(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. A great example of new partnerships in innovation was the line of biobased products that TIG Distributing is formulating and labeling for John Deere. Products ranging from hand sanitizer through diesel fuel stabilizer are available through local John Deere dealerships.
The conference gave me plenty of time to consider many of the ideas and assumptions that are made in developing the future bioeconomy. Many times these assumptions are proven not to be accurate. For example, I have always espoused the idea that rural development includes a whole new "˜agroindustrial' cluster of biobased product companies. However, it was interesting to note that when the Iowa State Extension Service completed a survey of those living in rural Iowa concerning the emerging bioeconomy, one of the things that stood out was that many did not want new biobased product companies for fear that they would ruin the tranquil quality of rural life. This should not have been a surprise for I have read about the disputes between neighbors and ethanol plants, and I am a big advocate of land trusts, open spaces and the peaceful ideals of farm life. However somehow I had not fully considered how this dynamic is playing out across the Midwest as discussed in the New York Times on Tuesday. There is even a t-shirt circulating around concerning the ethanol plants that says, "Good Idea – Bad Location." Certainly, this is forcing me to think a bit differently on how to develop green technology businesses in rural areas, as well as the differences between regions in relations to acceptance of new ideas.
I was a bit surprised at the overwhelming focus on cellulosic ethanol as a major instrument for creating new farmer opportunities. From the discussions, it would have seemed that the industry was already a sure bet instead of a grouping of technologies that are still not proven on a large scale coupled with very complex logistical challenges. Basic issues concerning massive logistics, wear on rural roads, and the huge technology hurdles seemed to be taken for granted in many of the discussions. This is not to say that cellulosic ethanol will not happen. I believe strongly that it will, but it was discussed as having much more of a benefit to the farmer than I think reality will show. Cellulosic biomass conversion is a very high volume/low margin business, especially in comparison to the development of specialty crops for novel biobased product applications.
The presentations on cellulosic biomass did point out that the emerging technologies would be integrated with the current corn-to-ethanol industry. I believe this emphasis is accurate and that "bridge" technologies will become a major foundation to moving the industry forward. An additional point of interest was in observing the various methods and equipment in the development of corn cobs as a feedstock in one-pass harvesting.
The presentation from Doug Berven of POET (formerly Broin) who is integrating the current ethanol industry with the future brought much excitement. Doug, who is the company's director of corporate affairs delivered a passionate defense of the ethanol industry that made no apologies for the superiority of farm-grown, eco-friendly fuels versus drilled nonrenewable petroleum. POET has 10,000 farmer investors and is now the largest dry-mill corn ethanol operation in the United States producing 1.1 billion gallons of the fuel. As part of the same session, a vice president of Conoco, which has contributed approximately $20 million to biofuels research at Iowa State University, spoke pointedly about their company's need for cheep feedstocks (bad news for farmers) and referred to biofuels as "fuel additives." He also mentioned major research and development agreements with ADM and Tyson, with a focus on how to develop green fuels compatible in current refineries and distribution systems.
Iowa State University announced the groundbreaking for the New Century Farm and cutting edge research, education, and demonstration farm that will grow, harvest, process and convert all types of biomass materials into biofuels and chemicals. The New Century Farm will handle a full range of research needs in a system that is scaleable toward production agriculture including new crops, genetic research, and a conversion platform that includes both bio- and thermochemicals.
Another change from a few years past in the farm community was the vocal recognition of global climate change as a key driver toward the need to develop the bioeconomy. Speakers such as Aristedes Patrinos, President of Synthetic Genomics, discussed the need for gap technologies beyond simply producing more biofuels that stretch into new technology areas in biological systems, carbon capture, hydrogen, and biotechnology. These discussions gave the conference the perspective that, indeed, Iowa and the "˜bioeconomy concept' has an answer for macro problems beyond rural development or the interest of the United States.
Keynote speakers such as Vinod Khosla and Aristedes Patrinos helped give the Bioeconomy Conference an air of a technology summit from which a new emerging economy is poised to provide food, feed, fuel, energy and biobased products.
Please feel free to contact Peter Nelson of BioDimensions at pnelson@biobased.org to discuss this article.