BP Biofuels: Time for “the really hard yards” in biofuels commercialization

Biofuels Digest
Jim Lane
March 13, 2013   Read more

Algae Biomass Summit: producers say commercialization is close

Biodiesel Magazine
By Tom Bryan
September 25, 2012

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Advanced Biofuels Could Be Commercialized in 1-3 Years

RenewableEnergyWorld.com
By Jim Lane, Biofuels Digest November 18, 2010

San Francisco, CA, USA — Progress in advance biofuels has been slow for the past two years. But industry leaders reported a quickening pace towards commercialization last week in San Francisco at Advanced Bioenergy Markets, one of the last major gatherings of industry CEOs before the close of the year.

In contrast to the “five years away” and subsidy-driven discussions that framed advanced biofuels conversations just two years ago, CEOs are widely reporting that they expect their companies to reach commercial scale within 12-36 months, with costs in the $0.75 to $2.50 per gallon range.

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Bioenergy PROFITS Principles: “Success = Integrating Your Supply Chain”

Biofuels Digest
September 29, 2009 Jim Lane
by Biofuels Digest columnist Dr. Rosalie Lober

Every element of your business must be interconnected. You spend a great deal of time and effort improving your company’s internal processes, yet how much do you invest in making sure that all your systems and processes work well together? Do you notice any parts that do not belong with the rest?

Integration creates the whole that is bigger than the sum of its parts. It adds cohesiveness and consistency to your business. Work flows from one function to the next seamlessly. Your goals make sense vis a vis every other goal. Your business tells a wonderful story for your customers and employees.

We continue to apply the Bioenergy PROFITS Principles to Amyris Biotechnologies. The focus for this column is the bioenergy principle of INTEGRATION (based on the newly released book, Run Your Business Like a Fortune 100: 7 Principles for Boosting PROFITS, by Rosalie Lober, Ph.D.)

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Bioenergy PROFITS Principles: Reality — Does the Emperor have clothes?

Biofuels Digest
September 17, 2009
By Biofuels Digest columnist Dr. Rosalie Lober

New entrepreneurs are exciting and full of energy. Passion, intensity, focus -- bordering on obsession is what most entrepreneurs include in stories of their road to success.

What distinguishes a successful entrepreneur from a rat running a maze? The answer is the ability to identify and face reality!

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Dupont Danisco: cellulosic ethanol ready to be commercialized

Ethanol Producer Magazine June 2009
By Anna Austin
Report posted May 22, 2009, at 2:37 p.m. CST

The Biotechnology Industry Organization recently hosted a briefing on the progress companies are making in bringing advanced biofuels to the marketplace, and indicated it is confident that the advanced biofuel requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standard can be met.

The current cellulosic biofuel mandate is set at 1 billion gallons by 2013, with additional annual increases to 16 billion gallons in 2022. The advanced biofuel requirement also includes 1 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel by 2012.

Speakers at the briefing included DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC Vice President of Commercial and Public Affairs Jack Huttner; Gevo Inc. CEO Patrick Gruber; and Novozymes North America President Lars Hansen.

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In Search of the Perfect Biofuel -- and Financing to Bring It to Market

Reuters
Fri May 22, 2009 1:00pm EDT
By Marc Gunther - Marc Gunther

Funny thing about the biofuels business. Roughly 200 companies are pursuing the perfect biofuel -- as cheap as fossil fuels, adaptable to today’s infrastructure, low-carbon, sustainable and no threat to the food supply or to tropical forests. But even cutting-edge startups that say they have the puzzle just about solved can’t raise the money they need to get into commercial production.

“Everyone wants to be the first to finance the second plant,” says Arnold Klann, the CEO of biofuels firm Blue Fire Ethanol. “No one one wants to be first to finance the first one.”

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Students test clean energy by degrees

Financial Times
By Rebecca Knight
Published: March 20 2009 16:53 Last updated: March 20 2009 16:53

Moving clean energy innovations from the lab to the marketplace is one of the biggest challenges in the technology industry. But students at the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business are getting a crash course on how to achieve it.

A partnership between scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and students of the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative, an organisation founded by Haas students, is working to push new technology into the private sector or into the hands of the right venture capitalist.

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