May/June 2012 Biorefining Magazine

INSIDE: 4 CRITICAL COMPONENTS TO BIOMASS MATERIAL HANDLING MAY/JUNE 2012

Sugar Supply-Side Economics

Plants l lants Can C Avoid A id Costly C l Biomass Bi Pretreatment retreatment with Ready-to-Use Lignocellulosic Sugar Feedstock Page 14

Plus

University of Illinois Researchers Develop Complex Feedstock Logistics Model

Page 18

And

McAdams, Other Renewable Leaders Advise Administration on Good Bioenergy Policy Page 6

The UK Bribery Act: You May Be in Violation and Not Even Know It Page 8

www.biorefiningmagazine.com

CONTENTS |

Ad Index 22

2012 Algae Biomass Summit

MAY/JUNE ISSUE 2012 VOL. 3 ISSUE 3

24

2012 National Advanced Biofuels Conference & Expo

FEATURES

23

Algal Biomass Organization

11

BBI Consulting Services

16

Burns & McDonnell

17

Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-Economy

2

18

GENENCOR - A Danisco Division

11

Keller and Heckman

20

Novasep Process

21

Sud-Chemie AG

13

Vecoplan LLC

5

14

West Salem Machinery Co.

FEEDSTOCK Sugar Rush

Providers offer convertible sugars, eliminating onsite biomass pretreatment

BY BRYAN SIMS

RESEARCH An Analytic Advantage

BioFeed—300,000 variables, one goal: an optimized biomass supply chain

BY ERIN VOEGELE

CONTENTS

DEPARTMENTS 4

5

6

7

INSIDE: 4 CRITICAL COMPONENTS TO BIOMASS MATERIAL HANDLING MAY/JUNE 2012

Editor’s Note

8

Feedstock and Material Handling

BY RON KOTRBA

Industry Events

Upcoming Conferences & Trade Shows

9

Advanced Advocacy Within Earshot of the Oval Office

BY MICHAEL MCADAMS

10

Legal Perspectives

UK Bribery Act Reaches Beyond UK

BY EMMA ROE, DANIEL O’GORMAN AND RICHARD WEINER

Business Briefs

People, Partnerships & Deals

Startup

Biorefining News & Trends

Talking Point

Biomass Material Handling

BY YURI CHOCHOLKO

Sugar Supply-Side Economics

Plants l lants Can C Avoid A id Costly C l Biomass Bi Pretreatment retreatment with Ready-to-Use Lignocellulosic Sugar Feedstock Page 14

Plus

University of Illinois Researchers Develop Complex Feedstock Logistics Model

Page 18

And

McAdams, Other Renewable Leaders Advise Administration on Good Bioenergy Policy

Page 6

The UK Bribery Act: You May Be in Violation and Not Even Know It Page 8

www.biorefiningmagazine.com

On the Cover Fred Moesler, vice president of process technology for Renmatix, stands next to totes of biomass-derived sugars produced from Renmatix’s trademarked Plantrose Process.

MAY/JUNE 2012 | Biorefining Magazine | 3

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EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITORIAL

Feedstock and Material Handling

EDITOR Ron Kotrba rkotrba@bbiinternational.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS Erin Voegele evoegele@bbiinternational.com Bryan Sims bsims@bbiinternational.com

RON KOTRBA, EDITOR RKOTRBA@BBIINTERNATIONAL.COM

COPY EDITOR Jan Tellmann jtellmann@bbiinternational.com

ART ART DIRECTOR Jaci Satterlund jsatterlund@bbiinternational.com

Welcome to the feedstock and material handling issue of Biorefining Magazine. For years, researchers and industry

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Elizabeth Burslie bburslie@bbiinternational.com

personnel have been working to devise how to transport biomass from the field or forest to the plant gate in the most cost-effective, efficient manner possible. Featured articles in this issue address these concerns in two very different ways: disposing of the issue altogether by contracting with biomass sugar providers who supply preprocessed six- and/or five-carbon sugars; and developing a sophisticated model with hundreds of thousands of variables, letting the computational power of today’s information technology take the guess work out of analyzing the best approaches.

But what about once the material is at the biorefinery gate? This is where receiving and conveying takes over. Yuri Chocholko, the North American sales manager for wood, biomass and fuels at Vecoplan LLC, authors this month’s Talking Point column, “Biomass Material Handling,” in which he highlights the four main areas of handling biomass.

“Conveying may seem like a simple operation of getting from point A to B, but it can be a continual problem area in biomass processing operations,” Chocholko writes. “The answers gained during characterization will govern many decisions here. Distance, angle and throughput are all obvious questions that must be asked. Conveyor type, style and maintenance needs must also be considered.”

These are just a few of the aspects Chocholko says must be addressed when designing a material handling system inside the plant. Read the entire column on page 7.

PUBLISHING CHAIRMAN Mike Bryan mbryan@bbiinternational.com CEO Joe Bryan jbryan@bbiinternational.com VICE PRESIDENT Tom Bryan tbryan@bbiinternational.com

SALES VICE PRESIDENT, SALES & MARKETING Matthew Spoor mspoor@bbiinternational.com EXECUTIVE ACCOUNT MANAGER Howard Brockhouse hbrockhouse@bbiinternational.com SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Jeremy Hanson jhanson@bbiinternational.com ACCOUNT MANAGERS Marty Steen msteen@bbiinternational.com Bob Brown bbrown@bbiinternational.com Andrea Anderson aanderson@bbiinternational.com Dave Austin daustin@bbiinternational.com CIRCULATION MANAGER Jessica Beaudry jbeaudry@bbiinternational.com ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Marla DeFoe mdefoe@bbiinternational.com SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER John Nelson jnelson@bbiinternational.com

FOR MORE NEWS, INFORMATION AND PERSPECTIVE, VISIT BIOREFININGMAGAZINE.COM/BLOG/READ/BIOREFINING

ASSOCIATE EDITORS Bryan Sims’ featured article this month, “Sugar Rush” on page 14, delves into a developing link in the feedstock supply chain: companies providing ready-to-process biomass sugars.

Erin Voegele writes “An Analytic Advantage” on page 18, a story about the BioFeed model developed by University of Illinois researchers to optimize biomass supply efficiencies.

Customer Service Please call 1-866-746-8385 or email us at service@bbiinternational.com. Subscriptions to Biorefining Magazine are free of charge to everyone with the exception of a shipping and handling charge of $49.95 for any country outside the United States, Canada or Mexico. To subscribe, visit www.biorefiningmagazine.com or you can send your mailing address and payment (checks made out to BBI International) to: Biorefining Magazine Subscriptions, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. You can also fax a subscription form to (701) 746-5367. Back Issues, Reprints and Permissions Select back issues are available for $3.95 each, plus shipping. Article reprints are also available for a fee. For more information, contact us at (701) 746-8385 or service@bbiinternational.com. Advertising Biorefining Magazine provides a specific topic delivered to a highly targeted audience. We are committed to editorial excellence and high-quality print production. To find out more about Biorefining Magazine advertising opportunities, please contact us at (701) 746-8385 or service@bbiinternational.com. Letters to the Editor We welcome letters to the editor. Send to Biorefining Magazine Letters to the Editor, 308 2nd Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203 or e-mail to rkotrba@bbiinternational.com. Please include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity and/or space.

TM

COPYRIGHT © 2012 by BBI International

Please recycle this magazine and remove inserts or samples before recycling 4 | Biorefining Magazine | MAY/JUNE 2012

EVENTS CALENDAR |

International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo

June 4-7, 2012

Minneapolis Convention Center Minneapolis, Minnesota Evolution Through Innovation Now in its 28th year, the FEW provides the ethanol industry with cutting-edge content and unparalleled networking opportunities in a dynamic business-to-business environment. The largest, longest running ethanol conference in the world, the FEW is renowned for its superb programming, and is powered by Ethanol Producer Magazine.

(866) 746-8385 www.fuelethanolworkshop.com

Algae Biomass Summit

September 24-27, 2012

Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel Denver, Colorado Advancing Technologies and Markets Derived from Algae Organized by the Algal Biomass Organization and coproduced by BBI International, this event brings current and future producers of biobased products and energy together with algae crop growers, municipal leaders, technology providers, equipment manufacturers, project developers, investors and policy makers. Register today for the world’s premier educational and networking junction for the algae industry.

(866) 746-8385 www.algaebiomasssummit.org

National Advanced Biofuels Conference & Expo

November 27-29, 2012

Hilton Americas - Houston Houston, Texas Next Generation Fuels and Chemicals Make plans to attend the 2012 National Advanced Biofuels Conference & Expo in Houston, Texas. Understand the latest techniques being developed in the industry and continue building relationships that last. Contact a knowledgeable account representative to reserve booth space now.

(866)746-8385 www.advancedbiofuelsconference.com

International Biomass Conference & Expo

April 8-10, 2013

Minneapolis, Minnesota Building on Innovation Organized by BBI International and coproduced by Biomass Power & Thermal and Biorefining Magazine, this event brings current and future producers of bioenergy and biobased products together with waste generators, energy crop growers, municipal leaders, utility executives, technology providers, equipment manufacturers, project developers, investors and policy makers.

(866) 746-8385 www.biomassconference.com

MAY/JUNE 2012 | Biorefining Magazine | 5

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ADVANCED ADVOCACY

Within Earshot of the Oval Office White House gathering reaffirms Obama’s support for advanced biofuels

BY MICHAEL McADAMS

F

or more than 100 years, one room in the White House has been the center of policy discussion, debate and decisions for 19 presidents. It might surprise you to learn that room is not the Oval Office but the windowless Roosevelt Room, which was originally the president’s office, built in 1902 as President Theodore Roosevelt expanded the White House. It is important to understand the room’s history and significance as earlier this spring it played a symbolic role in the future of America’s domestic biofuels industry and the greater renewable energy sector.

At a time when Washington is determined to identify smarter investments in clean energy fuels and scrutinizing every federal dollar spent, it was incontrovertible proof of our industry’s successful performance today and its promising future that I joined other renewable energy colleagues as President Obama invited us to participate in a meeting on America’s energy policy at the White House. The meeting included the Secretaries of Energy, Agriculture, and Interior as well as other senior-level administration officials and was held in, you guessed it, the Roosevelt Room, which sits within earshot of the Oval Office.

I was honored to be included and thrilled to have the opportunity to deliver a message to the president’s team that America’s domestic biofuels industry is no longer assessing hypotheticals of if or when, instead, today, we are now asking, how much do you

6 | Biorefining Magazine | MAY/JUNE 2012

need? We are moving from the beaker to the barrel, all in record time, without a lifetime of federally subsidized handouts, and delivering advanced replacement fuels that meet on-road standards, with much more to come.

Among those participating that day were leaders of the American Wind Association, the Solar Industry Association and Growth Energy. All of us collectively understood the seriousness of what each of our industries was attempting to do to change the balance of America’s energy portfolio.

As the meeting started, we quickly understood the president asked us to the White House to specifically discuss which policy instruments had been most helpful to our individual industries and what other steps might be taken to further enhance the development of renewable energy and America’s approach to energy security. The wind, solar and advanced biofuels sectors all encouraged the president’s team to continue to send a strong signal of commitment from the federal government in various policy mechanisms that either are in place or have been helpful in the past. A consistent theme was that whatever support policy the government selected, it needed to be extended over a sufficient period of time to allow for the commercial markets to actually take advantage of the provisions.

It was a thoughtful discussion lasting more than an hour and in Washington, that’s equal to a lifetime. The discussion went to the very core of defining energy security and how any country arrives at such a point in its economic activity and the policies it adopts that ultimately achieve that type of

independence and flexibility of economic operation. The room was in unanimous agreement that only an all-of-the-above portfolio approach that decreased the use of energy, developed the existing sources of energy and continued to foster, create and deploy new technology innovations, could help us achieve the kind of energy security our nation needs and demands.

In the past several months, I have heard from many of our readers asking what happened to the president’s support of advanced biofuels. It is a fair enough question, but between the conversation at the White House and his remarks to a packed field house later that week at a local community college, there should no longer be any lingering questions or doubt.

What our industry needs to do now, especially as we inch closer to the height of a presidential election year, is make sure that biofuels does not become a partisan issue. We must act together to help ensure that local and national leaders alike, of all political stripes, understand and support the opportunities that this industry presents today and for the future of our nation. To turn a paraphrase of the president’s remarks, biofuels are no joke!

Author: Michael McAdams President, Advanced Biofuels Association (202) 469-5140 Michael.McAdams@hklaw.com

TALKING POINT

|

Biomass Material Handling Characterization, C h receiving, conveying and preprocessing p r feedstock

BY YURI CHOCHOLKO

T

o the laymen, laymen the rapidly developing second-generation cellulosic ethanol industry may very well appear to be an alchemistical pursuit.

But where the public may see similarities between the two, a good solution provider understands that there’s nothing magical about the processes involved in creating cellulosic ethanol.

As long as all parts of the process work together, turning something of little value into something of great (and it seems, constantly increasing) value can be done on a large scale—without the use of magic.

Material handling and feedstock preparation, while only one part of a complex process, is equally important to the success of a cellulosic ethanol production facility as feedstock selection or any of the different chemical processes, or “black boxes,” generating final product. A summary of feedstock material handling can simplify it to show four main areas: characterization, receiving, conveying and preprocessing.

Characterization of feedstock requires understanding its properties. Moisture, bulk density, particle size and range, seasonal properties, abrasiveness and contaminants are just a few of the items that should be considered as they all effect the equipment selection and material flow during processing.

A woody biomass system differs from a switchgrass or corn stover system in many ways, so knowing the material properties and characteristics is an essential part of the solution provider’s task to configure the correct equipment and processing methods.

A hammermill used to reduce wood size may not perform the same task on straw; a dualshaft shredder that can handle entire bales, the string that binds them and any loose rocks may better serve those needs.

Receiving and storage methods for feedstock are largely determined by the characterization results, as well as how the material is transported to site. If blending different feedstocks together, allowing separate systems to handle the incoming material may be necessary. Miscanthus bails cannot be processed or stored the same as a truckload of wood chips, so blending the materials together requires additional equipment and expenses. Reducing material decomposition and accelerated decay in storage can be done via a first-in/first-out (FIFO) material flow and protecting product from the elements. These factors effect material flow options and decisions made when the facility is laid out.

Conveying may seem like a simple operation of getting from point A to B, but it can be a continual problem area in biomass processing operations. The answers gained during characterization will govern many decisions here. Distance, angle and throughput are all obvious questions that must be asked.

Conveyor type, style and maintenance needs are must also be considered. Will a belt conveyor suffice, or should a chain conveyor be considered over steep angles and long distances? What is the material’s angle of repose and what cleat configuration would work best? If selecting a drag-chain conveyor, should you use a single- or double-chain configuration? How far can we transport the material with a single drive? In the event of a blockage, is a screw conveyor reversible for maintenance and clean out? Do you need to provide explosion and fire protection at certain transfer points? Many operators look past moving material a short distance, a seemingly simple task, but poor conveyor selection and design can be, and often is, a bottleneck in an otherwise successful operation. Be very particular and detailed in

this area of your design—understanding the way feedstocks react to differing conveying methods is critical to achieving any operation’s throughput requirements.

Preprocessing covers a wide range of operations, but two main categories require focus: size reduction and contaminant removal. Hammermills, pelletizers and briquetters have been used for years in the biomass industry, but slow-speed single- and dual-shaft shredders are becoming more prominent amongst leading cellulosic ethanol companies. Particle size consistency, ease of maintenance, power consumption and reduced risk of fire or explosion are driving factors behind this trend. Screening, tramp metal detection and fines-removal systems all play a large part in protecting the equipment and end product. “Black-box” methods of breaking down sugars, and finally producing ethanol, differ but they all have a common need; contaminant-free feedstock with consistent particle size enables their most effective, efficient results. The preprocessing equipment and methods will greatly determine an operator’s achievable levels of success.

Finding an integrated solutions provider with equipment, experience and expertise to meet your requirements is perhaps the most important consideration to ensure all the puzzle pieces fit together correctly and work to achieve the same throughput. Look for a company that can test your materials. Work with someone who provides a complete package (hardware and software) that is intuitive and flexible, and can adapt to the constantly evolving cellulosic ethanol industry.

Author: Yuri Chocholko North American Sales Manager: Wood, Biomass & Fuels, Vecoplan LLC (336) 861-6070 ychocholko@vecoplanllc.com

MAY/JUNE 2012 | Biorefining Magazine | 7

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LEGAL PERSPECTIVE

UK Bribery Act Reaches Beyond UK You may be guilty and not even know it

BY EMMA ROE, DANIEL O’GORMAN AND RICHARD WEINER

T

he U.K. Bribery Act 2010, effective July 1, 2011, has significant reach beyond the U.K. and will affect many U.S. biofuels companies. A U.S. biofuels company that conducts business in the U.K. could be prosecuted under the act for failing to prevent bribery committed by any of its employees, agents or associated persons, notwithstanding the fact that the act constituting bribery is committed outside the U.K. and involves no U.K. people. A U.S. biofuels company can protect itself from prosecution by enacting and demonstrating “adequate procedures” to prevent bribery throughout the company.

To illustrate the act’s potentially wide reach, consider a U.S. biofuels company conducting business in Asia. It appoints an agent in an Asian country to assist establishing business there. To speed up telephone service connection, the agent makes a “facilitation payment” to a local official. The company also has a representative in the U.K., but does not have any connection with the Asia business. The U.S. company is liable under the act for failing to prevent bribery. It’s not relevant that neither the U.S. company nor the U.K. representative was aware of the Asia agent’s actions, or that the bribe has no connection with the U.K. The potential application of the act to the U.S. company is triggered simply because the U.S. company conducts business in the U.K. Even if the U.S. company has no U.K. representative, it would still be liable for an offense if it simply conducts business in the U.K., including dealing directly with U.K. customers.

8 | Biorefining Magazine | MAY/JUNE 2012

U.K. regulators have indicated they will be actively looking to bring legal proceedings in the U.K. against non-U.K. companies and businesses. Speaking at an event for the U.S.-Russia Business Council not long before the bribery act became effective, the U.K. Serious Fraud Office director said, “[O]ur view is that if a foreign group has a subsidiary in the U.K. and in another country and that bribery occurs in that other country, then that bribery is within the remit of the SFO.” Key to whether the act applies to a U.S. biofuels company is if it conducts any “part of a business” in the U.K. Therefore, if the bribery is committed outside the U.K. and if the U.S. company does business in the U.K. whether through a branch or office or by appointing a U.K. agent, the U.S. company’s activities will be covered by the U.K. Bribery Act; and if a U.S. parent company does business in the U.K. through a U.K. subsidiary, the U.S. parent might also be covered. Whether it applies to the U.S. parent company will depend on how the U.K. subsidiary is controlled and if it has complete operational independence from its U.S. parent company.

If the act applies to a U.S. company, then it will commit an offense if a person associated with the U.S. company performing services on its behalf bribes someone with the intention to obtain or retain business or an advantage in business and the U.S. company is unable to show it had adequate procedures in place designed to prevent bribery from being committed by persons performing services on its behalf.

Key points: A U.S. biofuels company will be liable for the actions

of its “associated persons.” A person is “associated” with a company if it performs services on its behalf. An associated person will include employees and agents but also subsidiary companies, distributors, subcontractors and joint venture partners.

The act that constitutes bribery needs no connection to the U.K. The act applies to bribery carried out anywhere in the world and neither the bribe giver or receiver needs to be a U.K. person or have any U.K. connection. Bribery is not just cash payments or making “facilitation payments,” but can include corporate hospitality, gifts or charitable donations. The U.K. Bribery Act catches bribes paid or offered to any person, not just foreign public officials, meaning it applies to bribery in both private and public sectors. While this article refers to U.S. companies being within the scope of the U.K. Bribery Act, it applies to any commercial U.S. entity conducting business in the U.K. This includes U.S. partnerships, trading businesses and professional organizations doing business in the U.K. Sanctions: Offenses under the U.K. Bribery Act are criminal in nature and can lead to monetary penalties, imprisonment of a company’s directors and officers, disqualification of persons from acting as company officers, and prohibition of a company from bidding on government contracts in the U.K. Authors: Emma Roe, Daniel O’Gorman; Richard Weiner Attorneys, Cobbetts; Vice President, Fredrikson & Byron emma.roe@cobbetts.com daniel.orgorman@cobbetts.com rweiner@fredlaw.com

BUSINESS BRIEFS People, Partnerships & Deals

erlands, with the capacity of producing 40 tons of PEF for application development.

Avantium also has a major agreement with The Coca-Cola Co.

Volkswagen of America Inc. is partnering with Amyris Inc. and Solazyme Inc. to evaluate emissions reductions and demonstrate the performance of Volkswagen’s TDI Clean Diesel technology. Volkswagen will provide each company with two products—a new 2012 Passat TDI and a 2012 Jetta TDI—in order to closely examine the effects that the fuels produced by Amyris and Solazyme will have on Volkswagen clean diesel technology and the environment. Amyris has developed a synthetic biology platform that converts plant sugars into hydrocarbon compounds called isoprenoids.

Amyris is currently focused on commercializing a 15-carbon hydrocarbon called betafarnesene, which can be further converted into fuels like renewable diesel and specialty chemicals. Solayzme employs a proprietary biotechnology platform to produce algal oils which, through various finishing steps, can be further refined into algal-derived fatty acid methyl esters, Soladiesel BD, and renewable diesel, Soladiesel RD. Avantium announced its second major partnership for its YXY technology to produce PEF bottles. Danone Research and Avantium have entered into a joint agreement for development of PEF bottles for Danone, No. 2 worldwide in bottled water business. YXY is used as an efficient chemical-catalytic technology to convert carbohydrates produced from plants, grains, energy crops, lignocellulosic matter, waste streams, waste paper or agricultural residues, into a wide variety of biopolymers. Avantium recently opened its pilot plant in Geleen, Neth-

Dedicated energy crop developer Mendel Biotechnology Inc., with its wholly owned subsidiary Mendel Bioenergy Seeds, and BP Biofuels have signed a four-year agreement to conduct a demonstration field trial of Mendel’s trademarked PowerCane Miscanthus and evaluate its performance as feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production at BP Biofuels’ 1.4 MMgy demonstration-scale production plant in Jennings, La. A total of 100 acres of PowerCane Miscanthus is expected to be planted early this year near the Jennings cellulosic ethanol demo facility, and the first biomass harvest from these fields is expected to occur next year. While BP Biofuels controls 1.4 MMgy of production at its Jennings cellulosic ethanol demonstration-scale facility, the company’s priority this year is developing a $400 million, 36 MMgy cellulosic commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol project in Highlands County, Fla., which is expected to begin production by next year.

Germany-based BASF Venture Capital has led a $13.5 million investment round that raised a total of $18.2 million for San Diego, Calif.-based renewable specialty chemical developer Allylix Inc. Also participating in the financing round were existing investors Tate & Lyle Ventures, Avrio Ventures and Cultivian Ventures. Allylix has developed a multifaceted yeast fermentation-based technology platform derived from glucose for the biosynthesis, discovery and production of renewable specialty chemicals, primarily terpenes and their derivatives. The core technology platform involves gene cloning and expression, metabolic engineering, protein engineering, fermentation development, recovery and purification and synthetic organic chemistry.

Seattle-based biorefining firm Blue Marble Biomaterials and Anheuser-Busch Companies LLC have signed a memorandum of understanding for Blue Marble to begin development of a pilot biorefinery to be co-located at a North American Anheuser-Busch brewery. A specific location of the Anheuser-Busch site wasn’t disclosed. The project will initially focus on converting spent brewery grains and biogas derived from the brewing process into high-value biobased chemicals that can be readily used in the food, flavoring and fragrance industries using Blue Marble’s proprietary Acid, Gas and Ammonia Targeted Extraction process technology.

California-based Genomatica and Japanbased global chemical manufacturer Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. have signed a memorandum of understanding to exclusively negotiate definitive agreements for a joint commercial operation in Asia for the production of biobased butanediol (BDO) using Genomatica’s process technology. Mitsubishi made an upfront payment to Genomatica of $3.5 million while the companies continue to work toward completing their definitive agreements. The agreement builds on a previously announced MOU between the companies signed last April and an equity investment by Mitsubishi into Genomatica in December 2010, strengthening the partnership between the two. Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. is the eighth largest chemical maker in the world.

SHARE YOUR INDUSTRY BRIEFS To be included in Business Briefs, send information (including photos and logos if available) to: Industry Briefs, Biorefining, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203.

You may also fax information to (701) 746-8385, or email it to rkotrba@bbiinternational.com. Please include your name and telephone number in all correspondence.

MAY/JUNE 2012 | Biorefining Magazine | 9

STARTUP Smoking Out Potential Repurposing tobacco for biofuels

Many people associate tobacco with health problems, but that could change. A team of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is developing an innovative biofuels production technique that could yield huge quantities of renewable, drop-in biofuels.

If successful, tobacco could one day be associated with a healthier environment.

According to LBNL, the work focuses on transferring a hydrocarbon-synthesizing gene from cyanobacteria into a tobacco plant. The resulting plants would be able to produce fuel molecules within their leaves. Rather than undergoing a typical biorefining conversion process, the leaves would simply have to be crushed to extract the fuel.

The $4.9 million project is being funded by the U.S. DOE’s Ad-

Biorefining News & Trends

vanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, which is designed to support potentially game-changing, high-risk, high-reward innovation.

Christer Jansson, a plant biochemist with the LBNL’s Earth Sciences Division, is leading the effort. “We want to bypass downstream processes like fermentation and produce fuels directly in the crop,” says Jansson. “After the biomass is crushed, we could extract the hydrocarbon molecules, and crack them into shorter molecules, creating gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel.”

There are several reasons tobacco is an attractive crop for this type of research: it’s already grown in large-scale operations within more than 100 countries, it can be harvested several times a year, features large leaves to efficiently store a lot of fuel, and is amenable to genetic engineering efforts. The research team estimates that 1,000 acres of the genetically modified crop could yield 1 million gallons of fuel on an annual basis. The team anticipates growing the first plant in 18 months. —Erin Voegele

Aiming for Efficiency

University researcher designs efficient, sustainable biorefinery systems The biorefining industry has made great strides in technology development, but as the industry begins to scale-up production, a strong technology platform in and of itself may not be enough to ensure that commercial operations are as economically competitive as possible. It will also be important that biorefining companies find ways to leverage the production of coproducts while reducing energy use and waste.

A researcher at North Carolina A&T State University is developing biorefining models that can help make biorefinery operations as efficient as possible. Lijun Wang, an associate projector of chemical, biological and bioengineering, is developing such models for lignocellulosic biofuel production, algae cultivation and thermochemical conversion of waste biomass into bio-oil. “I think the big issue of the moment within the industry,” he says, “is the need to improve process efficiency while bringing costs down so biobased products can be competitive in the market.”

For cellulosic ethanol production, Wang has developed an innovative model that involves the coproduction of acetic acid and activated carbon, which are recycled back into the process to increase efficiencies.

Wang says only the cellulosic component of lignocellulosic biomass can be effectively converted into ethanol. As a result, the hemicellulose and lignin fractions of the feedstock are wasted in a typical fermentation operation.

In Wang’s design, cellulosic (C6) sugars are converted into ethanol via a yeast fermentation process, while the hemicellulosic (C5) sugars are used to produce acetic acid. Although the commonly used commodity chemical could be sold into the market as a coproduct, Wang’s biorefinery design calls for it to be recycled back into the plant’s operation where it is used to pretreat lignocellulosic biomass and help separate the C5 and C6 sugars. The design could help reduce operational costs, as a plant effectively produces its own feedstock pretreatment solution.

10 | Biorefining Magazine | MAY/JUNE 2012

Wang’s design also incorporates the processing of fermentation residue into activated carbon, which can be used to treat wastewater coming out of the fermentation process. The activated carbon can then be burned onsite in a cogeneration facility to produce heat and electricity to power the facility and its biorefinery operations.

Wang, however, hasn’t focused exclusively Expert Design Lijun on the cellulosic biofuels sector; he is also lead- Wang, an associate professor of chemical, ing an ongoing algae project. Under Wang’s algae biological and production model, wastewater treatment would bioengineering at North Carolina A&T be combined with algae cultivation. The chal- State University, has lenge, he says, is to design an algae production developed models three biorefining system that can operate economically and effi- for systems. ciently year-round. The project contains several components including biological and computer modeling work to select the most appropriate algae strain for use in a specific wastewater treatment operation, and testing it in a photobioreactor system.

As part of the project, Wang is also designing a method to use carbon dioxide gas produced via an anaerobic digestion system using biological matter found in wastewater to bubble through the algae solution serving as an agitator. The agitation process has typically been done using energy-intensive pump systems. Wang says his method would have the additional benefit of increasing the amount of carbon dioxide circulating within the solution, helping to promote algae growth. The project will also seek to develop ways to help increase the amount of sunlight that can penetrate the algae solution.

—Erin Voegele

STARTUP |

Packing a Pyrolytic Punch

UMass Amherst researchers improve output from catalytic pyrolysis process Using their own licensed catalytic fast pyrolysis process for converting nonfood lignocellulosic biomass such as wood, agricultural residues and energy crops into a variety of bioboased compounds equivalent to their petrochemical counterparts, a team of University of Massachusetts Amherst chemical engineers, led by George Huber, has developed a new bifunctional gallium-promoted zeolite (Ga/ZSM-5) catalyst that boosts yield of aromatics, namely benzene, toluene and a mixture of xylene isomers, as well as olefins ethylene and propylene, by 40 percent over previously used zeolite based catalysts. The new process was published in the December edition of the German Chemical Society’s journal Angewandte Chemie.

The increase in yield, according to Huber, is attributed to adding small amounts of gallium oxide to the previously naked zeolite catalyst. In the single-step catalytic fast pyrolysis process, biomass is fed into a fluidizedbed reactor where it’s pyrolyzed into vapors. These vapors subsequently enter the team’s improved gallium-zeolite catalyst, inside the same reactor, which converts the vapors into aromatics and olefins.

Huber explains that when gallium is introduced, it uniquely modifies certain catalytic sites within pores innately featured on the zeolite catalyst, which improves certain key reactions, resulting in improved aromatic and olefin yield.

“There are two key reactions that we think it improves,” Huber tells Biorefining Magazine. “One is in decarbonylation reactions, which are critical to breaking carbon-oxygen bonds to make carbon monoxide, and for removing oxygen found in the biomass. The other is the oligomerization reactions for making olefins so they can be oligomerized better.” Huber says the economic advantages of this new process are three fold: the reaction chemistry occurs in one single reactor, the process uses an inexpensive catalyst, and aromatics and olefins that are produced can easily be dropped into the existing petrochemical infrastructure.

While the research team’s catalytic pyrolysis technology has been licensed to New York-based Anellotech Inc., co-founded by Huber, which is scaling up the process for introduction into the petrochemical industry, Huber notes that work is ongoing to further improve the process.

“We’re trying to understand what the gallium is exactly doing, improve the catalyst even further and demonstrate this on a larger scale, and move this technology forward so we can economically make aromatics and olefins from biomass,” he says. —Bryan Sims

MAY/JUNE 2012 | Biorefining Magazine | 11

STARTUP

An Interwoven Partnership

Biobased nylon fiber may soon be found in clothes you’re wearing A new biobased version of nylon fiber may soon be hitting commercial clothing lines thanks to a joint research partnership forged between Toray Industries Inc. and Ajinomoto Inc., two of Japan’s leading plastics and specialty chemicals manufacturers. The two companies aim to jointly develop and produce the nylon raw material 1,5-pentanediamine (1,5-PD), also known as cadaverine, from the amino acid lysine produced from plant materials by Ajinomoto using fermentation technology, as well as commercialize a biobased nylon derived from this substance.

Specifically, the biobased nylon that Ajinomoto and Toray intend to research and develop will be produced from plant materials by decarbonating the amino acid lysine through an enzyme reaction to make 1,5-PD, which Toray will then polymerize with dicarboxylic acid. According to a joint statement by the two firms, lysine is a core product of the Ajinomoto Group produced using fermentation technology.

The biobased nylon fiber made from 1,5-PD is not only sustainable because it will be plant-based, but it will also show promise for development into highly comfortable clothing.

K ELLER AND H ECKMAN

“For example, nylon 5,6 fiber manufactured using 1,5-PD is pleasing to the touch, yet has the same strength and heat resistance as conventional nylon fiber made from the petrochemical derivative hexamethylenediamine,” the statement claims. “It also absorbs and desorbs moisture nearly as well as cotton.”

The two firms have already carried out successful test production runs of 1,5-PD using Ajinomoto’s feed-use lysine, as well as test production of biobased nylon made by polymerizing 1,5-PD. Additionally, the two companies intend to expand the scope of the New Comfort Toray Industries collaboration into the development and and Ajinomoto Inc. are developing nylon raw material, 1,5production processes and evaluation for biobased pentanediamine, from amino acid its use in textile and plastics applications, lysine derived from plant materials. according to the joint statement.

This partnership between Ajinomoto, a leading manufacturer of amino acids, and Toray, a leading manufacturer of nylon, is expected to enable the creation of biobased nylon products that are competitive in terms of quality, environmental stewardship and cost. Finally, the companies intend to deepen the collaborative effort with the view of using a membrane-integrated bioprocess that’s being developed by Toray in the production technology for lysine. —Bryan Sims

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• RFS and RFS2 regulations, registrations, and Renewable Identification Number (RIN) transactions

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www.khlaw.com 12 | Biorefining Magazine | MAY/JUNE 2012

PHOTO: AJINOMOTO INC.

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STARTUP |

A Monumental Milestone

Purac positioned to become premier global supplier of biobased lactide monomers Producing lactide monomers for polylactic acid resins derived from feedstocks such as corn starch, tapioca starch or cane sugar isn’t a new undertaking for Purac. In February, the Dutch-based company, a subsidiary of global bakery ingredients supplier CSM, successfully started up a new 75,000 metric ton per year lactide production facility at an existing Purac site in Thailand, further validating Purac’s established position as a leading global supplier of its trademarked Puralact lactide monomers, which can be used to produce bioPLA-based resins for various types of bioplastics.

“The successful start up of our 75,000 metric ton per year lactide plant marks another milestone in Purac’s commitment to the development of the PLA market,” says Jeroen Jonker, vice president of bioplastics for Purac. “We are now able to supply monomers that can be transformed into high-performance PLA while providing the scale and

security of supply as required by the end use markets.”

Purac notes that the new plant will enable Purac to meet current demand levels from its committed commercial partners, such as Netherlands-based Synbra, while accelerating market development in a broad segment of plastics such as packaging, foam and fiber industries.

According to Purac, several batches of its Puralact D and L-based lactide building blocks have already been produced and physical deliveries to customers are scheduled to start this year. The company says that PLA polymers made from the company’s Puralact L and D monomers aim at gaining a significant share of the plastics market, which should enable its partners to produce PLA with application temperatures up to 180 degrees Celsius (266 degrees Fahrenheit).

PLA homopolymer resin produced from Purac’s stereochemically pure L-lactide

has recently been tested and validated in a range of high-end applications, including fiber spinning. In a technical performance comparison between a regular commercial PLA fiber grade and a comparable Puralact L-based PLLA homopolymer, Purac’s PLLA homopolymer yielded fully drawn yarn with excellent mechanical and thermal properties due to the PLLA hompolymer’s significantly higher melting point. Fast crystallization and high levels of crystallinity of the PLLA, according to the company, provide important benefits to physical properties of fibers and fabrics.

“Based on our proprietary technology we have demonstrated the benefits of Purac’s PLA building blocks in demanding applications in the packaging, foam, fiber and consumer products industries,” says Francois de Bie, marketing director of bioplastics for Purac. —Bryan Sims

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FEEDSTOCK

Sweet Proposition Renmatix, a venture-backed cellulosic sugar technology developer and producer headquartered in King of Prussia, Pa., can convert 3 dry tons per day of various lignocellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars at its demonstration facility in Kennesaw, Ga. PHOTO: RENMATIX

14 | Biorefining Magazine | MAY/JUNE 2012

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Sugar Rush The race is on to commercialize low-cost, high-quality sugars from nonfood sources

BY BRYAN SIMS

The biorefining industry is hungry for a low-cost, highquality and readily available supply of sugar feedstock from nonfood biomass sources. A number of pure-play sugar technology developers and manufacturers like Renmatix, Virdia (formerly HCL CleanTech), Sweetwater Energy, Comet Biorefining Inc., Proterro and others are deeply involved in this specialized sector, jockeying for position in the sugar feedstock supply chain to feed demand. Collectively, they bring a unique set of core strengths, processes and long-term business approaches to deliver a consistent, readily convertible sugar feedstock that can compete on price and quality with crude oil feedstock for petroleum fuels and foodbased industrial sugars from corn and sugarcane.

“Everyone realizes they need a nonfood cellulosic option that is economically disruptive, attractive and competitive with the alternatives in use today, be it either oil or otherwise,” says Mike Hamilton, CEO of King of Prussia, Pa.-based Renmatix. “Having an economic sugar is really the enabler behind meeting consumer downstream biorefining and government support for displacing petroleum-derived fuels, chemicals and other products.” Renmatix employs a patented, two-step, supercritical fluid hydrolysis technology platform—trademarked the Plantrose process—that can efficiently extract and solubilize C5 (hemicellulose) and

C6 (cellulose) sugars from a variety of lignocellulosic biomass such as wood or agricultural residues when subjected to water at high temperature and pressure, all the while separating out the lignin. Renmatix owns and operates a demonstration-scale production facility located in Kennesaw, Ga., capable of converting 3 dry tons per day of biomass into fermentation-ready sugars for trial testing to potential customers. Renmatix also operates a pilot plant in Kennesaw. In January, BASF invested $30 million in Renmatix to support its scale-up activities.

Hamilton, a former Rohm and Haas executive, tells Biorefining Magazine that his company will continue improving the economics of its Plantrose process while working toward its first commercial-scale facility, which is expected to produce 100,000 metric tons annually. An announcement on the commercial facility location is expected later this year. “There’s a limitless demand for renewable materials,” Hamilton says, but the material has to make economic sense. “Until today, there really haven’t been a lot of cellulosic options that are economically attractive,” he says. “Being able to provide sugars at economically attractive price points is really going to allow those things to occur.”

London, Ontario-based Comet Biorefining Inc. utilizes a unique biomass pretreatment process and enzymes to isolate and extract sugar, primarily monomeric glucose, and its lignin constituents. CEO and founder Andrew Richard, former chief MAY/JUNE 2012 | Biorefining Magazine | 15

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FEEDSTOCK

technology officer at Mascoma, says Comet has pushed the envelope on biomass pretreatment to the point it doesn’t consider the process “pretreatment” anymore.

“We call it activation now because we think that more closely describes what we’re trying to do,” Richard says. “We do use enzymes downstream from the activation process, but we use them at significantly lower levels than what most people would talk about because of the benefits of the activation process that we use, and we use very simple equipment to get there.”

The impetus behind the company’s focus on biomass conversion to sugars came in 2009 when Richard recognized the burden of feedstock aggregation, transportation and conversion to usable sugars. Richard says Comet formed to specifically address this glaring deficiency within the feedstock supply chain to help ease that burden.

“The limitations,” Richard explains, “are around the fact that these systems and plants tend to be so complex that you need to make them large in order to get economies of scale. When you do that, you need to bring

in thousands of tons of biomass in a day, and you end up with larger supply radiuses and end up with a large capital expenditure (CAPEX) because you’re either transporting half water, if it’s wood, or mostly air if it’s an agricultural material.”

He says Comet set out to tackle all the drivers necessary to get to low CAPEX and operating expenses (OPEX). “We’re taking on inconsistent feedstock that changes every day,” Richard says, “and it has to be a relatively simple process that gets you to some useful intermediate product, which, for us, is cellulosic sugar.”

As sugar technology developers continue to optimize their processes, finding the right balance between ideal price points and delivering a high-quality sugar product to downstream customers is paramount because, in a customer-driven enterprise, not every downstream conversion process relies solely on one uniform type of sugar, says Andrew Held, director of feedstock development for Madison, Wis.-based Virent Energy Systems. Essentially, each sugar product has to be customized to meet strict feedstock

specifications. Virent employs a patented catalytic BioForming process technology at its 10,000 gallon per year demonstration facility in Madison, which converts soluble sugars from various biomass stocks into a range of advanced drop-in biofuels such as biogasoline and light and heavy diesel fractions, plus chemicals.

“I think what’s interesting in this space is, like in the commercial sugars markets, there are existing contracts that already have quality specifications adherent to it,” Held says.

“So, when you see the moving market price you’re at least getting a known commodity.

I think it’s fair to say that in the case of cellulosic sugars overall, the market is quite a bit less mature at the moment.”

Since January 2011, Virent and Danville, Va.-based Virdia have been working together as part of a grant from BIRD (Binational Industrial Research and Development) Energy, a U.S.-Israel joint renewable energy development funded by the U.S. DOE, the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructures and the BIRD Foundation. In March, both companies announced the successful conversion of

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16 | Biorefining Magazine | MAY/JUNE 2012

FEEDSTOCK |

cellulosic pine tree sugars to drop-in gasoline and biojet fuel within the BIRD grant project. Additionally, Virdia has been working with biotech outfit LS9 since last year as part of a $9 million DOE grant to demonstrate an integrated process that converts biomass into renewable diesel and other fuels and chemicals. “You need to provide [sugar] substrates with the right fermentability,” explains Philippe Lavielle, CEO of Virdia.

“You also need to provide substrates with high monosaccharide sugars with no inhibitors, no impurities and you need to provide the right concentration as well. What you don’t want is a sugar product that’s dilute with a combination of monosaccharide and polysaccharide sugars and inhibitors.”

If enough ready-to-use sugar feedstock volumes enter the market to meet high demand, its developers understand that a distributed, modular approach is the most practical avenue to achieve economies of scale. “If you’re going to be cost-competitive, you’ve got to get your [feedstock] logistics way down,” says Arunas Chesonis, CEO of Rochester, N.Y.-based Sweetwater Energy. “The ability for us to have a decentralized model with smaller [manufacturing] units allows us to be both feedstock-flexible by region, and it allows us to grow with that customer in the appropriate fashion.”

Sweetwater Energy operates a pilot facility in Rochester that supplies sugar samples to its downstream customers. A demonstration-scale sugar processing facility is scheduled to be operational this summer.

“We expect our first commercial facilities to be installed throughout the U.S. in 2013,” Chesonis says.

According to Richard, Comet Biorefining’s strategy is centered on employing a licensing model as opposed to a buildown-operate (BOO) strategy. Last year, the company constructed a sugar toll processing plant in Southwestern Ontario and signed an exclusive agreement with Fulton Engineered Specialties Inc., which will provide turnkey construction and installation services of Comet’s modular cellulosic sugar process systems on an exclusive basis. “We see not only supplying the technology to produce sugars, but also the modules to produce

them because when you talk about small, distributed plants, they need to be very low in capital cost,” Richard says.

Lavielle says Virdia will employ a BOO model and leverage existing infrastructure and feedstock logistic assets at brownfield sites, at least for its first few commercial facilities, he notes. “The scale will be much bigger than the first commercial plant, starting at about 500,000 tons per year,” Lavielle says. “The next step in the value chain for us would be to plug in biorefining companies that might be interested in co-location activities with our future commercial sugar processing facilities.”

Proterro Inc., a venture-backed startup headquartered in Princeton, N.J., is taking a different approach using a noncellulosic material as its starting point to produce sugar.

The company is optimizing a patent-pending biosynthetic process that combines an engineered photosynthetic microorganism, a cy-

anobacteria, with an advanced high-density, modular solid-phase bioreactor to produce its trademarked sucrose end product, called Protose. While Proterro is open to all options, CEO Kef Kasdin says an ideal approach that her young company will likely pursue is a joint-venture model with partners, such as existing ethanol plants or biobased chemical companies, to deploy its novel sugar processing module units on a host site, leveraging existing infrastructure elements such as carbon dioxide to feed its process. “We use up a lot less space than sugarcane,” Kasdin says. “If you look at Brazil today, they basically have a co-location strategy. They have acres upon acres of sugarcane that are feeding ethanol plants. We would fit into that model very well.”

Author: Bryan Sims Associate Editor, Biorefining Magazine (701) 738-4974 bsims@bbiinternational.com

Biorefineries allow our local forest industry to extract value from every part of every piece of wood that is harvested and are the future for a sustainable forest-based economy in northern Ontario. By pairing traditional materials with sustainability, we can create a brighter future. CRIBE is proud to support the commercialization of new uses for wood in Ontario, including biorefinery research.

Have an idea you’re looking to grow? Find out more at www.cribe.ca MAY/JUNE 2012 | Biorefining Magazine | 17

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RESEARCH

18 | Biorefining Magazine | MAY/JUNE 2012

RESEARCH |

An Analytic Advantage A new model developed by University of Illinois researchers can help increase biomass supply chain efficiencies

BY ERIN VOEGELE

It’s important not to overlook the importance of efficient biomass supply chain systems in the success of the biorefining industry. No matter how impressive a future commercial-scale plant’s conversion technology may be, the facility could easily fail if feedstock cannot be delivered in a timely, cost-effective, efficient manner.

A new analysis tool, known as “BioFeed,” is showing great promise in helping design supply chain systems that can meet those requirements, ensuring a reliable flow of feedstock.

The BioFeed model is the product of University of Illinois researchers funded by BP’s Energy Biosciences Institute under a research program titled Engineering Solutions for Biomass Feedstock Production.

According to Kuan Chong Ting, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering who leads the research program, the program itself includes five different task areas including harvesting, crop monitoring, transportation, storage, and systems informatics and analysis.

While the first four tasks involve developing better technologies for those particular components of the supply chain system, Ting says that the goal of the fifth task is to try to fit the other four tasks together in a way that makes the entire biomass system— from farm operations to delivery to the biorefinery gate—more efficient. “Within that task, we need to have a computational tool to help analyze what is happening through the value chain, and modeling is

one of the most important tools that we can use to do this kind of work,” Ting says.

About seven of the 20 researchers that currently work under the ESBFP program have contributed to the development of the model. They include Yogendra Shastri, visiting research assistant professor in the EBI; Alan Hansen, professor of agricultural and biological engineering; and Luis Rodríguez, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering. Rodríguez serves as leader for the task group that designed the model.

Hanson notes that BioFeed also enables the team to evaluate how changes in individual supply chain technologies flow through the entire feedstock supply chain.

“We can introduce different types of technologies into that supply chain and see the impact on the overall system,” he says. “This has been really useful as we have proceeded in developing the model and evaluated different scenarios concerning the introduction of different types of technology and storage options. That has been very important in the model development.”

“When we started developing the model, we looked at all the important operations a feedstock or energy crop would go through before it was delivered to the refinery,” Shastri says. Some of the most important of these steps are harvesting, post harvesting packing, such as bailing, grinding or pelleting, handling, storage and transportation. As a result, BioFeed is capable of optimizing more than 300,000 individual variables, including harvest schedules, MAY/JUNE 2012 | Biorefining Magazine | 19

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RESEARCH

equipment type, storage sizing, transportation attributes and the logistics involved with moving biomass from one place to another. BioFeed can also take into account regional factors, such as weather patterns, crop yield, farm size and transportation distances.

“What we essentially do is use mathematical equations to model these operations,” Shastri adds. The researchers input the appropriate data into the model, and the results are generated by solving the equations developed by the team. The goal is to discover the best design for a particular biomass supply chain system. “Typi-

cal results that we get out of the model [include] what kind of equipment should be used, what the size of the storage facility should be, what should be the biorefinery size, and how the equipment should be operated on a daily basis,” Shastri says. “There are quite a few decisions that have to be optimized, but these are some of the important ones we look at.”

One unique aspect of the model—and one of the reasons so many variables are analyzed—is that it looks at daily operations rather than just designing a supply chain system that ignores seasonal and daily fluctuations during

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of the year. It tells you how you should operate components of the supply chain, such as transportation and storage on a daily basis. “When you start talking about these issues,” Shastri says, “the number of decisions that you have to make increase exponentially, and that is why we have so many variables in the model.”

Due to the model’s capabilities and the extremely high volume of data and variables it is designed to analyze, it cannot be run on a standard computer. Rather, Shastri notes that the team is currently using a very powerful computer cluster to run the model. While designed to take in a huge amount of data, the model was also designed to be very flexible. “We’ve devised it in such a way that we can apply it to different crops and different geographical regions,” Shastri says. Furthermore, it has been built in a way that allows it to take in different types of data and still run as designed.

Ting explains that there are two different sides to the task team: informatics, or the collection of data, and analysis, which is the processing of that data. “The data provides values for the parameters, and the equations in the model are the analysis part,” he says. “If we separate the data from the model, we can program the model in a way that is very generic.”

In other words, you can change the data values as you run different scenarios for different crops, regions and production methods. “That allows us to make the model very representative of what is happening in reality,” Ting says.

“With that, we have a tool that many people can benefit from.”

According to Rodríguez, his team has already been approached by several entities hoping the model will be available for use. He says the Illinois Department of Transportation expressed interest in using it to figure out an effective way to produce biomass to power its fleet.

While it is likely some version of the tool will be made publicly available in the future, the details around this have not been worked out yet.

“I anticipate that we will find ways to publish it in a way that can be distributed, but working with BP right now there are, of course, some intellectual property concerns,” Rodríguez says. “It’s not something that we’ll be rushing out the door with, but given the commercial interest, I think we are looking into that now.”

Shastri says the team is working to develop a Web-based interface that would connect to the

RESEARCH |

model. “The idea is that somebody could go on the Web and access the model through a user interface,” he says. “Hopefully in the future, when the model is commercialized, that will be one of the ways to make it accessible to members of the general public.”

Assuming the model is eventually made available, there are several groups of people who could benefit beyond biorefining project developers and investors. Those in the research community could also use it to identify areas where additional research and development are needed. Developing such a model in concert with others developing biomass technologies provides “checks and balances” for both sides, Rodriguez says. Technology developers can identify where new information is needed.

“By taking the extra step of integrating those elements in the form of a model,” he says, “we can see how those predicted needs are really going to impact the future of the system quantitatively.” The educational community is another group that could benefit. Universities and colleges are working to educate the industry’s next generation of human capital, Ting says. Teachers would like to have this model to demonstrate how changes in the values for variables can impact the performance of an entire biomass system. “There are many markets for this kind of model,” Ting says. “The question is how do we deliver to the right market? There are some rules we have to follow on campus, and we have to be accountable to our sponsors, so we are making that arrangement to see if we can make this model available to various potential users.”

The team also expects to continue making improvements to the model. “One of the important issues we want to address is uncertainty,” says Shastri. “When you talk about farm operations and production of these crops, there are things that are uncertain. We don’t know what the weather will be. We don’t know how the yield will be. There are systematic ways of using mathematics to address those issues.

That would be an important future addition to the model.”

Ting adds that the model is programmed in a way that allows it to answer system-level questions. “We have a whole list of system-level questions we would like to answer,” he says, including those related to what percentage of cost should go to harvesting, transportation,

storage and other elements of the supply chain.

“When the system-level questions start to expand, we either change the data or we change the model,” he says. “That is where we start to tweak and improve the model. There is no end.

There is no perfect model, but our goal is to provide a useable model.”

The team is also working to develop additional modeling and analysis approaches. In particular, says Rodríguez, we are looking into how those interested in establishing a new biomass-to-bioenergy market should choose sites for their facilities. “We also have an agent-

based modeling approach to study that, once these investments are made, then how do these systems evolve over time?” he says. “Finally, we are looking at some modeling analysis work at the low operational level. Not just day-to-day decisions, but within the day, how we can help people make decisions as to how to better operate their systems.”

Author: Erin Voegele Associate Editor, Biorefining Magazine (701) 540-6986 evoegele@bbiinternational.com

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