TRANSFORMATIVE BIOTECHNOLOGY
Maximizing Global Impact
T H E
G R A N D
C H A L L E N G E
W
e are spiraling toward a precarious future on a planetary scale, marked by imbalanced trends on four fronts: food, energy, poverty, and the environment. By 2050, 9 billion people will need food and energy sources—and the world’s poorest must have effective ways to avoid shrinking further into abject poverty. Compounding the challenge, all this must happen while reducing our environmental footprint.
WHAT IF WE COULD UPGRADE THE MOST ABUNDANT ORGANIC MATERIAL ON EARTH TO PROVIDE A SOLUTION FOR THIS GRAND CHALLENGE? For every ton of corn, wheat, and rice harvested today, an equal amount of nonedible leaves and stalks, called biomass, is left behind. Locked away within this biomass—of which nearly 2 billion tons are produced each year around the world—nature stores a huge supply of currently inaccessible sugars. AFEX elegantly partners with nature, unlocking these sugars and converting biomass into a renewable source of animal feed or biofuels. But unlocking the sugars alone doesn’t solve the problem: Biomass is lightweight and bulky, making storage and transport difficult and expensive. The AFEX process converts biomass into dense, shippable, grain-like pellets, which can then be efficiently stored and shipped over long distances.
A F E X :
A
T R A N S F O R M A T I V E
S O L U T I O N
AFEX is a game-changing agricultural innovation that sustainably expands our capacity to supply both food and energy, while reducing our environmental footprint and providing pathways out of poverty. Michigan State University (MSU) Professor Bruce Dale invented this technology two decades ago, but it would still be sitting on a laboratory shelf had it not been for a breakthrough innovation at MBI, in 2010. With support from a $4.3 million Department of Energy (DOE) grant, awarded in 2011, MBI scaled the technology 100-fold, from the lab to a one-ton-per-day pilot-scale facility. To realize AFEX’s full potential, we must design, build, and operate a demonstration-scale AFEX depot. This pioneer depot will allow us to complete large-scale application testing; develop a design easily replicated in rural communities worldwide; and establish a training facility. Once proven at demonstration-scale, market forces will drive the rapid scale-up and widespread replication of the pioneer depot template, enabling a substantial positive impact on the grand challenge’s four fronts: food, energy, poverty, and the environment. 1
TODAY’S TROUBLING TIMES: S P I R A L I N G
T O W A R D
A
P R E C A R I O U S
F U T U R E
Food, Energy, Poverty, & Environmental Trends Out of Balance Experts agree: We are running out of time to find sustainable solutions for the planet’s gravest challenges. By 2050, 9 billion people will need food and energy sources—and the world’s poorest must find effective ways to avoid shrinking further into abject poverty. This alarming snapshot reflects our current capacity to meet projected demands for food and energy. Compounding the challenge even further, we must simultaneously reduce our environmental footprint and address rural poverty. We must bring these factors into better balance to ensure a prosperous and sustainable future.
2
FOOD Agricultural yields Agricultural yields saw sawan anage ageofofsignificant significantgains, gains, thanks to Norman Norman Borlaug, Borlaug,“Father “Fatherofofthe theGreen Green Revolution.” Those Revolution.” Thoserates ratesofofyield-increase yield-increasehave have slowed while while intense intenseagricultural agriculturalpractices practiceshave havetaken an environmental toll. Today’s rate of rate foodofproductaken an environmental toll. Today’s food tion will notwill be enough to feed the planet’s growing production not be enough to feed the planet’s population. Is there another that can that growing population. Is thererevolution another revolution herald a new era inera agricultural productivity? can herald a new in agricultural productivity? We must produce as much food in the next forty • We years as we have in the last 8,000 combined. Over the next twenty years, the world’s middle • Over class will nearly triple to 5 billion, dramatically increasing demand for animal protein (meat & dairy). 75% of agricultural land worldwide is used to • 75% support animals through crops and pasture. There is not enough land to double food production by simply doubling cultivation.
ENERGY Accessible energy is vital to health, quality of life, and security in every nation; can we continue to depend on fossil resources alone? We may not like to think about it, but the cars we rely on are a major component of our energy demands. Atmospheric greenhouse gases hit record levels in 2013. “The laws of physics are non-negotiable,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said recently. “We are running out of time.” • Currently, about 21.3 billion tons of CO2 are generated per year from burning fossil fuels; worldwide, transport continues to be the fastest-growing CO2 emitter. • By 2050, there will be over 3 billion cars worldwide, triple the current 1 billion. • Oil consumption hit a record 33 billion barrels per year in 2013.
ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
The Lake Erie algae blooms that hit in 2014—costing taxpayers millions and cutting off the water supply for half a million in Toledo, Ohio—served as another wake-up call about the need for better conservation practices to stem the tide of agricultural runoff and soil erosion. News outlets showed drinking glasses filled with green slush; the public learned about microcystin, the toxin that induces vomiting and liver damage. • About half the lakes in Asia and North America are starved of oxygen due to fertilizer runoff, destroying aquatic ecosystems. • Nearly 1/3 of the world’s arable land has been eroded over the last 40 years and loss continues at a rate of more than 10 million hectares a year. • If current trends continue, 10 million square kilometers of forest and grassland—about the size of Canada—will be converted to agriculture by 2050.
RURAL POVERTY Do you sleep with a roof over your head? Do you have running water? Shelter, clean water, and heat are luxuries for far too many around the world. At least 80% of people live on less than $10 a day, and some 22,000 children under five die each day due to the ravages of poverty. • There are nearly 1 billion undernourished people worldwide. • Three-quarters of the poor live in rural areas, and they overwhelmingly rely on agriculture for sustenance. • The productivity of dairy cattle in developing nations is 1/10th of that in developed nations, depriving rural farmers of much needed income and limiting economic resilience.
3
TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: T R A N S F O R M A T I V E
B I O T E C H N O L O G Y
AFEX: BUILDING A LEGACY OF POSITIVE GLOBAL IMPACT What if we had the means to take the planet’s most ample organic material—cellulose, which is found in plants and in the abundant crop residue left over from grain harvests—and convert it into animal feed or biofuels? A game-changing innovation of this kind could foster a blossoming scenario, reflected in this diagram, in which we sustainably expand our capacity to supply both food and energy—while reducing our environmental footprint and providing pathways out of poverty. AFEX is a biobased technology that converts cellulose from crop residues into a sustainable source of cattle feed and biofuels. Bulky and unwieldy crop residues and grasses are converted into pellets that are easily stored and transported anywhere. The conversion takes place in a decentralized system of depots built where crops are grown, allowing the world’s rural poor to earn more for their families. To maximize global and societal impact, AFEX will be made available worldwide on an affordable, accessible basis. 4
FOOD Currently, an estimated 35% of global crop production is fed to animals. AFEX unlocks nature’s bind on sugar sources inside the crop residue of corn, wheat, and rice—as well as perennial grasses. By using crop residues—of which there are 2 billion tons available worldwide—instead of grain to feed animals, we can both expand animal protein production and increase the supply of grain for direct human nutrition. • 300 million tons of AFEX pellets could replace all grain currently fed to beef and dairy cattle, freeing up enough grain to feed 1 billion people. • With the combination of AFEX-treated crop residues and grain, each acre of cropland would produce an additional 50% more feed.
ENERGY
ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
RURAL POVERTY
A world-renowned scientist at Michigan State University discovered a way to liberate the sugars inside crop residues and grasses, transforming them into either cattle feed or into a source of sustainable, renewable fuels. AFEX enters the global market at a time when urgent concerns about the worsening effects of global warming and competition for fossil resources are compelling experts and concerned citizens to examine ways to switch to renewable fuels.
It’s no secret better conservation practices would help prevent the type of runoff that sparked Lake Erie’s algal blooms. algal blooms. Farmers—who Farmers—who are already are already squeezed squeezed financially—need more robust financially—need morefinancial robust financial incentives incentives to implement to implement conservation conservation best practices, best practices, like no-till likefarming, no-till cover crops, farming, cover andcrops, bufferand strips. buffer As strips. a hallmark As a hallmark of its versatility of its versatility as a multifaceted as a multifaceted solution, solution, AFEXAFEX provides farmers with provides farmers an economic with an economic resource driver resource to driver support to adoptionadoption support of conservation of conservation best practices. best practices.
Through a globally accessible, market-oriented model and a decentralized distribution design relying on depots built in rural communities, AFEX offers the rare opportunity to make a significant impact in the lives of some of the neediest rural poor. India provides a telling case study in AFEX’s potential impact.
• 1 billion tons of AFEX pellets could produce enough renewable fuel to power 200 million cars each year.
• Conservation practices such as no-till farming, cover crops, and buffer strips can reduce soil erosion and nutrient run-off by at least 50%.
• Renewable fuels from 1 billion tons of AFEX pellets could eliminate 680 million tons of fossil CO2 per year, equivalent to 9% of total U.S. emissions.
• Implementing AFEX would provide a key market for crop residues and perennial grasses, thereby generating revenues needed to support the adoption of conservation practices.
• 50 million rural families in India own only one or two dairy cattle. Low milk productivity of dairy cattle in developing nations could be improved by substituting AFEX pellets for the untreated crop residues these cattle are typically fed today. • The annual profit per cow could easily triple as a result of AFEX, and this increased profit from a single cow is sufficient to lift a family of five above the poverty level.
5
AFEX UPGRADES EXISTING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION TO MEET RISING DEMAND FOR FOOD AND FUELS
2 BILLION TONS OF GRAIN
2 BILLION TONS OF UNDERUTILIZED CROP RESIDUES
Current scenario shows corn, wheat, and rice production supporting 7 billion people today, 2 billion of whom are middle class (dark blue).
6
2 BILLION TONS OF GRAIN
2 BILLION TONS OF AFEX PELLETS FROM CROP RESIDUES
A future 2050 scenario shows the grain complemented with AFEX pellets. AFEX offers significant potential to increase agricultural output to meet the growing food and fuel needs of 9 billion people—5 billion of whom will be middle class (dark blue).
RURAL COMMUNITY-BASED BIOMASS SUPPLY SYSTEM
Beef and Dairy Cattle
Each AFEX DEPOT can directly create up to 30 new jobs
Farmers bring crop residues to local depot
Depot upgrades the residues into dense pellets
Biorefineries: Fuels and Chemicals
AFEX pellets can be either used locally or transported long distances
Implementing AFEX in a rural depot—close to where crops are grown—creates new jobs, promotes rural economic development and environmental stewardship, and provides much-needed entrepreneurial opportunities for the rural poor. Multiplied across hundreds or thousands of communities worldwide, AFEX offers a compelling solution to the grand challenge.
7
E N A B L I N G
G L O B A L
I M PA C T:
Progress to Date AFEX has been under extensive research and development at MSU for over twenty years. In 2010, MBI experts made a significant breakthrough in the equipment and process design, which led to the DOE funding $4.3 million to build a one-ton-per-day AFEX pilot plant at MBI’s facility in Lansing, Michigan. The pilot plant has been successful and is currently being used to produce AFEX pellets for small-scale application trials. An initial evaluation in beef cattle was conducted at MSU in the fall of 2013, followed by an initial dairy cattle trial in November 2014—both with promising results.
T H E
P I O N E E R
D E P O T
What’s Next: The Pioneer Depot
Achieving the Vision: Global Impact
The next critical step is to design, build, and operate a pioneer demonstration-scale (~10 tons per day) AFEX depot. Such a depot will be essential to complete the technology development and support long-duration animal feeding trials necessary to validate the productivity and quality of the milk and meat produced. In addition, the depot will be essential to develop a simple, robust design that can be rapidly replicated in rural communities worldwide. The pioneer depot will also serve as an important training facility supporting the widespread dissemination of the technology.
MBI’s vision is to see the AFEX technology practiced around the world, so that maximum humanitarian and societal benefits can be realized. To achieve this vision, MBI aspires to offer unencumbered and affordable access to the technology on a worldwide basis. By supporting rapid technology transfer around the world, we expect to see a material positive impact on food, fuel, poverty, and the environment within the next twenty years.
AFEX was recognized as the “Transformational Pretreatment Technology of the Year,” in 2014, by Biofuels Digest. Chandra Nielson and Josh Videto treat corn crop residue in MBI’s pilot AFEX reactor. 8
A F E X
AFEX TECHNOLOGY: POTENTIAL FOR GLOBAL IMPLEMENTATION
WORLD MAP OF WHERE AFEX WILL BE FOUND GLOBALY
Dark green represents countries with abundant crop-residue resources. Dashed lines illustrate potential for future spread of AFEX technology worldwide. 9
B U I L D I N G
T H E
P I O N E E R
MBI is committed to collaborating closely with international partners on designing and executing the AFEX project. In addition, we are committed to a milestone-based, stage-gated process in three phases. In Phase 1, we will generate critical data in a developing nation setting. In Phase 2, we will collaborate with a coalition of partners to design, build, and commission the pioneer AFEX depot in a developing nation. In Phase 3, we will operate the depot to establish the robustness and viability of the technology and enable affordable, non-exclusive access for widespread adoption.
D E P O T
PHASE 1: VIABILITY IN DEVELOPING NATIONS
PHASE 2: DEMONSTRATION DEPOT
Depot: • Assess prospect for biomass aggregation • Select site for pioneer demonstration depot • Select operating partners to support depot • Complete front-end engineering design
Depot: • Complete detailed engineering design • Build and commission pioneer AFEX demonstration depot • Develop and codify operating procedures • Transfer technology and train depot personnel
Technology/Applications: • Use MBI pilot to generate AFEX pellets for applications testing • Demonstrate utility of AFEX pellets in dairy and beef cattle trials • Generate feeding trial data to support regulatory process • Select key partners to support applications testing and adoption
Technology/Applications: • Continue use of MBI pilot plant to support technology development and applications trials • Continue feeding trials to optimize AFEX pellet incorporation into cattle diets • Initiate regulatory approval process with key partners
10
PHASE 3: VALIDATION, TECHNOLOGY ACCESS, & SUPPORTING ADOPTION
ESTIMATED PROJECT HORIZON Depot: • Demonstrate dependable and economically viable production of AFEX pellets • Establish and demonstrate robust biomass supply chain • Translate operating experience into a reliable and reproducible template Technology/Applications: • Demonstrate utility and value proposition of AFEX pellets as cattle feed through large-scale trials • Complete process required to obtain regulatory approval • Establish acceptance of AFEX pellets in feed markets Adoption/Access: • Offer depot design and operating technology on non-exclusive, low-cost basis • Engage with early adopters to propagate AFEX depots • Utilize pioneer depot to provide training and technical support for licensees • Collaborate with philanthropic organizations, government agencies, and NGOs to promote widespread adoption
YEAR
YEAR
YEAR
YEAR
YEAR
1
2
3
4
5
PHASE 1
24 MONTHS
PHASE 2 24 MONTHS
PHASE 3 12 MONTHS
11
V I S I O N A R Y
F O U N D A T I O N A L
PA R T N E R S
Absent significant changes in how we produce our food and fuel, the planet will continue spiraling toward a precarious future. By addressing the four interconnected dimensions of food, energy, poverty, and the environment, AFEX can set us on a course toward a sustainable, prosperous future. MBI is both a mission-inspired 501(c)(3) and a market-driven biotech hub committed to enhancing quality of life around the world by collaboratively accelerating sustainable biobased technologies. Our vision is to maximize the positive humanitarian and societal benefits AFEX can have on the world. Without critical philanthropic support and key collaborative partnerships needed to complete the pioneer depot, we are unlikely to have the freedom to offer this revolutionary technology on an unencumbered, affordable basis. Partnering with our visionary team will have a direct effect on the completion of the critical pioneer depot and create a lasting legacy through the technology’s global reach.
12
A B O U T
M B I
Rare among biotech hubs, MBI (Michigan Biotechnology Institute) is both a premier multidisciplinary center sought out by industry partners for unique derisking capabilities and a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit inspired by a mission to enhance quality of life by collaboratively accelerating the commercialization of sustainable biobased technologies. Consistent with that mission, we share select technologies—those that show the promise of game-changing sustainability—with the global community through low-cost, non-exclusive licensing. Founded in 1981, Lansing, Michiganbased MBI is closely affiliated with MSU and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the MSU Foundation. Technologies developed at MBI are recognized and trusted worldwide. For example, together with MSU and Cargill, MBI was responsible for developing PLA, the polymer used worldwide to make renewable and biodegradable containers and cutlery.
M S U : A N E P I C E N T E R F O R B I O E C O N O M Y I N N O VAT I O N Michigan State University, founded in 1855, is the pioneer Land Grant institution, and one of the largest research universities in the world. MSU is in many ways the ideal location to support the development and eventual worldwide dissemination of a transformational technology such as AFEX. Some noteworthy programs on campus include: •
A leadership position in international engagement and outreach, comprising over 1,400 faculty and staff—with over 280 partnerships in 70 countries, with the major focus on health, agriculture and food systems.
•
Extensive agricultural extension networks and outreach within Michigan and the US Midwest through partnerships with major land-grant and private universities, including among others, University of Michigan, Ohio State University, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota, Iowa State University, University of Nebraska, and Purdue University.
•
The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a US Department of Energy-funded research initiative housed at MSU and University of Wisconsin that is dedicated to the research and development of sustainable biofuels from biomass resources. The Center includes over 400 faculty and staff.
•
Extensive research expertise, faculties, and leadership in numerous fields including ecology, plant science, microbiology, soil sciences, agronomy, animal science and nutrition, food systems, sustainability, chemical and biosystems engineering, and agricultural economics.
BOBBY BRINGI, CEO, MBI 3815 TECHNOLOGY BOULEVARD LANSING, MI 48910-8596 PHONE: 517.337.3181 EMAIL: BRINGI@MBI.ORG
WWW.MBI.ORG