BASIC Associates: A Tale of Two Fuels from One Feedstock

Monday, October 25, 2010

A Tale of Two Fuels from One Feedstock

By Daniela Sciaky, Ph.D.

One problem associated with the production of biofuels from a first-generation feedstock is the un- or under-utilization of the waste products associated with production of that fuel. Scientists at the Universidade Federal de Viçosa in Brazil collaborating with scientists at Iowa State University report in the October 9^th online version of Biomass and Bioenergy that cellulosic waste remaining after the extraction of oil from first generation feedstocks can be used for ethanol production. The ethanol in turn can be used to meet the transesterification demand of the oil for biodiesel production.

Feedstocks tested include soybean, sunflower, Jatropha curcas, palm kernel, castor bean, and cottonseed. After oil extraction, palm biomass yields 108 m³per km² (approximately 191.6 gallons per acre) of cellulosic ethanol, the highest potential ethanol yield of any of the crops studied based on Brazilian crop yields. Second is Jatropha curcas, with an ethanol yield of 40 m³perkm² or approximately 71 gallons per acre. In comparison the US Department of Agriculture estimates that 180 gallons of ethanol can be produced from one acre of harvested corn stover or 5,500 pounds of dry corn stover. Potentially a total of 3.5 hm³, or 922 milliongallons of ethanol, could be produced from soybean oil extraction co-products from Brazil.

The results of this research provide an example of where waste biomass becomes extremely useful. Waste palm biomass remaining after oil extraction can yield more ethanol per acre than harvesting corn stover. In actuality a lot of the corn stover must be retained in the field in order to maintain the integrity of the soil. Therefore production of ethanol from the waste products of other biofuel production holds great promise.

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About BASIC

Unlike other investor services, BASIC Associates focuses not on the financials, but on the science behind various R&D initiatives in bioproducts. Sound science, after all, is the ultimate driver of profitability in the industry. We believe that a superior understanding of the science behind the business model reduces uncertainty and risk and allows for better decision-making by investors and stakeholders.

The principals at BASIC Associates use their doctoral training, coupled with years of experience researching and writing about biofuels, biochemicals, and other bioproducts, to provide an accessible science-oriented analysis of companies and projects in this growing market.

Meet the Principals

Robin J. Johnson, Ph.D.

Dr. Johnson is a cofounder of BASIC Associates. She previously worked as a curator for Garbrook Knowledge Resources, which she joined in March of 2007. Prior to joining Garbrook, she was a Scientist at Genstruct, a systems biology company that creates computer models of biological pathways, and a curator/editor at Incyte and later Biobase, working on the Proteome BiKnowledge Library. (Proteome was a successful knowledge company that provided comprehensive annotation of the proteomes of a variety of organisms, including humans.) As an assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine from 1985-2003, Dr. Johnson taught Medical School and did research in the field of cellular neurobiology. She has numerous publications to her credit. Dr. Johnson received her B.S. in Biology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her Ph.D. in Anatomy from Boston University. Her postdoctoral studies of viral infection in the nervous system were performed at Yale University School of Medicine Section of Cell Biology.

Daniela Sciaky, Ph.D.

Dr. Sciaky, a cofounder of BASIC Associates, is a scientific expert in plant biotechnology and biofuels and bioproduct processes. From 2006 to 2010, she was the senior content expert at Garbrook Knowledge Resources, where she contributed her expertise to the gathering and organization of biofuels and bioproduct information. From 1998 to 2006, she curated the scientific literature on a wide variety of topics, including plant and yeast molecular biology, helping to develop content for the Proteome databases. She has also held research positions with Children's Hospital of Cincinnati and Albany Medical College and faculty and research positions at the University of Cincinnati and Brookhaven National Laboratory. During the course of her career, Dr. Sciaky has served as a peer reviewer for the US Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, and the US Department of Energy, in addition to reviewing papers for the The Plant Cell, Biochemistry, Planta, Nucleic Acids Research, Plasmid, Bio/Technology and BioScience journals.

Dr. Sciaky received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Genetics from Washington State University and her B.S. in Biology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She did post-doctoral research at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY. She has presented at numerous scientific conferences and is well published in plant disease and natural systems as well as other fields.

Henrique Oliveira, MBA

Henrique, a cofounder of BASIC Associates, worked as a curator for Garbrook Knowledge Resources from 2008 to 2010. A citizen of both Brazil and the United States, he received his MBA in Finance in 2008 from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he was awarded a fellowship by the University’s William Davidson Institute to conduct research on Brazil’s 35-year experience with biofuels. As a Fellow of the Institute, Henrique spent several months in 2007 touring biofuel facilities in Brazil with Tom MacDonald, a senior researcher with the California Energy Commission and the head of MacDonald Associates, a boutique consulting firm specializing in alcohol transportation fuel.

Prior to joining Garbrook, Henrique worked as a consultant for Hart Energy’s Global Biofuels Center. He has extensive business experience in Brazil and has authored a number of reports on the country's biofuels industry, which, because of its size and depth, impacts alternative energy initiatives worldwide. Henrique has also written editorials on the Brazilian ethanol and sugar industry for various publications.