uptake of green technology is to make it more profitable than competing options. While some have reservations about climate change, others dispute oil depletion projections, nobody can argue with profit!

Bionanoparticles: the next generation of Biopolymers?

A new paper from researchers at the University of Bayreuth in Germany examines the potential for the use of Bionanoparticles in Composite materials.

The impressive-sounding field of Bionanotechnology puts biologically based nano-scale structures (bionanoparticles) to work. Often we are talking about proteins when we talk about Bionanoparticles, though some other types of molecule can come into play, such as DNA or hybrid synthetic-biological proteins. Sections of protein structures (such as viral capsules or well-defined protein folds) are often used for a range of applications, from medical treatment to analytical tests to nanoelectronics. We could also say that biocatalysis falls under Bionanotechnology. Often, protein structures are used to fix several active particles together which can increase their productivity. For example, enzymes are sometimes fixed to a central particle by researchers in such a way that all of the active sites face outwards, which increases the efficiency of the enzyme.

However, something that hasn’t been considered in much detail before is the potential to use these structures in producing composite materials. Usually the biological activity and ability to bind various substances is the most important consideration and not the physical or mechanical properties of the particle. The properties of natural protein structures vary massively depending on a number of factors, and our efforts to understand these structures are at the cutting edge of science. Spider silk is an example of one material with useful physical properties based on its protein structure; it could be described as a fibre made of linked bionanoparticles and the resulting fibre has a higher tensile strength weight for weight than steel.

With modern genetic engineering and chemical processing technologies, there is room to expand and refine the range of bionanoparticles we can produce. More stable proteins aren’t favoured by evolution, as this makes them difficult for organisms to dispose of when they aren’t needed anymore. However, these kinds of protein could be engineered for use in high performance composite materials and produced in specially adapted microbes. There is potential to create new adhesives and resins with various finely-tuned properties by using bionanoparticles; proteins have a wide range of properties depending on their chemistry and structure. Some current work is aimed at researching the electrical properties of bionanoparticles with a view to creating electrical components, which would be a huge leap towards greener electronics. We could use existing proteins as templates when engineering bionanoparticles for materials applications; recent progress made here is examined by the paper.

What is the potential for developments in bionanotechnology regarding materials applications? As we might expect from a new field, it will be a while before we see products coming to market; the idea is still by and large one that exists in the lab. The prefixes “bio” and “nano” are sometimes seen as mere marketing gimmicks, but in this case there is genuine potential here. One of the advantages of bionanotechnology is that decades of research into biomolecular structures have given us a library of thousands of templates to use for efforts to create new biomaterials. This research could result in a plethora of new biopolymers with novel properties that are biodegradable and sustainable to produce. These polymers would be useful in specialist/high performance markets rather than in markets such as packaging where there are already a number of products meeting the needs of the sector. Where this might see use is in plastic electronics, high performance biomaterials/composites and applications from building materials to medical implants, from smart clothing to wind turbine blades.

GM Switchgrass Delivers

The researchers at Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Oklahoma modified the lignin content, producing a variant with 38% more bioethanol and requiring 4-5 times less cellulase enzyme for the pretreatment step used to produce sugars from the biomass.Chunxiang Fu, from the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, reporting in PNAS, states: 

“The transgenic plant materials require less severe pretreatment and much lower cellulase dosages to obtain ethanol yields equivalent to yields in controls. These transgenic switchgrass lines and the approach are valuable for developing improved cultivars of biofuel crops.”

Switchgrass is one of the crops being put forward as a replacement feedstock for bioethanol production that doesn’t compete with food production. The plant itself can grow to 10 feet high and has “pencil thick” stems. It grows quickly and uses water and nutrients quite efficiently, one of the reasons why it is often considered for growth on marginal land rather than land used currently for conventional agriculture. It typically has a lifespan of roughly ten years and can be harvested multiple times during that time. Sometimes it is used by farmers for other applications than as a biofuel feedstock; sometimes switchgrass is used to improve the quality of the soil, prevent soil erosion or as animal feed. Getting the most fuel possible from each planted acre is clearly of value to all involved, while enzymes used for the pretreatment stage often make up a significant part of the overhead costs of running the process.

Danisco Loses the First Round in Patent Battle with Novozymes

Danisco has lost a US court bid to invalidate a patent held by Novozymes for an engineered enzyme used to produce biofuel.

 
Novozymes claims that one of Daniscos products infringes a patent it holds for a thermostable alpha amylase enzyme. This enzyme converts starch to sugars, which can then be fermented to produce bioethanol. The thermostability of the enzyme is a key detail.  Usually enzymes operate optimally at moderate temperatures and are destroyed at high temperatures. However, higher temperatures make the reaction faster; therefore an enzyme that retains its activity at these temperatures can increase yields. 

After the initial action from Novozymes stating that Danisco was infringing on its patent, Danisco came back by challenging the validity of the patent; seeking a judgment from US District Judge Barbara Crabb to back up its counter-claim. This has been rejected on the grounds that the “defendants haven’t met their burden to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the ‘723 patent is invalid as a matter of law”, and now it is likely that the case will go to trial. However, Danisco still seems confident; Soonhee Jang, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at Danisco claims that it isn’t “unusual that the court doesn’t grant a motion such as this in an early phase of a trial. We are still confident and will go forward with the trial. We believe we will prevail.” Danisco argue that the Novozymes patent does not fully describe Novozymes enzyme, and despite refusing their action, Judge Crabb agreed to some extent.

As the case involves two of the largest enzyme manufacturers for biofuel, this case will have an impact on the Bioethanol industry and also on the wider biobased chemicals market. Thermostable enzymes are of great value to the biobased chemicals industry: the manufacturers that have access to those technologies will have a considerable competitive advantage. One wonders how the ruling will affect future developments and innovation regarding thermostable enzymes and how the trial will affect the bioethanol enzymes landscape in general. The trial will take place in October and I will be keeping an eye on how this develops.

BioAmber and Cargill Partner to Develop Bio-Succinic Acid Production Methods

Renewable chemicals company BioAmber is to partner with Cargill to develop a new microbe for producing succinic acid from bio feedstocks.

Vice President and Director of Cargill’s Biotechnology Development Center, Jack Staloch:

“Our technology has been proven in large scale commercial operations and we think that BioAmber is an ideal partner to commercialize our technology in the field of renewable succinic acid. When our technology is ready for commercialization, we anticipate that BioAmber will have plants operating that our technology can be dropped into, generating immediate revenues.”

Succinic acid has a variety of applications; ranging from use in flavorings, as a plasticizer to chemical intermediates to name a few.  Back in early 2010 BioAmber commissioned the world’s first renewable succinic acid plant with an annual production output of 2,000 tons of succinic acid made from glucose sourced from wheat. Technology BioAmber will use under license from Cargill will allow lignocellulosic material to be used as feedstock for the synthesis of succinic acid, and once the new microbe is developed it will be used across the companies’ succinic acid plants. BioAmber’s process generally results in a product purer than succinic acid produced from petrochemicals. Bioamber plans to build more large plants around the world and is currently in discussions with various partners to make this happen.

Seaweed could be a valuable biofuel feedstock for small countries

Most biofuel comes from feedstock grown on land, such as food crops such as corn or non-food crops like switchgrass. This uses up a lot of agricultural land, but for smaller countries without this land there is value in pursuing seaweed as a feedstock for biofuel production.

Assistant Professor of Microbial Genetics Yong-Su Jin of the Institute of Genomic Biology said that developing ways to use seaweed would be of value to countries with less farmland and more coastline.

“Countries, like Japan and Korea, do not have enough land to produce corn like America can. (Using seaweed as biofuel) can help these smaller countries become less dependent on resources like oil. Seaweed is ideal to use as biofuel because the amount of seaweed and other biomass in oceans is very vast. Even though there are still some problems and concerns, it has huge potential.”

Jin’s team has been researching the potential of seaweed as a biofuel feedstock since 2007. His team has found that a sugar known as galactose (rather than glucose which is produced from most other feedstocks) can be produced from seaweed. The problem with this is that galactose is more difficult to convert into ethanol than glucose. Much of his team’s work has involved trying to modify yeast to produce ethanol from galactose more efficiently. This is difficult; the reason that galactose is harder for microbes to use than glucose is (without getting into the technical detail) because of the chemical properties of galactose; there is not a way that will make galactose easier to convert than glucose.

However, Jin’s research group has made progress in identifying three genes in yeast that ferment galactose into ethanol and have managed to engineer strains of yeast that produce the fuel more efficiently. He says that his research has proven the principle. At the lab scale he has used pure sugars rather than sugars produced from biomass to make ethanol, but commercialization of the technology might prove to be difficult.

His concerns are around the technical challenges of harvesting the seaweed. There would be problems with seaweed farms in the event of storms or rough seas. Ideally these farms would be in areas where the sea is calm. There is also the effect that this might have on the ecosystem; as part of the natural food chain seaweed would have an effect on fish populations in areas where seaweed was harvested.

While he says that the technology needs more work before it is ready to be commercialized (for example, he stresses the need to test the process with biomass-derived galactose), Jin is seeing interest from a number of large Japanese and Korean companies such as Samsung.  

Shell sells its stake in Cellana Algae Biofuels to HR Biopetroleum

Originally, the Cellana Algae Biofuels was a joint effort between Shell and HR Biopetroleum. However, Shell is backing out and selling Cellena in its entirety to HR Biopetroleum.

Cellena was formed in 2007 to demonstrate algae cultivation technology and technology to convert vegetable oils to biodiesel. The deal will see HR Biopetroleum become owner of Cellana, its projects and facilities including the six acre demonstration plant in Hawaii which is one of the most advanced algae-to-fuel demonstration plants in the US. This plant is used to cultivate species of natural algae native to Hawaii in open ponds. Shell has pledged cash to HRBP for the near future to help them continue to develop their technology.

HRBP CEO, Ed Shonsey:

‘‘The acquisition of Cellana represents a significant opportunity for HRBP and its corporate and project stakeholders, including the University of Hawaii, Hawaiian Electric Company, Maui Electric Company, the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts consortium, the U.S. Department of Energy and others. We will continue to operate Cellana’s Kona demonstration facility and to continuously improve the economics for growing marine algae using HRBP’s patented process. Based on HRBP’s and Cellana’s results to date, we believe this technology holds great potential for the economical production of algae and algae-derived products for applications within the aquaculture and animal feed markets, as well as for the production of algal oil for conversion into biofuels.”

Facilitating the Biochemical Industry with Policy Reform- Exclusive Interview: Corinne Young

Corinne Young is one of the leading policy voices for the bio-based industry in North America.She has secured government funding for projects ranging from millions to billions of dollars, taking the lead in developing sustainability frameworks, community organization, regulations and legislation. She has served in a number of governmental departments, such as the Executive Office of the Presidency, Department of Interior, the Senate and the House of Representatives. More recently she has been involved in securing funding and financial benefits for the development of new biorefineries for companies. At present she runs her own firm Corinne Young llc and she serves on boards for InfoCast and the UMass Institute for Biofuels Research TMBR.To follow her presentation at the Infocast Milan event, we asked her a few questions by email.

How did you become involved in lobbying while with Myriant?

I worked for Congress for ten years, which included helping to draft organic legislation for the bioindustry, establishing the biorefinery programs in the US Departments of Energy (DOE) and Agriculture (USDA). During this congressional tenor, in the late 1990s, Myriant's CEO and Chairman, Mr. Stephen Gatto, reached out to me as a constituent, seeking assistance, when he was CEO/Chairman of then BCI/Celunol (which became Verenium, and recently changed again with BP's acquisition).  In late 1990s, I secured first funding from the DOE for the then BCI-Celunol cellulosic ethanol pilot. Each year since, continued advocacy of bioindustry to yield positive societal benefits -- from economic to environmental. In January 2007, took leap of faith from government to industry, joined Myriant as Director of Government Affairs to become bolder agent of change from within industry to secure proactive government market pull programs (RFS2, BioPreferred) and funds to accelerate and de-risk scale up and deployment. After helping to propel both biofuels and biochemicals, in April 2010, took another leap of faith to launch my own consulting firm focusing on biochemicals. I passionately believe we have a historic opportunity -- and this is global -- to transition our consumer economies from petroleum-based feedstocks, to renewable bio-based feedstocks. Although biochemical technology has experienced exponential growth over the last few years, and is now at a tipping point, we still need government support to de-risk scale up of sustainable manufacturing platforms and aggressive market adoption of bio products.

Tell me about the grant for a Biorefinery that you helped to secure.

I secured a $50 million grant from the US DOE for a demonstration scale bio succinic acid plant (for Myriant). Bio succinc acid has been targeted by the DOE, USDA, and leading market analysts as a top bio chemical building block to displace petroleum. There are billion dollar immediately addressable markets for this chemical now that other companies like BioAmber have scaled-up lower-cost biobased routes to succinic acid. The key is to ensure the US government ups the ante with suite of expanded policy incentives including more grants, production tax credits, ambitious BioPreferred program to propel world leadership in sustainable biopolymers and biomaterials.

 

What is the current state of US biochemicals policy?

I have to admit US biochemicals policy fell prey to benign neglect when the price of crude shot above $120/barrel in 2007, which precipitated a preferential treatment of biofuels and other renewable energy technologies over biochemicals for energy independence. That tide has changed. Now USDA has launched BioPreferred Program, EPA viewing Green Chemical initiatives as way to drive jobs, help industry bring innovative alternative materials to market for pollution prevention. White House and incoming new Republican House leaders are talking about jobs, US manufacturing, and clean energy economy -- biochemicals industry delivers all three imperatives and more. This year expect to see more industry-government collaborations from companies like NatureWorks, Elevance, BioAmber.

Ultimately, job creation crosses bi-partisan lines, because for the US, the industry is -- and will continue to -- grow jobs in every region of the country. As the President and Congress focus on job creation, reviving US manufacturing, and passing a pro-industry, clean energy package, the biochemicals industry is poised to create over 200,000 new jobs over the next decade (according to the attached BIO Jobs Report). These are Jobs along full value chain -- from feedstock, to high tech, manufacturing, downstream converting, packing and textiles, end of life composting and recycling infrastructure, and service related support. This is historic opportunity for the US to expand policy incentives to propel commercial deployment before industry takes root elsewhere as European and Southeast Asian countries aggressively vie for these commercial biorefineries.

What are the most important considerations for the US with regard to its Biochemical Policy?

The most important consideration is to move swiftly and boldly with production tax credits and commercial scale incentives to realize jobs take root in US -- the industry has global opportunities.    

We need policy that is agnostic to feedstock, biomass conversion technology, and bio products to let market innovation unleash bioindustry as a disruptive sustainable industrial platform for competitive advantage in low carbon economy. Other considerations include:  (1) debunking food verses fuel myths to robustly support use of commercially available industrial sugars now, with transitional support to incorporate ligno-cellulosic sugars once these are commercially viable; (2) allow biochemical projects to qualify for energy efficiency/renewable energy programs based on significant reductions in green house gas emissions; expanding end of life infrastructure for cradle-to-cradle systems with composting and recycling of biobased materials.

What have been major issues caused by US Biochemical policy in the past?

No major issues have been caused, though policy lagged behind biofuels and other renewable energy policy discussion.  However, now that technology has progressed to commercial scale with companies like NatureWorks penetrating all segments of consumer market -- from blue chips to chip bags -- expect expanded policy incentives to drive next growth wave, with international competition ensuing among governments vying for regional biorefinery hubs. Confident this year US policy will catch up to technology and market developments. If not, the major issue for the US will be odd man out -- industry will move to Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America.

How has Biofuel policy affected industries other than conventional fuel production, such as the Chemicals industry and Agriculture?

Biofuels have provided a valuable industry platform from which biochemicals springboard to replicate a successful petrochemical business model. Depending on fossil fuel feedstock costs, roughly 3-8% of feedstock is used for chemicals, yet this 3-8% generates almost 50% revenue -- almost equivalent value of roughly 70% feedstock used to produce commodity transportation fuel. For US policy, this translates into biochemical plants providing sustainable economics, superior environmental benefits and bigger impact on job creation. After all, transportation fuel is just one commodity chemical application of biomass. 2011 will be the breakthrough year for biochemical innovation in new policy, commercial deployment, market development, and consumer demand.

How has the Biofuel policy in the US had knock on effects in other countries?

It has helped to build international bioindustry, with healthly competition among regions and feedstocks. The global bioindustry is at tipping point, and we look forward to continuing to build international policy to drive growth.

Corinne made a presentation titled New Initiatives in US Bio-Based Policy at Infocast’s event Bio-based Chemicals Europe: Building the Value Chain which took place in Milan from February 8th-11th.