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Biocatalysts Are Transforming Biofuels
The Street
09/25/13
By Dana Blankenhorn
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Every school kid knows that cows eat grass.
Their digestion systems are able to turn the cellulose in grass into
simple sugars, just as your digestion system does with the starch in
that doughnut you had on the way into the office.
Noubar Afeyan's Midori Renewables says it has developed a proprietary
biocatalyst that can do what the cow does efficiently. The "rate
limit" for biofuels is this ability to turn cellulose into sugar,
which can then be turned into alcohol, he said.
If any biomass can become sugar for just pennies per pound, it will
transform the business, Afeyan added.
KiOR (KIOR_) also bases its business on a biocatalyst, which in its
case can be used at high temperature to turn biomass into oil and
natural gas liquids. In the first seven months of this year it turned
pine pellets into nearly 360,000 gallons of gasoline, diesel and fuel
oil using its catalyst, at a plant in Columbus, Miss.
This was just one-fourth of its production target, which sent the
stock tumbling, but Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov, who is
usually quite bearish, called this a buying opportunity. "The business
model remains valid," he told RenewableEnergyWorld .
Efficient biocatalysts are the holy grail of the biofuels
industry. What Biofuelsdigest calls "Planet Houston" won't show
interest in biofuels until it can produce useful refinery inputs at
$2.40/gallon, well below the cost of regular gasoline. Kior thinks it
can get its costs down to $2.25/gallon with an improved facility in
Natchez, Miss.
Afeyan won't speculate on the cost of his energy, being focused on the
cost of producing the sugar that creates the energy. But the
"performance was compelling," he said, and his catalyst is non-toxic,
delivering sugar at just one-third the price of other solutions. He
expects Midori to have further announcements in a few weeks.
As indicated above, our body produces biocatalysts naturally, called
protein enzymes, and such enzymes are at the heart of all sorts of
natural chemical transformations, including the brewing of
beer. What's new is the application of genetic engineering to produce
custom catalysts that can be patented, and the scale on which their
producers wish to work.
The Street
09/25/13
By Dana Blankenhorn
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Every school kid knows that cows eat grass.
Their digestion systems are able to turn the cellulose in grass into
simple sugars, just as your digestion system does with the starch in
that doughnut you had on the way into the office.
Noubar Afeyan's Midori Renewables says it has developed a proprietary
biocatalyst that can do what the cow does efficiently. The "rate
limit" for biofuels is this ability to turn cellulose into sugar,
which can then be turned into alcohol, he said.
If any biomass can become sugar for just pennies per pound, it will
transform the business, Afeyan added.
KiOR (KIOR_) also bases its business on a biocatalyst, which in its
case can be used at high temperature to turn biomass into oil and
natural gas liquids. In the first seven months of this year it turned
pine pellets into nearly 360,000 gallons of gasoline, diesel and fuel
oil using its catalyst, at a plant in Columbus, Miss.
This was just one-fourth of its production target, which sent the
stock tumbling, but Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov, who is
usually quite bearish, called this a buying opportunity. "The business
model remains valid," he told RenewableEnergyWorld .
Efficient biocatalysts are the holy grail of the biofuels
industry. What Biofuelsdigest calls "Planet Houston" won't show
interest in biofuels until it can produce useful refinery inputs at
$2.40/gallon, well below the cost of regular gasoline. Kior thinks it
can get its costs down to $2.25/gallon with an improved facility in
Natchez, Miss.
Afeyan won't speculate on the cost of his energy, being focused on the
cost of producing the sugar that creates the energy. But the
"performance was compelling," he said, and his catalyst is non-toxic,
delivering sugar at just one-third the price of other solutions. He
expects Midori to have further announcements in a few weeks.
As indicated above, our body produces biocatalysts naturally, called
protein enzymes, and such enzymes are at the heart of all sorts of
natural chemical transformations, including the brewing of
beer. What's new is the application of genetic engineering to produce
custom catalysts that can be patented, and the scale on which their
producers wish to work.