As you've noted on previous entries, this site has moved to a new home at http://www.no1203.com. Please make note of this change as well as subscribe to its feed. Our goal is to make this new home a much more versatile and user-friendly environment for this blog. We've already made several updates to the site including the following:
Events
We have an updated list of upcoming biofuels events throughout the world.
Company Directory
We are developing a new searchable company directory that contains updated information on clean-tech related companies. This directory includes new start-ups (Gevo, ZeaChem) as well as large corporations with clean tech product offerings (GM, WR Grace).
E-mail subscriptions
We have set up this blog to utilize e-mail subscriptions via Feedburner. Subscribers can receive updated blog entries via regular e-mail update.
Thanks again for your continued interest in this blog. Please visit our new home at www.no1203.com.
Sincerely,
Doug Williams
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Monday, December 24, 2007
The Energy Bill Impact
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It's done. It's signed. The 2007 Energy Bill (officially as HR 6 The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007) has several far-reaching policies. I wanted to take a look at two important ones: the expanded renewable fuels standard (RFS) and the increased CAFE standard.
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It's done. It's signed. The 2007 Energy Bill (officially as HR 6 The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007) has several far-reaching policies. I wanted to take a look at two important ones: the expanded renewable fuels standard (RFS) and the increased CAFE standard.
Read More...
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Finavera signs PPA deal with PG&E
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Finavera has signed a power purchase agreement with PG&E for a 2 MW installation to be cited 2.5 Miles of the coast of California.
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Senate Expands Farm Subsidies
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You read that right. The Senate passed 79-14 to expand the farm subsidies. This is clearly a political move to appease the farm states before the 2008 election. But be that as it may, even Senators from those states noted the conflict of expanding farm subsidies during the time of high corn and other commodity prices.
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You read that right. The Senate passed 79-14 to expand the farm subsidies. This is clearly a political move to appease the farm states before the 2008 election. But be that as it may, even Senators from those states noted the conflict of expanding farm subsidies during the time of high corn and other commodity prices.
Read more...
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Amory Lovins @ TED
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A more brief and interactive overview of Winning the Oil Endgame.Download the book at: OilEndGame.com
See the new blog...
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A more brief and interactive overview of Winning the Oil Endgame.Download the book at: OilEndGame.com
See the new blog...
Done - New Energy Bill Passes
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The Senate finally passed the latest energy bill. Many provisions remain in it including a 35 MPG CAFE standard, support for 36 Billion gallons of ethanol use by 2022 and more.
From the Detroit News Article:
Senate Democrats stripped out requirements that utilities produce 15 percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2020 and also agreed to drop $21.8 billion in new taxes, mostly on oil companies, to try get approval.
While I understand why the taxes didn't get imposed, I'm wondering what the sticking point was with a renewable porfolio standard. This would require utilities to use a given percentage of their electricity production from renewable sources (15 to 20% seems to be popular). Many of the states contain RPS standards and are actively pushing to meet them. They are a mix of states (mostly sunny and windy ones of course). While I can understand why a federal mandate would be uncomfortable to some (particularly those who don't really support the need for renewables). But there seems to be a significant support for it in the country. Maybe it's just ahead of its time.
Pacific Ethanol falling off a cliff
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Pacific Ethanol has been facing some really tough times of late. I reported earlier that Bill Gates' fund is seeking to sell its shares of the company which have significantly diminished in value in recent years.
Recently, PEIX has halted its construction of its Imperial Valley plant. This is undoubtedly due to the falling ethanol prices and high corn prices affecting its financial performance (which its latest report in November also wasn't good).
Energy Bill still has some life
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[Update] Recent vote fails. Senate not giving up though.
[Update] Senate Republicans seem to be pushing back on the proposed bill due to increases in taxes to the oil industry. ( Read CNN Article)
Senate leaders have been working hard to pass an energy bill that includes higher CAFE standards for cars.
Read More »
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Good Technology
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CO2 "reenergizing".
Sandia National Labs is continuing its research on using sunlight to convert CO2 into CO, a much more usable gas that can be converted into fuels and other chemicals. From the Press Release:
Read More »
Cheaper Fuel Cell Membranes
Researchers at Ames national labs has made a discovery in developing cheaper fuel cell membranes. In short, the scientists used techniques to survey the properties of a very high-performance membrane called Nafion. They discovered that the long chains tend to have very small defects that, when aligned with each other, form channels throughout the structure of the membrane. These channels facilitate better mass transfer mechanics throughout the membrane including better dewatering properties (very important) and high-temperature operation. This knowledge could allow for developing ways of building in these properties in future designs that push these new properties into areas that could make fuel cells more commercially viable.
Read the Press Release »
Geothermal smell test
Geothermal energy is getting more attention these days as a form of "clean" electricity generation. The problem, however, is that there is a limited number of places where Geothermal can be implemented. Locations with volcanic activity, such as Iceland, have many viable locations. But other less volatile locations are harder to find. Discovering these locations requires a lot of surveying and digging to find just the right spot.
Technology Review is reporting that researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and Arizona State have discovered a possible means of detecting suitable geothermal spots. In short, they have discovered a correlation between geothermal activity and a concentration of Helium isotopes. Essentially, elevated levels of H-3, very prevalent in the earth's mantle, but not the earth's crust, gives an indication of exposure to the mantle's heat resources. From the article:
Discoveries like this are exactly what is needed to push the commercialization efforts of geothermal. Reducing the cost of discovery and construction of facilities could make this natural resource a viable part of our energy portfolio in coming years.
Read the Technology Review Article »
Just a reminder: why we like gasoline
I know everyone's touting the Tesla roadster as a high-performance hot-rod that pollutes less. But...just as a reminder - this is why we like gasoline.
CNET Review of the 2008 Saleen S302
0-60 in < 4 seconds (like the Tesla), but a little more traditional design, nicer interior, and other options. And...you get a stick shift (which I swear by). It's cheaper too.
Cars like this is why we get so excited about them. In days when hybrids and PHEVs get so much attention from their environmental impact, it's important to remember what makes us so passionate about cars in the first place. They're not just utility items - they're things that express the passions that humans are capable of. While we certainly need environmentally-sound products, it's important to reflect on what was good about cars before we learned of their environmental hazards.
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CO2 "reenergizing".
Sandia National Labs is continuing its research on using sunlight to convert CO2 into CO, a much more usable gas that can be converted into fuels and other chemicals. From the Press Release:
Using concentrated solar energy to reverse combustion, a research team from Sandia National Laboratories is building a prototype device intended to chemically “reenergize” carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide using concentrated solar power. The carbon monoxide could then be used to make hydrogen or serve as a building block to synthesize a liquid combustible fuel, such as methanol or even gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Read More »
Cheaper Fuel Cell Membranes
Researchers at Ames national labs has made a discovery in developing cheaper fuel cell membranes. In short, the scientists used techniques to survey the properties of a very high-performance membrane called Nafion. They discovered that the long chains tend to have very small defects that, when aligned with each other, form channels throughout the structure of the membrane. These channels facilitate better mass transfer mechanics throughout the membrane including better dewatering properties (very important) and high-temperature operation. This knowledge could allow for developing ways of building in these properties in future designs that push these new properties into areas that could make fuel cells more commercially viable.
Read the Press Release »
Geothermal smell test
Geothermal energy is getting more attention these days as a form of "clean" electricity generation. The problem, however, is that there is a limited number of places where Geothermal can be implemented. Locations with volcanic activity, such as Iceland, have many viable locations. But other less volatile locations are harder to find. Discovering these locations requires a lot of surveying and digging to find just the right spot.
Technology Review is reporting that researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and Arizona State have discovered a possible means of detecting suitable geothermal spots. In short, they have discovered a correlation between geothermal activity and a concentration of Helium isotopes. Essentially, elevated levels of H-3, very prevalent in the earth's mantle, but not the earth's crust, gives an indication of exposure to the mantle's heat resources. From the article:
The geochemists believe that Dixie Valley, which lies in an isolated island of elevated helium-3, shows that fracturing of the normally impermeable barrier between the earth's mantle and crust can set up a natural geothermal system. They speculate that, once sheared open, the fractures fill with high-pressure fluids that transport helium to the crust along with lots of heat. The heat sets up a convection cycle in the crust in which heated groundwater rises to the surface, dumps its heat, and then circulates back down for more.
"Dixie Valley is a very productive geothermal field," says Kennedy. "The question now is, are all [such helium] anomalies potential geothermal resources? That would take somebody to go and do some more exploration work, but I would point them to those areas of anomalies first."
Discoveries like this are exactly what is needed to push the commercialization efforts of geothermal. Reducing the cost of discovery and construction of facilities could make this natural resource a viable part of our energy portfolio in coming years.
Read the Technology Review Article »
Just a reminder: why we like gasoline
I know everyone's touting the Tesla roadster as a high-performance hot-rod that pollutes less. But...just as a reminder - this is why we like gasoline.
CNET Review of the 2008 Saleen S302
0-60 in < 4 seconds (like the Tesla), but a little more traditional design, nicer interior, and other options. And...you get a stick shift (which I swear by). It's cheaper too.
Cars like this is why we get so excited about them. In days when hybrids and PHEVs get so much attention from their environmental impact, it's important to remember what makes us so passionate about cars in the first place. They're not just utility items - they're things that express the passions that humans are capable of. While we certainly need environmentally-sound products, it's important to reflect on what was good about cars before we learned of their environmental hazards.
Biofuels Startups Leaving California?
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Cleantech.com has an interesting article regarding some rather interesting remarks made by Vinod Khosla at a conference in San Francisco recently. His comments were about the prospects of many clean-tech start-up companies looking outside of California both for talent and opportunity.
Here are some of the highlights:
The article goes on to say:
And:
This, of course, all makes sense to a native Midwesterner. While there is certainly extraordinary talent in the Bay Area, there is equal talent in many other parts of the country. Many of the innovations and discoveries that are driving much of the biofuels and bioplastics industries are from Midwestern states. We've seen Universities like Penn State, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan state all have significant discoveries that could have great opportunities for clean tech-related ventures.
This breaks from a lot of Silicon Valley investing - and VC investing in general. VCs tend to invest in things that are close to them. That has lent itself to a lot of businesses gravitating towards where the money is - Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park and in Cambridge, MA. But biofuels is a local business that is driven by the agricultural community. And that is requiring many of these VCs to look outside of their backyard for talent.
I think they'll be pleasantly surprised at what they find.
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Cleantech.com has an interesting article regarding some rather interesting remarks made by Vinod Khosla at a conference in San Francisco recently. His comments were about the prospects of many clean-tech start-up companies looking outside of California both for talent and opportunity.
Here are some of the highlights:
[Khosla] “Because of the cost, they’re actually wondering whether they should be leaving California or not. Given some of the regulations and how long it takes to build pilot facilities, they think they can move much faster in Colorado.”
The article goes on to say:
Local permitting cycles are so arduous, he said, that California solar companies like Khosla investment Ausra (formerly Australian-based) have started looking for new contracts outside the state because of the long permitting cycles—even though local utilities like PG&E continue to actively seek renewable energy providers.
And:
“Despite our best efforts, all the bioplastics companies want to migrate to Minneapolis for one reason or another. Some of the agricultural companies like Cargill and ADM are in the Midwest, so the scientists are in the Midwest. Every time you look for talent, people tend to be available in Minneapolis, or Michigan. It’s a major area we should have an initiative on in the Bay Area.”
Note: Cargill is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN and ADM in Decatur, IL
This, of course, all makes sense to a native Midwesterner. While there is certainly extraordinary talent in the Bay Area, there is equal talent in many other parts of the country. Many of the innovations and discoveries that are driving much of the biofuels and bioplastics industries are from Midwestern states. We've seen Universities like Penn State, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan state all have significant discoveries that could have great opportunities for clean tech-related ventures.
This breaks from a lot of Silicon Valley investing - and VC investing in general. VCs tend to invest in things that are close to them. That has lent itself to a lot of businesses gravitating towards where the money is - Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park and in Cambridge, MA. But biofuels is a local business that is driven by the agricultural community. And that is requiring many of these VCs to look outside of their backyard for talent.
I think they'll be pleasantly surprised at what they find.
Toyota 1/X Concept video
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CNet has a nice video of the Toyota 1/X concept.
E3 files for bankruptcy
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Ethanol Producer Magazine is reporting that E3 Biofuels Mead has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy:
Apparently, this is due to "mechanical problems" that has caused the company to shut down for some time.
This is a bit disturbing. Mechanical failure for any manufacturing facility - let alone a start-up facility - should be expected. This shows three things:
1) This company is inadequately financed. Any start-up company needs enough working capital to weather these types of moments. The nature of this business is even more necessary.
2) There is still a lot to learn about operating this facility that needs to be mitigated. It may not be related to the work done by the plant staff. Given the very rural location, maintenance services and the like are probably hard to come by (and expensive). I worked in plants in the middle of Los Angeles - so I could get same day service. But when I worked in the backwoods of Louisiana, we had to be a little more self-sufficient.
3) The plant's design may have too much risk associated designed into it. If the plant is down for any length of time, the company goes out of business. So the way to mitigate it is to produce several processing channels - instead of one big plant, have many smaller capacity plants that run in parallel. There are drawbacks to each (the downside to multiple plants is that you have many opportunities for failure, high fixed costs, and there's a lot of real estate taken up). (Given that I know next to nothing about this plant, this is all hypothetical).
Whatever the reason, it doesn't sound as though this facility had the resources it needed to weather a storm in its first six months.
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Ethanol Producer Magazine is reporting that E3 Biofuels Mead has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy:
A complete list of E3’s finances must be filed by Dec. 17 with a reorganization plan due March 31, 2008.
According to R. J. Wilson, a spokesman for E3 Biofuels, the "mechanical errors" that were reported by the Omaha World Herald and OPIS will be the subject of future litigation. If the mechanical problems had not occurred, E3 Biofuels says it would have been able to continue producing fuel despite the high cost of feedstocks. No further comment was available.
Apparently, this is due to "mechanical problems" that has caused the company to shut down for some time.
This is a bit disturbing. Mechanical failure for any manufacturing facility - let alone a start-up facility - should be expected. This shows three things:
1) This company is inadequately financed. Any start-up company needs enough working capital to weather these types of moments. The nature of this business is even more necessary.
2) There is still a lot to learn about operating this facility that needs to be mitigated. It may not be related to the work done by the plant staff. Given the very rural location, maintenance services and the like are probably hard to come by (and expensive). I worked in plants in the middle of Los Angeles - so I could get same day service. But when I worked in the backwoods of Louisiana, we had to be a little more self-sufficient.
3) The plant's design may have too much risk associated designed into it. If the plant is down for any length of time, the company goes out of business. So the way to mitigate it is to produce several processing channels - instead of one big plant, have many smaller capacity plants that run in parallel. There are drawbacks to each (the downside to multiple plants is that you have many opportunities for failure, high fixed costs, and there's a lot of real estate taken up). (Given that I know next to nothing about this plant, this is all hypothetical).
Whatever the reason, it doesn't sound as though this facility had the resources it needed to weather a storm in its first six months.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Venture Update
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OPX Biotechnologies gets $3.6 Mil from MDV
OPX Biotechnologies is attempting to develop biofuels by altering the DNA of fermentable micro-organism.
Read the VentureBeat Article.
This company doesn't seem to be terribly different from others doing recombinant DNA-based process development (Amyris, LS9, Synthetic Genomics, Gevo, Cobalt, and others). So it's not clear, yet, what their real innovation is (Although I have to discount this statement as investing in "yet another" of these companies can be a great investment opportunity and still may produce a successful process down the line).
Hopefully, more information will be forthcoming on this venture.
The Energy Bill Politics
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There's been a lot of press on the House's passing of the latest energy bill. The bill calls for higher CAFE standards, more biofuels, and more solar. I've kept away from talking about it until now because I wanted to really look at it and see if really is as important as the press is making it out to be.
Read More »
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There's been a lot of press on the House's passing of the latest energy bill. The bill calls for higher CAFE standards, more biofuels, and more solar. I've kept away from talking about it until now because I wanted to really look at it and see if really is as important as the press is making it out to be.
Read More »
Friday, December 7, 2007
Good Technology
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Hydrogen Storage Breakthrough
Europeans identify a Lithium Borohydride conformation that shows a 18 wt % capacity for storage of hydrogen. This could be a great advancement for the storage of hydrogen in auto and other applications.
Read Article »
GreenCarCongress »
Researcher Team Identifies High Temp Organism
A multinational team of researchers have identified a bacteria that produces hydrogen and ethanol when fermented. The interesting element to this is that this bacteria can survive at high temperatures. This is an interesting opportunity as it may provide a very robust platform for producing hydrogen or fuel ethanol.
GreenCarCongress Article »
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Hydrogen Storage Breakthrough
Europeans identify a Lithium Borohydride conformation that shows a 18 wt % capacity for storage of hydrogen. This could be a great advancement for the storage of hydrogen in auto and other applications.
Read Article »
GreenCarCongress »
Researcher Team Identifies High Temp Organism
A multinational team of researchers have identified a bacteria that produces hydrogen and ethanol when fermented. The interesting element to this is that this bacteria can survive at high temperatures. This is an interesting opportunity as it may provide a very robust platform for producing hydrogen or fuel ethanol.
GreenCarCongress Article »
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Austrialian PM moves to ratify Kyoto
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Australia, long criticized along side the U.S. for having not signed the Kyoto protocol, has moved to ratify the agreement. The freshly-elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signed the agreement recently in-line with his political promises.
Read more »
DOE gives money to Biomass to Liquids studies
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The Department of Energy announced funding of four biofuels projects based on a thermochemcial (gasification to syngas) platform. Each project may receive up to $7.7 Million. Below are the descriptions of the projects from the DOE Press Release .
Up to now, the DOE's funding of biofuels projects have focused on basic research and building pilot projects for a fermentation pathway. While this is certainly a good sign from the government, the lack of real dollars behind it is disturbing.
Read More »
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The Department of Energy announced funding of four biofuels projects based on a thermochemcial (gasification to syngas) platform. Each project may receive up to $7.7 Million. Below are the descriptions of the projects from the DOE Press Release .
Up to now, the DOE's funding of biofuels projects have focused on basic research and building pilot projects for a fermentation pathway. While this is certainly a good sign from the government, the lack of real dollars behind it is disturbing.
Read More »
Big ideas about climate engineering
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I really like hearing about big, crazy ideas. Most times these ideas aren't really feasible - like the flying car. But thinking about them gets us to stretch ourselves beyond our normal confines of what is reasonable.This TED presentation talks about a big, crazy idea about deploying particles in our atmosphere intentionally to cause an immediate global cooling effect (similar to those seen following large volcano eruptions). Even the presenter thinks the idea is crazy and presents a very real and evident moral hazard. But the discussion is worth having as it touches on several different topics around ethics, governance, and the role that technology ought to play in humanity.Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
Watch the video on the new site »
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I really like hearing about big, crazy ideas. Most times these ideas aren't really feasible - like the flying car. But thinking about them gets us to stretch ourselves beyond our normal confines of what is reasonable.This TED presentation talks about a big, crazy idea about deploying particles in our atmosphere intentionally to cause an immediate global cooling effect (similar to those seen following large volcano eruptions). Even the presenter thinks the idea is crazy and presents a very real and evident moral hazard. But the discussion is worth having as it touches on several different topics around ethics, governance, and the role that technology ought to play in humanity.Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
Watch the video on the new site »
Monday, December 3, 2007
Ethanol a ‘failure’?
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CNBC personality Jim Cramer noted in a video on thestreet.com that "the ethanol strategy has failed." Is he right?
The answer is only sort of. There are three reasons why I think this is ambiguous.
What does "failure" mean?
To start, the notion of "failure" implies, in the strictest sense, some pre-determined expectation to which it is being compared. The obvious expectation is the guidelines set by the government - 35 Billion gallons by 2022. Since we currently have 7 Billion gal/yr of capacity, it would require a compound annual growth rate of around 11%. Or, it's actually around 2 Billion gallons of capacity/yr. This last year, we built around 1.2 Billion. So we're a bit slow, but if the market demand was really there and with some design innovations, we could probably get to that point down the learning curve (we're really at the start). So I wouldn't call the ethanol industry a 'failure' this early in the game.
Read More...
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CNBC personality Jim Cramer noted in a video on thestreet.com that "the ethanol strategy has failed." Is he right?
The answer is only sort of. There are three reasons why I think this is ambiguous.
What does "failure" mean?
To start, the notion of "failure" implies, in the strictest sense, some pre-determined expectation to which it is being compared. The obvious expectation is the guidelines set by the government - 35 Billion gallons by 2022. Since we currently have 7 Billion gal/yr of capacity, it would require a compound annual growth rate of around 11%. Or, it's actually around 2 Billion gallons of capacity/yr. This last year, we built around 1.2 Billion. So we're a bit slow, but if the market demand was really there and with some design innovations, we could probably get to that point down the learning curve (we're really at the start). So I wouldn't call the ethanol industry a 'failure' this early in the game.
Read More...
Sunday, December 2, 2007
The Biobutanol Pathway
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Biobutanol is being touted as a second generation (Gen2) biofuel. There are several companies working on this prospect. However, biobutanol, unlike ethanol, is not readily made and a lot of groundwork needs to be done to bring it to fruition.
While not a lot is talked about in how to make biobutanol, there are a few pathways for producing it.
The bacteria pathway
One pathway that is getting the most attention is the most evident fermentation pathway. The bacteria Clostridium acetobutylicum is a commonly known bacteria that naturally produces acetic acid, ethanol, and butyric acid through anaerobic fermentation. This bacteria has been thoroughly studied over the last decade and is well understood. Historically, however, none of its products were very valuable. Now-days, several start-up companies - Gevo, Cobalt Biofuels, BP/DuPont most notably - are investigating this bacteria to realize its potential to produce biobutanol.
I don't know what any company in particular is working on (other than what's publicly available information). But it doesn't take much of an imagination to figure out the need to genetically modify this bacteria using standard-issue recombinant DNA methods to maximize the butyric acid production. Butyric acid can be, then, converted into butanol (or any other related product they can get this thing to produce).
This is a perfectly legitimate target for producing biobutanol and should prove fruitful. There are several other innovations that need to take place (purification, etc) that could feasibly be developed via the current ethanol industry (there are several issues that apply). I would be surprised if there aren't at least 6 or 7 more companies doing research along these lines in the near future.
Thermoprocessing platform
While the fermentation pathway seems pretty clear at the moment, there isn't much dialog out there about using a thermoprocessing pathway. I've only seen two companies that I could speculate could develop a biobutanol pathway - ZeaChem and RangeFuels. RangeFuels has a gasification and liquefaction process based on a catalytic process. Theoretically, they should be able to produce biobutanol with a different catalyst than what they're using to produce ethanol.
ZeaChem, whose process sounds a bit more convoluted (so this is even more speculative) produces acetic acid as an intermediate product from a fermentation process. I would presume that fermenting to butyric acid (which we know is possible using C. Acetobutylicum) which could later produce biobutanol using the hydrogen produced in another process. Of course, this is all speculation. And of course, even ZeaChem doesn't know if all of this will work yet - they're still trying it all out.
So overall, there are some great opportunities for the production of biobutanol. But what's also clear is that it will take a lot more effort than ethanol. Ethanol still took more than 10 years to get to this point. And we've been producing ethanol (beer) for hundreds of years. There's a lot of groundwork that needs to be done for biobutanol to be made a real fuel option. And that will require at least 95% perspiration.
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Biobutanol is being touted as a second generation (Gen2) biofuel. There are several companies working on this prospect. However, biobutanol, unlike ethanol, is not readily made and a lot of groundwork needs to be done to bring it to fruition.
While not a lot is talked about in how to make biobutanol, there are a few pathways for producing it.
The bacteria pathway
One pathway that is getting the most attention is the most evident fermentation pathway. The bacteria Clostridium acetobutylicum is a commonly known bacteria that naturally produces acetic acid, ethanol, and butyric acid through anaerobic fermentation. This bacteria has been thoroughly studied over the last decade and is well understood. Historically, however, none of its products were very valuable. Now-days, several start-up companies - Gevo, Cobalt Biofuels, BP/DuPont most notably - are investigating this bacteria to realize its potential to produce biobutanol.
I don't know what any company in particular is working on (other than what's publicly available information). But it doesn't take much of an imagination to figure out the need to genetically modify this bacteria using standard-issue recombinant DNA methods to maximize the butyric acid production. Butyric acid can be, then, converted into butanol (or any other related product they can get this thing to produce).
This is a perfectly legitimate target for producing biobutanol and should prove fruitful. There are several other innovations that need to take place (purification, etc) that could feasibly be developed via the current ethanol industry (there are several issues that apply). I would be surprised if there aren't at least 6 or 7 more companies doing research along these lines in the near future.
Thermoprocessing platform
While the fermentation pathway seems pretty clear at the moment, there isn't much dialog out there about using a thermoprocessing pathway. I've only seen two companies that I could speculate could develop a biobutanol pathway - ZeaChem and RangeFuels. RangeFuels has a gasification and liquefaction process based on a catalytic process. Theoretically, they should be able to produce biobutanol with a different catalyst than what they're using to produce ethanol.
ZeaChem, whose process sounds a bit more convoluted (so this is even more speculative) produces acetic acid as an intermediate product from a fermentation process. I would presume that fermenting to butyric acid (which we know is possible using C. Acetobutylicum) which could later produce biobutanol using the hydrogen produced in another process. Of course, this is all speculation. And of course, even ZeaChem doesn't know if all of this will work yet - they're still trying it all out.
So overall, there are some great opportunities for the production of biobutanol. But what's also clear is that it will take a lot more effort than ethanol. Ethanol still took more than 10 years to get to this point. And we've been producing ethanol (beer) for hundreds of years. There's a lot of groundwork that needs to be done for biobutanol to be made a real fuel option. And that will require at least 95% perspiration.
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