July 2010 Archives

I have already written several articles for ICIS News* and ICIS Chemical Business noting Elevance's joint venture announcement in June with Indonesian oleochemical producer Wilmar. Talking to president and CEO K'Lynne Johnson as well as vice president of sales, Andy Shafer, at the BIO industrial biotech conference revealed more information about this announcement.

To start, the companies are building a 400m lb/year, which can be expanded to 800m lb/year, commercial-scale biorefinery located within Wilmar's new integrated manufacturing complex now under construction in Surabaya, Indonesia. Johnson said both parties are expected to invest in building the plant although no figures were disclosed.

The biorefinery will use multiple renewable oil feedstocks, such as palm, mustard, soybean, jatropha or waste oils and will produce specialty chemicals, advanced biofuels and oleochemicals. The plant is expected to come online in 2011.

Elevance said they will start producing and marketing from the biorefinery 9-decenoic acid and esters as well as C18 dicarboxylic acids and esters. The dicarboxylic acids and esters will be produced using the intermediate chemical 9-decenoic acid. The companies will begin producing samples of both dicarboxylic acids and 9-decenoic acid and their esters for product qualification in the fourth quarter, and plan to sell truckload quantities in early 2011.

Johnson noted that their major goal is to produce cost- and performance-competitive chemicals from the biorefinery. She added that Elevance is already on the lookout for another opportunity to build additional biorefineries across Asia, South America and North America.

With regards to their announced demonstration facility to be built in Iowa, Johnson said the project has been put slightly on hold and is expected to move forward either later this year or early next year.

"We are trying to optimize the project's configuration and making sure that we have the best optimal site as well," said Johnson.

"That's what the DOE is interested in, to focus on finding technology that could prove the economic use of alternative feedstock," Johnson added.

*subscription only

Four more BIO interviews remaining in the pipeline (woohooo!). This one is my interview with Dennis McGrew, Genomatica's new executive vice president of business development and chief business officer.

Genomatica announced at the BIO industrial biotech conference that it was able to achieved pilot-scale validation of its bio-based 1,4 butanediol (BDO) at 3,000 liter-batches, a 100-fold increase from lab scale within two months. The scale-up was performed at MBI, a not-for-profit technology company affiliated with Michigan State University's BioEconomy Network.

The next step is another 10x scale up between 20,000 and 50,000 liters within the next several months. Genomatica plans to have an integrated demonstration facility to come online in the second half of 2011, and commercial production either late 2013 or early 2014 for their bio-BDO.

The company's strategy is provide a lower cost processing technology for BDO, where smaller BDO and derivatives plants can be build regionally rather than being attached from a big petrochemical grid. McGrew said they are assessing options not only in North America but in Europe, Asia and South America for their bio-BDO demo scale.

Genomatica estimates the global BDO market currently at $3bn, with a wide variety of applications ranging from making spandex, automotive plastics, running shoes, etc. The company currently uses commercial-grade sugars as feedstock. McGrew said they can use cellulosic biomass and syngas for future feedstock.

Aside from BDO, McGrew said they have 19 other chemicals in the pipeline and it will depend on future joint venture partners on which one they will work on next.

"We've taken BDO through piloting and demonstration phase on our own but for other products in the pipeline, we're looking to partner more early. Partners will help drive the selection of which products from amongst the other 19 chemicals that we can work on -- that will be a primary criteria from which one of those to move forward," said McGrew.

Another update is Genomatica confirming that they have shelved the bio-methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) project for now. McGrew said they were able to show proof of concept for the chemical in the course of 4 months but current market opportunity is not as compelling compared to BDO.

Genomatica started research on bio-MEK in the second half of 2008, when corn ethanol producers were being squeezed. At the time, the company expected to produce MEK from plants being idled by ethanol producers. The downtrend in global economy and change in ethanol economics have made the bio-MEK project not as attractive, said McGrew.

"We want to focus on driving BDO as quickly as possible instead of focusing to develop two projects simultaneously," he added.

General Motors said it was the first auto manufacturer to use a new greenhouse gas-friendly air-conditioning refrigerant, which will be incorporated in 2013 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac models in the U.S

The new refrigerant, (HFO-1234yf) supplied by Honeywell, breaks down faster in the atmosphere than the refrigerant currently used (R-134a). R-134a refrigerant has an atmospheric life of more than 13 years on average, giving it a global warming potential (GWP) of over 1,400, according to GM.

GWP is a value used to compare different greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. The base measurement for GWP is relative to that of carbon dioxide.

The refrigerant HFO-1234yf is said to linger in the atmosphere for just 11 days and has a GWP of only 4.

GM said the new refrigerant meets and exceeds the overall requirements of the EPA's new motor vehicle greenhouse gas regulations, which requires an overall 40% improvement in overall U.S. fleet average vehicle fuel economy by 2016.

This is going to be one very busy week so I'll posts as much as I can. This one is an update on algae-based biofuels.

The blog posted last week about ExxonMobil's milestone on their algae research with Synthetic Genomics. While some doubts continue on the economics of algae as biofuel feedstock (Vinod Khosla for example), the US Department of Energy (DOE) is eager to explore this field and recently announced their additional $24m grant for algal biofuels research.

During the BIO Industrial Biotech conference near Washington, DC, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Cathy Zoi announced the Department of Energy's (DOE) $24 million grant for 3 research groups - Sustainable Algal Biofuels Consortium, Consortium for Algal Biofuels Commercialization, Cellana, LLC Consortium - to tackle key hurdles in the commercialization of algae-based biofuels.

DOE also released the final National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap during the BIO conference. The roadmap is intended to guide future work and investments in algal biofuels.

Here is a video of DOE's Cathy Zoi in her presentation at the BIO conference courtesy of BIO:

Here are also recent news from different companies developing algae-based biofuel:

NRC Drives Strategy to Commercialize Mass Production of Biofuel From Algae

Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. - Green Plains Renewable Energy and BioProcess Algae to Break Ground on Phase II of Algae Project:

Solazyme Delivers 100% Algal-Derived Renewable Jet Fuel to U.S. Navy

As I've mentioned in the previous post, the US House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce introduced a bill last week which could overhaul the 1976 Toxic Chemicals Safety Act (TSCA).

U.S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, and Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, introduced H.R. 5820, the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010.

Waxman said the TSCA reform is long-overdue. The bill intends all chemicals will be reviewed for safety; dangerous chemicals will be restricted or eliminated; and new, safer chemicals will be developed using the green chemistry principles.

The American Chemistry Council noted in a statement that the bill needs more work.

Here are the summary of the bill. If you're bored and don't have anything to read, here's the long version. ;-)

• Establishes a framework to ensure that all chemical substances to which the American people are exposed will be reviewed for safety and restricted where necessary to protect public health and the environment.

• Requires the chemical industry to develop and provide to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) essential data, and improves EPA's authority to compel testing where necessary.

• Ensures that non-confidential information submitted to EPA is shared with the public and that critical confidential information is shared among regulators, with states, and with workers in the chemical industry.

• Establishes an expedited process for EPA to reduce exposure to chemical substances that are known to be persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic.

• Creates incentives and a review process for safer alternatives to existing chemicals, promoting innovation and investment in green chemistry.

• Creates a workforce education and training program in green chemistry, promoting and ensuring long-term viability of American jobs.

• Encourages the reduction of the use of animals in chemical testing.

• Allows EPA to exempt chemicals already known to be safe from requirements of the Act.

• Promotes research to advance understanding of children's vulnerability to the harms of chemicals.

• Directs EPA to address community exposures to toxic chemicals in certain "hot spot" locations.

• Requires EPA to engage in international efforts to control dangerous chemicals.

• Ensures that EPA actions are transparent, open to public comment, and subject to judicial review, without unreasonable procedural burdens.

• Gives EPA the resources needed to carry out this Act.

Record-breaking news (for me anyway) came out last week and a lot from biofuels and solar. Also, last week's chemical regulatory talks are centered mostly on the overhauling of TSCA (Toxic Substances Control Act), with the introduction of Bill 5820 by Representatives Bobby L. Rush and Henry A. Waxman.

One of the goals under this bill, by the way, is to promote innovation and investment in green chemistry. More about this new bill in another post. For now, here are this week's news roundup!

FEDIOL withdraws membership
FEDIOL, the EU oil and protein meal industry, decided in June to withdraw its support from the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB). FEDIOL said RSB's principles and criteria are totally disconnect with the reality of biofuels production, making compliance from the industry nearly impossible.

Sud-Chemie in cellulosic ethanol
German specialty chemical company Süd-Chemie will build Germany´s largest plant to date cellulosic ethanol in Munich with a capacity of 2,000 tonnes/year using the company's sunliquid process. The plant will start at the end of 2011.

Dow Corning in solar R&D
Dow Corning and The University of Toledo (UT) will form a collaboration on photovoltaic (PV) solar research and development efforts to help reduce the cost of solar energy to make it a viable and economically competitive energy option globally.

Ingeo bioplastic in Chile
Morgan Impresores S.A. will begin distributing Ingeo™ biopolymer in Chile. Morgan said a number of the bioplastic packaging products will not only be for local consumption, but also for export to the United States, Mexico, the European Union, and China -- major trading partners with Chile.

More encapsulant capacity in China
Solutia will expand its production of Vistasolar® ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) encapsulant at its Suzhou, China facility. This investment will include the construction of a new building capable of housing several new EVA production lines and will provide the infrastructure for additional future capacity. First production line is scheduled to be completed by June 2011.

Ineos selects new bioethanol site
INEOS New Planet BioEnergy (INPB), the joint venture between INEOS Bio and NPE Florida, will build its BioEnergy Center in the defunct Ocean Spray industrial facility, located next to the Indian River County Landfill. The BioEnergy Center will generate 8m gal/year third-generation bioethanol from renewable biomass including yard, wood and vegetative wastes.

Corn oil extraction in ethanol
Green Plains Renewable Energy will implement corn oil extraction technology at its ethanol plants. The Company expects to complete the technology deployment by the end of the first quarter of 2011 and anticipates the project would enhance operating income by $15 million to $19 million per year.

And in ICIS News (requires subscription):
A slew of recent scientific breakthroughs unleash multiple environmentally friendly uses for titanium dioxide.

European prices of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (R-PET) bottles have extended their record highs amid ongoing tight supply and strong downstream demand.

US Senate Democrat leaders conceded that they do not have votes to pass even limited climate change legislation in the near future - probably not this year - and will focus instead on a bill to improve regulations on oil spills.

So many things going on in the US ethanol market day after day, it's driving me nuts! (I'm writing an ethanol article this week...)

First of all, the ethanol industry is in a tizzy over the ticking 45c./gal subsidy which is set to expire at the end of the year. Second, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been delaying its decision whether to lift the cap on the 10% ethanol blend (E10) in gasoline to 15% (E15).

The agency was originally expected to rule on the issue in December 2009, but postponed the decision, pressured by car manufacturers and the oil industry, which claim that more ethanol in gasoline could interfere with vehicle performance and void warranties.

The group FollowTheScience.org released a statement yesterday calling on Congress to require thorough and objective scientific testing of ethanol in automobiles before allowing an increase in the amount of ethanol in gasoline.

The group includes the Environmental Working Group; Natural Resources Defense Council; The Hispanic Institute; Engine Manufacturers Association; International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association; Motorcycle Industry Council; National Marine Manufacturers Association; Outdoor Power Equipment Institute; American Frozen Food Institute; American Meat Institute; Grocery Manufacturers Association; Snack Food Association; American Petroleum Institute; National Association of Truck Stop Operators; and National Petrochemical & Refiners Association.

Here's the ad they've been putting out recently with a tagline "Say NO to untested E15".

Fueling the debate (pun intended!) is a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) stating that it will costs taxpayers $1.78 for each gallon of gasoline replaced by corn-based ethanol; $3.00 for cellulosic ethanol and $2.55 in using biodiesel to reduce equivalent amount of diesel fuel based on the 2009 tax policy.

The Renewable Fuel Association (RFA) refutes the CBO report's accuracy stating that CBO did not include ethanol's value as an additive to gasoline and that the report failed to include any comparison with other energy tax incentives, especially petroleum oil.

Ethanol producer Imperium Renewables put out a statement blasting the CBO report's failure in reporting the overall benefits of ethanol.

"The CBO ignored data showing that every dollar of subsidy invested in biofuels returns more than two dollars in increased Gross Domestic Product and state and federal tax revenue. Most distressing is the admission by the authors that the report ignores several positive taxpayer benefits, including that 'increased production of ethanol has probably resulted in some reduction in the price of gasoline, an increase in farm incomes and some impact on the quality of the nation's air and water resources."

Here are key highlights of the CARD report:

• U.S. ethanol production would increase to some 14.5 billion gallons by 2014 without the tax credit and import tariff; U.S. imports of Brazilian ethanol would rise modestly to about 740 million gallons--less than 5 percent of the total U.S. ethanol market.
  

• If the mandates are kept in place but the tax credits and trade protection are allowed to expire, no more than 300 jobs would be lost in the ethanol industry in 2014.

• Ending the tax credit and tariff would reduce ethanol prices by 12 cents per gallon in 2011 and by 34 cents per gallon in 2014. Because most gas sold in the United States contains 10 percent ethanol--a limit the Environmental Protection Agency may increase to 15 percent this fall--lower ethanol prices lead to modest savings at the pump: a penny or two per gallon next year and 3 to 5 cents per gallon in 2014.

• Opening the U.S. market to all producers would reduce price volatility by acting as a price shock absorber, meaning that in years when domestic ethanol production is low, imports would lower the consumer cost of meeting blending mandates.

• The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is the primary driver of ethanol demand. The tax credit prompts blenders to use about 900 million gallons of ethanol each year above mandated levels. This costs taxpayers some $6 billion annually (or almost $7 per gallon). Ending the subsidy would save that amount.

I apologize for the late posts coming from my BIO interviews. The blog still has 6 more to go...

This one is an update from Colorado-based OPX Biotechnologies concerning their bio-acrylic acid project as well as their recent $6m grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE) in converting carbon dioxide and hydrogen to biodiesel (pretty cool!) -- both of which utilize the company's EDGE™ (Efficiency Directed Genome Engineering) technology.

Talking to Chas Eggert, OPXBIO's president and CEO,the company is said to be well on its way in its bio-acrylic production goal after reducing their bioacrylic production cost by 92% now toward the commercial target of 50c./lb.

FYI, the market for acrylic acid has been very tight this year and ICIS estimated June contract price for glacial acrylic acid at around $1.16/lb compared to last year's 60c./lb!

Anyway, Eggert said they are currently raising additional funds in the equity market to support their planned demonstration facility to be constructed around mid-2011. A commercial plant is expected to start up in January 2014.

OPXBIO has already moved from bench pilot reactor (1-10 liter fermenter) for its bio-acrylic production into a 200-liter fermenter. The company is producing acrylic acid via the 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HPA) route.

For the biodiesel project, Eggert said this development will take about 3 years before it reaches a pilot plant stage and additional 1-3 years before the biodiesel product could be commercially available.

OPXBIO aims to produce biodiesel that would cost $2.50 a gallon or less. Eggert said they already have proof of concept for an organism that could convert waste carbon dioxide and hydrogen to fatty acid methyl ester.

"All we need to do is improve it or optimize it enough so the transformation is economic where our biodiesel can compete with traditional plant oil-based diesel. It would take between 4-6 years from today when our biodiesel would be commercially available," said Eggert.

"BIO does a superior job of advocating for biobased products, fuels and chemicals and a partnership between the two organizations would be a good idea. By participating in the ACC, we can get support and inside knowledge about issues emerging within the chemical industry that can influence our area and vice versa with BIO on the biotechnology front," said Eggert.

I am working on my article about cellulosic ethanol right now and thanks to Novozymes' tweets, I came across these video campaign ads from various ethanol groups, companies and associations who are hard at work trying to convince government officials to do the right thing when it comes to legislating renewable fuels in the US...

My last biofuel news of the day are from enzymes producer Novozymes.

The company announced last week a new pilot plant in North Carolina that will demonstrate improved technological process for the production of high quality biodiesel from low quality waste grease. The technology was developed by Piedmont Biofuels and Novozymes.

The pilot plant is expected to produce 12,600 gal/year, and is said to be the first of its kind in the US. The pilot plant is a collaborative project between Chatham County Economic Development Corporation (CCEDC), Novozymes, and Piedmont Biofuels.

"This new process of using enzymes to produce biodiesel will increase yields, decrease waste, and allows the producer to use lower cost feedstocks," said Greg Austic of Piedmont Biofuels. "This groundbreaking technology will create more valuable co-products, and will allow existing producers to increase their biodiesel output."

In another announcement last week, Novozymes said it has signed a deal with Dedini S/A Industrias de Base to develope a technological route using enzymatic hydrolysis to produce cellulosic ethanol from sugarcane bagasse in Brazil.

The companies plan to implement a demonstration plant integrated into sugarcane mill refineries. No further information was stated in the press release except that Brazil is currently crushing more than 600m tons/year of sugarcane, producing 7.1bn gal/year of ethanol.

[Photo of biodiesel pilot plant opening in North Carolina]

Another big news last week is the exit of Verenium from cellulosic ethanol as the company announced the sale of this business to BP.

Verenium said it will focus on the enzymes market instead. According to the company, cellulosic ethanol is still a big potential market but it needs large organizations with resources and capabilities such as its current partner BP to advance and build commercial plants.

BP is paying Verenium's cellulosic business that include facilities in Jennings, LA and San Diego, CA, as well as associated technology platform and enzymes for $98.3m and $10.8m of currently restricted cash upon assignment of a lease to BP for $109m total.

Verenium will retain its commercial enzyme business, including its biofuels enzymes products and have the right to develop its own lignocellulosic enzyme program. Verenium will also retain select R&D capabilities, as well as rights to access select biofuels technology developed by BP using the technology it is acquiring from Verenium.

BP will become the sole investor in Vercipia Biofuels and Galaxy Biofuels, both 50-50 joint ventures of BP and Verenium. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2010.

"The cellulosic ethanol market is evolving more slowly than one would have hope but we are now in a more advantageous position from an enzyme perspective," said Carlos A. Riva, President and CEO at Verenium.

I just wanted to assure those concerned that I am still working on several interviews (and post-interviews) from the BIO industrial biotechnology conference.

Back to the biofuels news, ExxonMobil announced last week that they are entering the next phase of their algae program with Synthetic Genomics Inc. (SGI) with the opening of a new greenhouse facility at the SGI headquarters in La Jolla, Calif.

SGI and ExxonMobil are using the facility to test whether large-scale quantities of affordable fuel can be produced from algae. It gives researchers more realistic conditions for algae production, compared to an indoor lab.

The companies expect to open an outdoor test facility in mid-2011.

After that, ExxonMobil expects to spend more than $600 million on the algae biofuels program over the next decade, $300 million of which will be allocated to SGI.

10 years is a bit of a long time and things/perception changes quickly. I hope the companies can scale up in commercial production sooner than that before enthusiasm for algae becomes moldy (haha!).

Before I venture into the big biofuel news from last week, here's an interesting announcement from Dutch lactic acid producer Purac.

The company said it is participating in a consortium that will develop a process to produce lactic acid feedstock from cellulosic waste derived from the pulp and paper industry.

Other partners in the program are Crown Van Gelder N.V., a paper producing company, and Bumaga B.V., a development center in the paper and board industry. The project is part of the Dutch Biorefinery program and partially funded by the Dutch Ministries of Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.

Lactic acid is considered one of the key sugar-based building block chemicals that have the potential to be converted into a range of value-added chemicals and materials. Demand for lactic acid has been increasing and Purac is currently constructing a new 75,000 tons/year lactide plant in Thailand.

The plant will produce monomers for bioplastics such as polylactic acid (PLA) and succinic acid. It will start up in the second half of 2011.

There have been several big biofuel news last week (always happens when I'm out) coming from BP/Verenium, ExxonMobil/Synthetic Genomics, Novozymes, and from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). I will try to post them as soon as possible but in the meantime, here are last week's news roundup:

CO2 from barley-to-ethanol
Praxair signed a 15-year contract with Osage Bio Products, an affiliate of Osage Bio Energy, for the purchase of carbon dioxide that is produced from Osage's barley-to-ethanol bio-processing operations in Hopewell, Va. The CO2 will be purified and liquefied to produce up to 450 tons per day from Praxair's new plant, scheduled for start up in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Recycling photovoltaic waste
pv recycling of Tempe, AZ, and Swiss based ENCROS signed a deal to develop photovoltaic collection and recycling systems in North America and Europe. ENCROS will develop, test, and operate recycling technologies, while pv recycling will implement and manage areas related to administration, logistics, and regulatory compliance.

ADM's new ethanol dry mill
Archer Daniels Midland opened its new Columbus, Neb., ethanol dry mill, which provides the Company with an additional 300m gal/year ethanol production capacity. ADM's total ethanol production capacity will reach 1.8bn gal/year once a second corn dry mill in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, opens later in 2010.

Wet wipes waste to biomass
Wet wipes manufacturer Nice-Pak Products has transfored its Green Bay, Wisconsin, manufacturing plant into a "zero landfill" facility. The plant now converts its 1,200-1,500 tons of industrial waste into biomass pellets that can be reused as fuel for electricity.

Silicon ink for solar cell
JA Solar signed a three-year supply agreement for silicon nanoparticle ink from Innovalight for the production of JA Solar's recently announced SECIUM high efficiency solar cells. Pilot production of the SECIUM cells began in May with commercial volume production planned in the second half of 2010. JA Solar has achieved conversion efficiency of 18.9 percent for its SECIUM solar cells.

And in ICIS News (requires subscription):
The US and Europe added more electricity generating capacity from renewable rather than conventional sources last year for the second year in a row, according to reports from the United Nations Environment Programme and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).

SunOpta is planning a demonstration project near Toronto to make cellulosic ethanol in co-production with xylitol.

Germany proposed a legal framework for the development of carbon capture and storage projects in the country.

The green blogger is out the rest of the week. For now, the blog will leave you a little information about this interesting new company based in New Zealand that came into my radar three weeks ago.

The newly-hired CEO of LanzaTech, Jennifer Holmgren, wrote me an email regarding the company. If any of the ICIS Chemical Business readers recalled, I used to talk to Ms. Holmgren when she was still the director of renewable energy and chemicals business at Honeywell's UOP LLC.

LanzaTech is also part of Khosla Ventures' investment, and Mr. Khosla in fact, talked about the company briefly at the BIO Industrial biotech conference. More on Vinod Khosla's presentation in another post next week.

Back to LanzaTech, the company has developed a proprietary gas fermentation technology for producing ethanol and high value chemicals such as methyl ethyl ketone, acrylic acid, etc. from waste flue gas streams. Their process has already been demonstrated since November 2008 at a 15,000 gal.year pilot plant using waste flue gas streams from an operating steel mill of BlueScope Steel in Glenbrook, New Zealand.

According to Holmgren, their process has also been demonstrated at the laboratory scale using syngas produced from woody biomass.

LanzaTech plans to construct Phase 1 of their first commercial plant in 3Q 2010, and Phase 2 construction planned for 2012. This world-first 'steel waste to ethanol/chemicals' plant is expected to be operational and profitable by 2013.

LanzaTech estimates its bacteria-based approach could produce over 120bn liters/year of ethanol using existing steel mill gases alone.

On June 22, LanzaTech announced its joint venture with China's largest steel and iron conglomerate, Baosteel, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to commercialize LanzaTech's technologies for producing fuel ethanol from steel mill flue gases.

Baosteel Metal and LanzaTech will build a demonstration plant (still have to check the capacity for this) at one of Baosteel's steel mills in China, with the intention of quick scale-up to commercial scale producing over 200m liters/year of ethanol. The demonstration facility is expected to be in operation in the second half of 2011.

This week, the company announced its successful $18m series B fundraising from investors led by China focused venture capital firm Qiming Ventures.

The funding will enable LanzaTech to further accelerate commercialization of its process. Holmgren says they are currently working on a chemicals strategy.

Definitely looking forward to learn more about this company!

Last year in November, the blog interviewed Rivertop Renewables' founder Donald Kiely and we got to know more about the company's development of glucaric acid.

Last month, the blog had the pleasure to talk to an old acquaintance, Jim Stoppert, who is now Rivertop's new CEO. Recalling from a past post, Stoppert originally came from Cargill and became CEO of Segetis in September 2008. He noted meeting Don Kiely for the first time when he was still at Cargill.

Now, Stoppert said his first initiative is to buildup the company by first hiring experienced people (Hello new jobs!) from the industry, more for the research department and some in sales and marketing. One of Rivertop's business model, according to Stoppert, is to look for contract manufacturers to toll produce their glucaric acid and quickly establish demand.

""We can build a plant at fairly inexpensive rate but our plan is to first start working with contract manufacturers to toll manufacture our products and build up the market. From there, we can build a commercial plant with [an] initial capacity of around 60m lbs, hopefully around 2013," Stoppert said.

The lead application for the company's glucaric acid right now is replacing phosphates in detergents. Rivertop expects to be in the market a year from now for this particular application as soon as they can find contract manufacturers at reasonable cost.

"Phosphate replacement in detergents is a potential $10bn global market," said Stoppert. "We can quickly get our glucaric acid product to the market as [the] approval cycle only takes six months."

Stoppert said they will form joint ventures for some of the applications where they need to work with formulators like in concrete additives and corrosion inhibitors for water treatment, while some applications, they will go to market alone. Rivertop plans to work with partners on the development of glucaric acid-based polymers.

Rivertop estimates market potential for corrosion inhibitors for road and water treatment at $4.8bn; building material additives at $1.7bn; and cosmetic exfoliants at $240m.

Here is Jim Stoppert's presentation at the recent BIO industrial biotechnology conference:

I have several interviews lined up for posting and most of them came from the recent BIO industrial biotechnology conference.

While the blog has previously mentioned Glycos Biotechnologies' activities, this is the first time that the green blogger had the pleasure of talking with CEO Rich Cilento. GlycosBio also deals with biochemical production mostly focusing (for now) on transforming crude glycerin and waste fats into chemicals such as ethanol, isoprene, acetone, hydrogen, 1,2 propanediol and other organic acids such as lactic acid, succinic acid and formic acid.

GlycosBio announced in May that it is building a biochemical plant as well as a biotech R&D facility in Malaysia under a collaboration with the country's biotech hub Bio-XCell Sdn. Bhd. The company plans to produce bio-based acetone, technical grade ethanol and isoprene using crude glycerine as feedstock from their new 20,000 - 40,000 tonne/year facility, expected to come onstream in 2012.

More about the investment in Malaysia on this video:

Here are other salient points on GlycosBIO's long-term strategies:

• While GlycosBIO's technology/microorganism can use sugars and cellulosics, the company's initial feedstock strategy is to use glycerine, waste fats/oils, free fatty acid distillates and other oleochemical processing by-products because of their economic advantage over sugars/starch/cellulosic feedstock.

• Oleochemical and biodiesel manufacturers can significantly increase the value of crude glycerine by converting them to value-added chemicals instead of just refining crude glycerine. Ratio of the value of refined glycerine to value-added chems, 2:10-15.

• The company can pick and choose what type of high value chemicals to produce depending on domestic market needs. In Malaysia, for example, isoprene is a strategic product because of large domestic latex industry. Technical grade ethanol (about 96-97% purity) is said to be a high margin niche market in Malaysia while acetone is a big market in Asia. The company is also looking at high potential market for lactic acid in Southeast Asia.

• Construction of the Malaysian facility is expected to start by November-December and start-up is expected in the fourth quarter of 2012. Investment of the facility is pegged at around $15-$20m.

• The company's long-term strategy is to form joint venture partnerships with oleochemical/biodiesel producers where they can benefit from additional revenue in making biochemicals by bolting on GlycosBIO's technology in their existing infrastructure.

• There are also plans to partner with end market players especially in the development of glycerine-based isoprene for use in latex. R&D and pilot facility are going to be built alongside the commercial facility in Malaysia for the purpose of isoprene development.

• GlycosBio is currently operating a 150,000 liters/year pilot facility outside Houston, which started operation in November 2009. The rapid implementation of their plant facility in Malaysia is GlycosBIO's quickest way for commercialization opportunity.

Have you heard the news about the relaunched of ICIS Chemical Business? (that's the magazine I worked for). It will now have new weekly columns on Petrochemicals, Polymers, Intermediates and Inorganics/Oleochemicals/Biofuels.

The green blogger will handle the last section (inorganics/oleo/biofuels) and that might take some time away from the blog --- I hope not but it remains to be seen. Still, all of us are excited with the new focus as we will be able to provide essential pricing information and market analysis to help buyers and sellers in key chemical markets that ICIS focuses on.

You can access the online version of the magazine (for free!) in here:

And of course, here is the blog's news roundup for this week:

Petrobras biofuel partnership
Petrobras has partnered with Dutch firm BIOeCON to develop a new process for enhanced conversion of biomass lignocelluloses into chemicals or advanced biofuels. The companies plan to establish proof of concept on pilot scale in the Netherlands and to build a demonstration facility in Brazil.

Air Products builds a solar farm
Air Products will build a 12-acre solar farm at its corporate headquarters in Allentown, Pa., capable of generating 1.5 MW of electricity. The 1.5MW will serve the energy needs of nearly half of Air Products' administration buildings. The project is expected to begin construction this fall and be onstream in the spring of 2011.

Cereplast's bioplastic in pen
Cereplast has inked a production contract with Brazil-based S.R. Promocionais, Ltda, to introduce Eko BIO, a compostable, biodegradable pen. The pen uses Cereplast's Compostable 1001 injection molding grade resin.

Panasonic and Teijin in PLA
Panasonic Electric Works Co. and Teijin Limited have jointly develop a highly
heat-resistant polylactide (PLA) molding compound made from 80% plant-based renewable feedstock. Panasonic will sell the new material under MBA900H PLA molding compound for use in the housings of cell phones and other mobile devices and digital consumer electronics. The companies' goal is to initially produce 1,000 tons/year of the resin in 2012.

Phase 2 of cellulosic ethanol project
The US Department of Energy has approved BlueFire Ethanol's $250m request for phase 2 of their Fulton, MS, cellulosic ethanol project. The Fulton facility will produce 19m gal/year of ethanol from woody biomass, mill residue, and other cellulosic waste.

Castor oil for biojet feedstock
Evogene Ltd. said that biojet produced from castor varieties under development by the company meets the key international standards for alternative aviation fuels. Evogene is currently testing its castor varieties in field trials in the southern U.S. and northeastern Brazil.

And in ICIS News (requires subscription):
A new US law, the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act, was signed last week by President Barack Obama. The legislation calls for particleboard, hardwood plywood, medium-density fibreboard (MDF) and other products made or sold in the US to meet the formaldehyde emission ceilings in California's emission standard by June 2013.

The Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) voiced strong opposition to a bid by Congress to impose an inherently safer technology (IST) mandate on producers, warning that it would kill jobs and force more manufacturing overseas.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lowered its 2011 blending target for cellulosic-based biofuel as production of the fuel lagged initial estimates.

I reported this news last week about DuPont and bio-succinic acid player DNP Green Technology having some sort of collaboration albeit without much information given by the companies.

DNP Green Technology, the co-owner of France-based bio-succinic acid producer Bioamber, sent out their latest press release yesterday regarding their licensing deal with DuPont focusing on bio-succinic acid derivatives.

Unfortunately, still not that much information gathered here except that any future commercial plants that will come out from these technologies using bio-succinic acid, DuPont will have the right of first refusal to secure off-take from these plants.

I asked DuPont if they will be involved in any production and marketing of bio-succinic acid derivatives coming from this deal. A spokesperson stated that the agreement does not include marketing by DuPont.

No specific product examples concerning the technology were also given. Looking at some of bio-succinic acid derivatives DNP Green could be focusing on some these (below).

According to DNP Green, the potential market for succinic acid is estimated at €2.5 billion, with uses in products such as antifreeze liquids, coolants, solvents, pigments, polyesters, intermediates for the chemical industry (butanediol and its derivatives), plasticizers, etc.

More on my interview with DNP Green CEO Jean-Francois Huc from the BIO conference coming soon!

The recent startup of a methanol-to-olefins (MTO) demonstration plant in Belgium by Total Petrochemicals proves that plastics can also be produced from biomass-based methane, according to UOP LLC (a Honeywell company), which developed the MTO technology.

"This success demonstrates that the UOP/Hydro technology can produce high-quality propylene, one of the major building blocks for plastics and petrochemicals, from alternative feedstocks," said Peter Piotrowski, senior vice president and general manager of UOP Process Technology and Equipment. "This technology gives petrochemical producers new, viable alternatives to the use of petroleum by enabling the use of methanol derived from sources such as natural gas, coal or biomass."

Maybe the next step will be waste-based methane to plastics?

This is an interesting development when the blog heard that Elevance Renewable Sciences (they seem to be generating a lot of news lately) has licensed the metathesis technology patents 7,738,528 and 7,652,145, from German chemical company Evonik.

I've been trying to find out more information about Evonik's metathesis technology and to my surprise, the company actually filed a complaint against Elevance and Materia - the founder of Elevance and main source of Elevance's patented metathesis technology - early this year. Evonik claimed under the complaint that they are the original developer of olefin metathesis process, which are filed under the patents 7,738,528 and 7,652,145.

An article by PatentCalls noted the timeline of Evonik's claims since 2007.

The recent press release from both Evonik and Elevance did not indicate any of the patent issues but stated that both companies plan to cooperate in further developing application of metathesis catalysts within Elevance's business scope.

Evonik did say that the price Elevance paid for their patented metathesis catalysts includes the licensing fees for the use of Evonik's intellectual property rights.

Last week, Elevance announced their plans to built a 400m lb/year biorefinery in Indonesia to produce natural oils-based specialty chemicals, alpha/internal olefins, oleochemicals and advanced biofuels using metathesis processing. The facility will come on stream next year.

More on this announcement coming soon (with video interview)!

The green blog might have to postpone the BIO interviews to next week due to deadlines this week. For now, I'll post bits and pieces of news that are already clogging the blog's draft box, starting with this announcement from German specialty chemical company Lanxess.

Lanxess said demand for phthalate-free plasticizers is growing so the company is expanding capacity for its Mesamoll plasticizer, which are alkanesulfonic acid esters, by 40% at Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany.

The plasticizer is said to be compatible with a wide range of polymers such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), rubber and polyurethane. Lanxess said sales of Mesamoll are growing at 15%/year, stronger than the overall plasticizer market (wonder what's the current growth for plasticizers...).

The newly expanded capacity will come onstream at the end of 2010.

The green blog is still editing its own video interviews taken at the BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing conference. For now, here are videos provided by BIO, which shows what's on the minds of several companies about this growing profitable world of industrial biotechnology:

Genencor's Vice President of Technology, Karl Sanford, discusses bio-isoprene on Goodyear tires.

IF, LLC President David Haberman on genetic engineering and algae.

Chief Marketing Officer of NatureWorks, Peter Clydesdale, showed their Ingeo bioplastic and the technology behind it.

Culturing Solutions, Inc. CEO Dean Tsoupeis talked about their photobioreactors for algae technology.

Dyadic Founder and CEO Mark Emalfarb discusses the importance of enzymes in industrial biotechnology.

Genomatica Executive Vice President Dennis McGrew talked about their advancement in bio-based butanediol (BDO) development.

Novozymes Executive Vice President Thomas Videbaek discussed the importance of sustainability and the role of enzymes in this area.

As I've mentioned before, it was a pretty busy 3-day event last week at BIO's World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing conference. Here's Brent Erikson BIO Executive Vice President discussing some of the highlights at this year's conference:

Several companies took the opportunity to announce recent milestones and various joint ventures. Here are some of them:

DSM and Roquette to start bio-based succinic acid joint venture

DSM announces breakthrough in technology for second generation biofuels

Elevance Renewable Sciences Announces Joint Venture With Wilmar International to Build World Scale Biorefinery

Elevance Renewable Sciences Commercializes Novel Specialty Chemicals at Joint Venture Manufacturing Facility in Asia

Iowa Gains Momentum as Major Provider of Biorenewables

Genomatica Delivers Pilot-Scale Validation in Sustainable Chemical Manufacturing

ZeaChem Confirms Ethanol Biorefining Process

The green blogger was of course busy covering the event and writing up stories for ICIS News. For those who are subscribers, you can access them here:

DSM, Roquette Fréres sign succinic acid joint-venture agreement

US' Rivertop Renewables to sell glucaric acid in 2013

Biorefining industry can boost global economy - report

France's Roquette plans alternatives to phthalates, polycarbonate

Dutch DSM JV to build 10,000 tonne/year bio-succinic acid plant

US DuPont makes deal with biosuccinic acid JV Bioamber

Algae, biomass-based biofuels remain uneconomical - capitalist

US Genomatica drops bio-MEK, focuses on bio-BDO

Elevance-Wilmar JV to produce dibasic acids in Indonesia

The green blog is still transcribing tons of interviews and presentations from last week's BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing conference held near Washington DC.

For a few insights on what transpired at this fast-growing event, the blog suggests on visiting BIO's official industrial biotech blog "Biofuels and Climate" by Paul Winters.

One big news from the conference is the release of a new report from the World Economic Forum about the importance of industrial biorefineries not only in reducing carbon emissions but placing the US at a competitive advantage in manufacturing and energy.

"In an oil-based society, the United States is at a competitive disadvantage," said Steen Riisgaard, CEO of Novozymes, who presented the report at the conference. "America has only two percent of the world's oil reserves, while it uses more than 20 percent of the world's oil. But in a bio-based society, America has a huge resource advantage. The U.S. has the world's largest reserves of biomass available and more than 70 percent of the planned second generation biorefineries."

• The biofuels market alone is estimated to more than triple by 2020, with combined sales of $95 billion

• The demand for biomass to generate heat and power is expected to more than double

• Bio-based products will accumulate $15 billion in revenues by 2020

• Bio-based chemicals are expected to grow significantly and increase its share in overall chemicals production to an estimated nine percent of all chemicals

Feike Sijbesma, CEO Royal DSM N.V., was also at the presentation and noted the need for collaboration between public and private sectors to enable the transition to a bio-economy.

"As innovation will be key in achieving this, the private sector needs to drive this with conviction and new open innovation concepts. At the same time, it offers governments worldwide a great opportunity, too, in which their help to create a positive framework with stimulating regulations and incentives to enable the private sector to accelerate its investments will be key. The transition to a bio-based economy offers a lot of opportunities to all stakeholders involved."

Also forgot to post this from last week!

Congratulations to Dow Chemical, BASF, Merck, Codexis and LS9 for winning this year's Presidential Green Chemistry awards given by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)!

Dow and BASF won EPA's Greener Synthetic Pathways Award for their joint development of Hydrogen Peroxide to Propylene Oxide (HPPO) process. The HPPO process is said to be more economical and has environmental benefits when compared to conventional propylene oxide process technologies.

The new HPPO process reduces wastewater by 70% to 80% and energy use by approximately 35%. There are no by-products produced besides water and PO plants using the HPPO technology require up to 25% less capital to build than conventional technologies.

Both Merck and Codexis received the Greener Reaction Conditions Award for their second-generation green synthesis of sitagliptin, the active ingredient in Januvia, a treatment for type 2 diabetes. The collaboration has lead to an enzymatic process that reduces waste, improves yield and safety, and eliminates the need for a metal catalyst. Early research suggests that the new biocatalysts will be useful in manufacturing other drugs as well.

LS9, meanwhile, won the Small Business Award for successfully scaling up its technology to produce UltraClean diesel at the pilot-plant level. LS9 has developed a platform technology to produce a wide variety of advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals cost-effectively by a simple, efficient, one-step fermentation process.

LS9 is actively developing the technology for the production of alkanes (diesel, jet fuel, gasoline), alcohols (surfactants), esters (biodiesel, chemical intermediates), olefins (lubricants, polymers), aldehydes (insulation, resins), and fatty acids (soaps, chemical intermediates). Specific product performance is enabled through the genetic control of each product's chain length, extent of saturation, and degree of branching. Unlike the competing biofuel processes, LS9's process does not require any metal catalysts.

Another awardee that are now in my radar is Clarke, a global environmental products and services company, who won the Designing Greener Chemicals Award. Clarke has developed a way to encapsulate spinosad in a plaster matrix, allowing it to be released slowly in water and provide effective control of mosquito larvae. This pesticide, NatularTM, replaces organophosphates and other traditional, toxic pesticides and is approved for use in certified organic farming.

Before I start working on my posts coming from the BIO Industrial Biotechnology conference, let me put out these new products launched last month...

1. Novozyme's new enzyme - Novozymes launched a new enzyme, Spirizyme Excel, that converts more starch in corn, wheat, and other feedstocks into sugars which can be fermented to ethanol, thereby allowing producers to increase yields by more than 1%.

2. JA Solar's solar cells - JA Solar Holdings introduced a new family of high performance solar cells, dubbed "SECIUM." The new cost effective, high efficiency SECIUM solar cells enable substantially better spectral response at short wavelengths in comparison with standard solar cells.

3. Genencor's enzymes - Genencor launched SPEZYME® Robust Starch Liquefaction (RSL).The enzyme more efficiently liquefies dry ground corn or milo, significantly reducing costs and increasing yields for ethanol producers.

4. Noveon green surfactants - Noveon Consumer Specialties launched 3 new vegetable derived surfactants for use in formulations requiring "natural" claims; Chemccinate™ LSC-K Surfactant derived from vegetable oils; Chembetaine™ ACB Surfactant, a naturally derived, bio-based amphoteric surfactant that; Sulfochem™ CS-BZ Surfactant derived from only coconut fatty alcohol and contains no palm kernel derivatives.

5. PPG waterborne paint - PPG Industries launched the first use of its next generation B1:B2 waterborne paint technology in the US. The technology works within BMW's Integrated Paint Process and allows the customer to reduce the number of steps necessary to paint a vehicle by moving the traditional primer application into the topcoat booth.

6. Elevance natural wax - Elevance Renewable Sciences launched its NatureWax® Elite, a new line of natural, vegetable-based, high performance waxes for use in semi or automated candle filling lines. The waxes provide an environmentally friendly alternative to multi-component paraffin blends.

7. Cereplast bioplastic resins - Cereplast has introduced 11 new grades of Cereplast Compostables resins. The bioplastics can be uses in products ranging from tableware and cutlery to toys and healthcare/hygiene products, bottles/containers, bags, packaging, gift cards, printed displays, straws, even pipes, conduits, and many other applications.

Hope you all had a good July 4th weekend! It has been a very hectic but productive last week and I have many juicy information from the recent industrial biotechnology conference I attended waiting to be posted. The blog will also post several video interviews from the conference as companies such as OPX Biotechnologies, Genomatica, Elevance Renewable Sciences, Glycos Bio and DNP Green talked about recent milestones.

Stay tune for those! For now, here are the past two week's news roundup (to make up the lack from last week):

PPG advances in solar
PPG Industries made major advances in solar mirror development for concentrated solar power (CSP) applications, including improvements in solar mirror reflectance performance of up to 1 percent after heat treatment; production of flat solar mirrors as large as approximately 89 x 126 inches on standard production equipment; and formulation of a lead-free encapsulant that prevents solar mirrors from degrading and losing reflectivity in accelerated testing.

Ford uses soy foam cushions
Ford's 2011 Ford Explorer which goes into production later this year will feature soy-based polyurethane foam in seat cushions and seatbacks.There are more than 2 million Ford Motor Company vehicles on the road today with bio foam content.

Braskem launches green plastic seal
In conjunction with the start-up of its sugarcane-based polyethylene plant in Brazil, Braskem is launching its "I'm Green" seal for the products made from the bioplastic. The objective of the seal is to create value and to identify all of its polymers produced from renewable raw materials.

Opportunities on sulfur dioxide rule
Cemtrex says the new sulfur dioxide rule by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will result in higher sales of their advanced sulfur dioxide analyzers in the coming months. The new rule sets the one-hour SO2 health standard at 75 parts per billion (ppb), down from the current standard of 140 ppb, a level designed to protect against short-term exposures ranging from five minutes to 24 hours. It is the first time that the standard has been tightened since the original limit was introduced back in 1971.

Solutia bags green building grant
Solutia's Performance Films segment bagged a $356,000 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The awarded funds have been earmarked for the continued research, development and commercialization of high-performance, energy-efficient retrofit window film technology for residential and commercial buildings.

Carbon capture patent
CO2 Solution Inc. received a new US patent, 7,740,689 that provides for exclusivity in the field of using the enzyme, carbonic anhydrase, or an analog thereof, for the capture of carbon dioxide with amine solvents, including MDEA, or any combination or part thereof in any process and in any enzyme delivery configuration.

Sustainability group formed
Fourteen industry leaders have formed the Sustainability Innovators Working Group - aiming to define and develop state-of-the-art approaches for environmental management and corporate sustainability. Industry members include Dow Chemical, IBM, Boeing, CH2M Hill, Coca-Cola, Delhaize Group, Disney, Diversey, FedEx, Johnson & Johnson, Shaklee, Unilever, Walmart, and Xerox.

Greening Alberta oil sands
GE has partnered with the University of Alberta (UA) and Alberta Innovates Technology Futures (AITF) on a $4 million CO2 capture project supported by the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation. The team will use nanotechnology to reduce CO2 emissions associated with the extraction and upgrading process in oil sands, and treatment of produced water generated during the oil recovery.The technology is based on naturally occurring zeolites identified by UA.

European enzyme partnership
DEINOVE, a specialist in the application of deinococci bacteria to biofuels and green chemistry, has partnered with European research centre on industrial enzymes and bioprocesses, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The partners will evaluate different Deinococcus candidate strains screened by DEINOVE for the DEINOL cellulosic ethanol production process.

And in ICIS News (requires subscription):
European recycled polyethylene stays buoyant amid rising green interest.

The biorefining industry has the potential to inject upwards of $230bn (€186bn) into the global economy by 2020 and create more than 800,000 jobs, with the US becoming the biggest benefactor, industry experts said

Algae biofuels and enzymatic conversion of biomass to sugar will continue to be uneconomical if they can't compete with crude oil at $60/bbl (€49/bbl), according to venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.