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Energy crop company Ceres, Inc. plans to market its agricultural seeds and traits under the trade name Blade Energy Crops in the United States. Company president and CEO Richard Hamilton unveiled the new brand at the BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology in Chicago earlier this week.

Gevo, Inc. announced that Dr. Patrick Gruber, CEO, has been awarded the first ever George Washington Carver award. Created by BIO, the world’s largest biotech organization, the award recognizes significant contributions by individuals in the field of industrial biotechnology and its application in biological engineering, environmental science, biorefining and biobased products.

BP announced today that it intends to take a 50 per cent stake in Tropical BioEnergia SA, a joint venture established by Brazilian companies Santelisa Vale and Maeda Group, which is constructing a 435 million liter (115 million gallons) a year ethanol refinery in Edéia, Goias State, Brazil.

While the focus of global ethylene investment continues to shift towards the Middle East and Asia Pacific, Shell Chemicals see a future of continuing opportunity for ethylene producers across all the regions of the world. Longer term, Shell Chemicals anticipate increased ethylene production based on a new and growing slate of feedstock ranging from biological sources such as ethanol and agricultural biomass to coal.

A recent article in a biomass trade magazine opened with the declaration that “harvesting forests has become the latest gold rush in the race to convert biomass into energy”--a powerful statement that unearths two major misperceptions about the emerging biofuels industry. The first misperception is that companies can come to places such as the Southeast United States and have a perpetually abundant source of cheap raw materials.

In last month’s column, I began a discussion of “new generation” biotechnology companies and the (unique/interesting/unusual) partnerships that are being formed to develop biobased products. Many of these companies involve the use of new crops and the partnerships are formed to exploit the potential of those crops into many new markets.

Governor Phil Bredesen today signed an Executive Order establishing the Governor’s Task Force on Energy Policy. The Task Force is charged with developing a state energy plan to make Tennessee a leader in energy efficiency and conservation, use of alternative fuels and renewable energy sources, and the development of clean-energy technology.

As someone who has worked with a variety of new crops and technologies for over ten years, this is an exciting time to be involved with new crops and diverse feedstocks for the biofuels and broader biobased products industries. A number of factors are converging to foster the development of new crops in a way that is larger in both volume, variety, and commercial viability than ever before.

Two weeks ago I was able to attend the 2008 Arkansas State University Agribusiness Conference. The keynote speaker was Dr. Mark Drabenstott who is the Director of the Rural Policy Research Institute, Center for Regional Competitiveness at University of Missouri. He discussed the importance of developing regional strategies for economic development of rural areas.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) today announced creation of the George Washington Carver Award to recognize significant contributions by individuals in the field of industrial biotechnology and its application in biological engineering, environmental science, biorefining and biobased products.

Last week there was a story that was repeated in the press across the world concerning a new Nature Conservancy-funded study that showed that there would be an increase in carbon emissions if land was converted from forests or other natural ecosystems to biofuel crops.

There is so much going on as the production of materials shifts towards biobased platforms. There is renewed media interest in agriculture’s role in feeding the developing world and macro-world pressures change the dynamics of a growing industry in ways that are increasingly difficult to predict.

WALNUT CREEK, CA--A preliminary assembly and annotation of the soybean genome, Glycine max, has been made available by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), to the greater scientific community to enable bioenergy research.

Johnson Controls is committed to sustainability and creating "environmentally friendly" automotive products, as reflected in the new Ecobond headliner that is in the final stages of development at the company.

On the surface, entrepreneurs and farmers might not seem to have much in common. One is many times associated with technology, finance, and innovation, and, unfortunately, the farmer is often construed as some kind of country bumpkin. However, both of these groups are forced to take very high risks, innovate within the context of implementation, and navigate across a whole spectrum of activities ranging from accounting to marketing.

It has been an interesting few weeks as “green” has ruled the headlines, the optimism around biofuels has taken a downward plunge, Al Gore accepted the Nobel Prize, and Google made one of the most significant announcements of the year. Going out of 2007 and entering the new year, there is much room for optimism despite the negative headlines associated with ethanol and biodiesel.

The Woodbridge Group and Intier Automotive Seating, an operating unit of Magna International Inc. announced today the availability of bio-based seating, an environmentally friendly polution for seating products. BioFoam, a bio-based polyurethane foam developed by The Woodbridge Group and validated for manufacturing earlier this year, is derived from the oils of various plant seeds, such as Soy beans.

BiobasedNews.com - Last week I attended the 2007 Biobased Industry Outlook Conference at Iowa State University. The conference received widespread attendance from throughout the United States and Canada. This being the second year I attended, I was heartened by the growing number of technology entrepreneurs and those developing new equipment for harvesting biomass, which was a great addition to the researchers from the university.

This past June, Mitsubishi Plastics announced that it will begin marketing plastic containers made from sugars and rice in early 2008. Mitsubishi represents a growing trend among companies emphasizing the use of environmentally friendly, biobased materials in consumer goods.

Following one of my recent editorials, I received an encouraging e-mail from Victoria Carver of the Iowa Soybean Association. From her initial comments she wrote, “(we) want you to know you have kindred spirits - better yet, active allies in pursuing your bioeconomy vision - here at the Iowa Soybean Association.” She goes on to write about the great work they are doing with using new technologies to improve agronomic, economic and environmental performance.

A few years ago I saw a chart from Royal Dutch Shell that showed projected sources of energy production over the next hundred years. The chart showed a rising percentage in the use of solar, wind, biomass as well as coal, nuclear and/other more traditional sources. However the most interesting element was the top twenty to thirty percent had a big question mark.

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting under a tree a little bit north of Memphis, Tennessee listening to a well-known and respected African-American farmer talk to a tour of conservation district representatives. Looking around, you could see rolling fields of well-tended ground, the farm yard and shop area were in good order, trees lined the road, and the fence lines were clean.

MIDLAND, Mich. — The Dow Chemical Company today introduced RENUVA™ Renewable Resource Technology, a proprietary process that helps polyurethane manufacturers make products that are performance-based and reduce impact on the environment.