Tag Archives: technology
The Slow Creep Of Next-Gen Biofuels: KiOR Misses Production Targets
by Katie Fehrenbacher AUG. 9, 2013 SUMMARY: Next-gen biofuel company KiOR misses its production targets from its new biocrude making plant by 75 percent. It’s still slow going for these companies trying to scale up and compete with oil. If you’ve ever read anything about the next-generation of biofuels — the ones made from plant waste, trash, or energy crops called cellulosic ethanol — then you know that they’ve forever been trapped on the brink of commercialization. The thesis still seems to apply for the young companies that are trying to scale up. This week KiOR, a venture capital-backed startup that went public in the Summer of 2011 , revealed in its second quarter earnings that it was about 75 percent below its forecast for producing and shipping its next-gen biofuel last quarter . KiOR shipped 75,000 gallons last quarter from its Columbus, Mississippi plant, but was hoping to ship between 300,000 and 500,000 gallons in the quarter. Revenue for the quarter was of course below estimates, too, alongside the slower than expected scale up in production. As a result, KiOR’s stock dropped almost 10 percent on Thursday, rallied a bit and is now trading around $4.14 on Friday. KiOR went public at $15 per share in mid-2011. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that’s been following any next-gen biofuel startup. It takes eons to get to the scale where they can make biofuels for cheap enough to compete with oil. KiOR started producing its biocrude at the Columbus plant last November and started shipping it shortly after that. At the time KiOR CEO Fred Cannon called the first shipment “the world’s first cellulosic gasoline and diesel fuel products.” KiOR has developed technology that allows it to convert biomass (plants and bio waste) into a bio substitute for crude oil. The company emerged in late 2007 as a joint venture between Khosla Ventures and Netherlands-based biofuel startup BIOeCON . Khosla Ventures provided the early rounds of funding and BIOeCON provided the intellectual property for its “biomass catalytic cracking process,” a thermochemical process that’s been used in the oil industry for decades and which turns out can also produce biocrude from grass, wood and plant waste. Cannon has described KiOR’s technology as being able to do in seconds what has taken millions of years in nature (the natural process of how biomass has been crunched into oil). About a year ago I wrote a really long indepth piece on KiOR. Check it out here: The perils of cleantech investing: KiOR and the long term, high risk view . Continue reading
Leaders get congratulatory cables
Leaders get congratulatory cables (Wam) / 9 August 2013 The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has received a congratulatory cable from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, on Eid Al Fitr. King Abdullah extended his hearty greetings to the UAE President, wishing him good health and prosperity for the people and the Muslim nation. Shaikh Khalifa also received a congratulatory cable from President of Tajikistan Imam Ali Rahman on Eid Al Fitr. President Rahman expressed his sincere greetings to the UAE President, wishing him well and prosperity to the UAE people and Muslim countries. Shaikh Khalifa also received Eid Al Fitr greetings from Turkish President Abdullah Gul, President of Indonesia Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, also received similar cables from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the President of Indonesia. Continue reading
Special UN Report: Biofuels Impact Food Prices and Availability
A new report from the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) out of Rome, for the United Nations, implicates biofuels as a cause of high food prices. The June 2013 report, released today, is titled, “Biofuels and food security” (PDF) . This comprehensive document includes many interesting graphics and it attempts to cover all aspects of biofuels production. Every-so-often I catch a headline or tweet from biofuels interest groups or lobbyists who periodically promote the story that biofuels do not contribute to high food prices. This document clearly states that they do. While the ripple effect of the production and consumption of biofuels is far-reaching and can even account for some increased income for small-shareholder farmers, they are being promoted especially by corporate agricultural interests. Just this week DuPont received much feel-good publicity in promoting their food, agriculture and alternative energy “innovation center” in Johnston, Iowa, where their Pioneer Hi-Bred business unit is located. What was (at least part of) the hoopla really about? Making cellulosic ethanol out of corn stover. Taxpayers are on the hook for funding second generation biofuels, by the way, and cellulosic ethanol from corn stover qualifies. Follow the money. Currently, in the EU, biofuels policies are being rewritten, and the biofuels industry there, just like it does here, is lobbying hard against new proposals before the Parliament and Council to limit the use of food crops for biofuels. Here are a few chosen, key statements from the United Nation’s report: 1. In the last few years (since 2004) of short-term commodity food price increase, biofuels did play an important role. 2. All crops compete for the same land or water, labour, capital, inputs and investment and there are no current magic non-food crops that can ensure more harmonious biofuel production on marginal lands. Therefore, non-food/feedcrops should be assessed with the same rigour as food/feedcrops for their direct and indirect food security impacts. 3. In the case of the US, the impact on food security is essentially through the global transmission of prices. 4. (O)n the technological frontier for biofuels, few … countries have the resources to move forward to second-generation biofuels, given the often proprietary nature of this technology, the elevated capital investments required, and the high demands that second-generation technologies make on infrastructure, logistics and human capital. 5. (I)ndustrial advances can take place more quickly than agronomic advances needed to lower feedstock costs of both conventional and advanced biofuels. 6. Given the increasing price of fossil fuels and more efficient production, biofuels, or at least some of them, will be competitive even without public support. Increasingly it will be the market rather than policies that will drive the development of the sector. 7. Biofuel development has both global and local effects, positive and negative, short and long term. Many of these effects take the form of increased competition, for food, for land, for water. There are links between biofuels and food security. Therefore biofuel policies have to integrate food security as a major concern. Included was a good summary of how corn ethanol in the U.S. has impacted other commodities: The US has historically been both the world’s leading producer and exporter of corn, responsible for as much as 50 percent of world trade. The share of US corn production directed to ethanol increased in one decade from less than 10 percent to over 40 percent in the 2010/11 crop year, and remained at that high level in 2011/2012. Not only did the US exports and share in international corn trade decline as a result, but a significant part of the expansion of corn production in the US came at the expense of other major global crops, including soybeans. This was seen to have two effects: an increase in the price of corn and of its close substitutes like wheat on world markets, and a stimulation of food and feed production in other regions of the world, at the same time as major quantities of corn were subtracted from the feed market. This next chart shows us how policy of individual nations affects trade and consumption of biofuels. I also wanted to include the chart from the report with EROI (net energy return on investments) values from various feedstocks, but when I looked at their numbers, they looked quite “off” to me, so I am not including it here. Unfortunately, EROI numbers, while important, fluctuate wildly and are difficult to obtain and keep current, I suppose. The report lists the environmental sustainability concerns of biofuels, one of my own major concerns, below. 1. Lifecycle GHG emmisions. 2. Soil quality. 3. Harvest levels of wood resources. 4. Emissions of non-GHG air pollutants, including air toxics. 5. Water use and efficiency. 6. Water quality. 7. Biological diversity in the landscape. 8. Land use and land-use change related to bioenergy feedstock production. Certainly, here in the U.S., we have seen large negative impacts on all of the items on this list, making a project such as corn ethanol production insanely unsustainable and destructive to our environment in its current policy form. …………………………………………………………………….. NOTE: A special thanks to ActionAid for alerting me to this report. Continue reading