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editor’s note
The biorefining industry is young, full of promising startups holding an array of technologies capable of working wonders in conversion of biomass to advanced biofuels and biobased chemicals—at lab- or maybe even pilot-scale. But when it comes
scale up Ron Kotrba, Editor rkotrba@bbiinternational.com
to moving beyond the small-scale achievements of producing on-spec products in millimeter-sized beakers, what do project developers and technology providers need to consider for the next level of demonstration-scale production or, more importantly, commercialization? Seeking answers to this question, we developed the March issue of Biorefining Magazine around the theme of scale-up. There are so many angles to think about during scale-up that it would be impossible to cover in a 40-page magazine. Considerations include choosing the right engineering firm to develop a scaled-up process, one that may not tell project developers what they want to hear but instead what needs to be heard. As Marc Privitera and Christina Borgese, founding engineers of PreProcess Inc., write in their contribution article, “Biorefining Technology Scale-Up,” on page 34, “Occasionally inventors see a success on the lab bench and assume the scale-up should just be a matter of routine. This is where many efforts fail. The scale-up is rushed, steps are skipped because the understanding of the complexities of scale-up had not been clearly articulated and thus expectations are not met. The carnage begins.” Privitera and Borgese say the irony is that big learning breakthroughs occur through the small failures experienced on the road to scale-up. “However, if the team is underfunded or overstressed trying to fit a pre-assumed, inflexible scale-up expectation, the real pot of gold can be missed. A scale-up plan must be a fluid, agile path that adapts as new information emerges.” There are legal questions too, such as will your intellectual properties scale up when your technologies and processes do? This is addressed in the Legal Perspective column by Paul Craane, a partner attorney with Marshall, Gerstein & Borun, on page 9 of this issue.
for more news, information and perspective, visit biorefiningmagazine.com/thebiorefiningblog
ASSOCIATE EDITORS Erin Voegele writes “Going Global,” the lead feature article on page 20 that covers the complexities of scaling up biorefining processes overseas.
4 | Biorefining Magazine | march 2011
Bryan Sims’ feature article, “Scaling Up Biobased Chemicals,” on page 26, details nuances that are specific to the buildout of biobased chemicals.
Luke Geiver writes about project developers aligning with the right engineering firms for maximum scale-up success in “Building Ideas” on page 30.