1. Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Gevo Inc. in January for its use of Butamax biobutanol technology. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. Federal District Court in the District of Delaware. Butamax patent 7851188, granted in December, encompasses biocatalysts developed to produce isobutanol and provides protection for Butamax and its work in this field. Butamax has filed an extensive patent portfolio for its proprietary technology across the biofuels value chain including biocatalyst, bioprocess and fuels. A number of patent applications by Butamax have been successfully accepted into the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Green Technology Pilot Program for accelerated review. “The U.S. patent system is designed to encourage research and development and to protect inventions,” says Tim Potter, Butamax CEO. “Butamax and its owners were the first to develop this technology and it is our belief that the protection of intellectual property serves the best interest of the biofuels industry, our customers and the U.S. energy policy.”

2. JBI Inc., the waste-plastic-to-fuel company, announced the appointment of James Fairbairn to its board of directors. Fairbairn is a self-employed chartered accountant, consulting for public companies since 1990 and a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is a current officer or director at a number of TSX Venture Exchange listed companies. His experience in public accounting and corporate governance will be a strong asset for JBI’s board of directors, the company states. Fairbairn graduated from the University of Western Ontario and received his Chartered Accountant designation in 1987.

3. SG Biofuels, a bioenergy crop company using breeding and biotechnology to develop elite seeds of jatropha, recently announced it has named Miguel Motta as vice president of marketing and strategy. Motta joins SG Biofuels following a distinguished career at Monsanto Co., most recently serving as marketing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa. At SG Biofuels, Motta will direct marketing and business strategies guiding the company’s growth in key markets including Latin America, India, China, Southeast Asia and Africa. “Motta’s vast experience driving global market expansion and revenue growth for Monsanto will be extremely beneficial as we enter new markets and expand our product and service offerings,” says Kirk Haney, president and CEO. As marketing director at Monsanto, Motta developed and implemented commercial business plans, including product portfolio strategy, pricing and volume targets, distribution and brand strategy and marketing programs covering operations in more than 30 countries.

4. Glycotech Inc. has signed a manufacturing contract agreement with Emeryville, Calif.-based biotech firm Amyris Inc. to provide chemical processing at a plant in Leland, N.C. The Leland facility, owned by Salisbury Partners LLC, will convert Amyris’ biofarnesene—called Biofene—into finished bioproducts that can be used for a variety of applications.  According to Jeryl Hilleman, Amyris’ chief financial officer, the company will ship biofarnesene produced from its two contract manufacturers—Biomin GmBH in Piracicaba, Brazil, and Tate & Lyle’s bulk ingredients operations in Decatur, Ill.—to the Glycotech facility in North Carolina where it will provide finishing services for renewable products such as industrial lubricants, polymers and renewable diesel. Farnesene is an isoprenoid molecule that serves as a platform molecule to produce a wide range of products varying from specialty chemical applications to transportation fuels such as diesel.

5. In January, John Atanasio was appointed president and CEO of Alfa Laval Inc., a global provider of specialized products and engineering solutions based on its key technologies of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling. In this role, Atanasio is responsible for leading Alfa Laval in the U.S. to drive profitable growth in its markets, leveraging the company’s key technologies of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling. Atanasio joined Alfa Laval in 1982 in the company’s Food and Dairy Group. He joined Alfa Laval Separation in 1990 where he held a number of positions. In 2001, Atanasio was named president of Alfa Laval USA’s Parts and Service Division, and then president of the company’s Equipment Division in 2004. Most recently, Atanasio served as president of the Hygienic and Marine group of Alfa Laval Inc. Prior to joining Alfa Laval, he held a number of positions at Westfalia Separator.

6. A new gene discovery made by a team of plant research scientists at The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation “clearly looks like a way of essentially producing more biomass and giving a greater source of fermentable sugar per acre,” according to lead researcher, Richard Dixon, director of the Noble Foundation’s Plant Biology Division. The gene discovery, which can be attributed to an initial interest at the foundation in devising methods to improve forage quality in alfalfa, was found after the team began analyzing mutated alfalfa plants that had altered patterns of lignin deposition. What the team had, Dixon explains, was an alfalfa plant in which a gene had been knocked out, and that was causing this increase in cell wall material throughout the stem. The team decided to look at another readily researched plant, Arabidopsis, and test their findings. The work shows that by knocking out a single gene it is possible to increase the amount of lignin, cellulose and hemicellose amounts in a plant, he says.

7. Riverdale Capital Ltd. has completed its acquisition of Nevada-based WSPVA Bio Products International LLC. Riverdale Capital now retains 100 percent ownership of WSPVA, which holds an exclusive license to develop and market a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film known as “dissolving plastic” through a patented machine technology in North America. According to Aslan Halim, a consultant with Riverdale Capital, the PVA film is made from 100 percent starch-based alcohol. While some bioplastics companies use oils or additives to produce the material, Halim said WSPVA’s licensed process does not. The material is stronger than more traditional ethylene-based plastics. It is also very stable and can be dissolved in water. Initial commercial production of the bioplastic is scheduled to begin during the first quarter of 2011 in China, where the process was developed. An existing pilot-scale facility is being scaled-up to an annual production capacity of 60,000 metric tons, Halim says.

8. Biosuccinic acid and bioproducts producer BioAmber, formerly DNP Green Technology, has partnered with Cargill Inc., resulting in BioAmber having the exclusive worldwide rights to Cargill’s novel fermentation technology platform to produce biobased succinic acid from an array of nonfood-based lignocellulosic feedstocks. The partnership with Cargill is part of BioAmber’s near-term objective to build biobased succinic acid plants in North America, Brazil and Asia. According to Mike Hartmann, vice president of corporate affairs for BioAmber, the company intends to add the technology licensed from Cargill to its proprietary fermentation platform in future commercial-scale biobased succinic acid facilities currently under development. The key to Cargill’s technology, according to Hartmann, is a highly efficient microorganism that can significantly increase output volume and performance.

9. A team of researchers funded by the Energy Biosciences Institute, a BP-led program, has engineered a new yeast strain that will improve cellulosic fermentation times by almost 40 percent. The collaborative effort through the University of Illinois, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California began working on the new yeast strain roughly one year ago. Now, food science and human nutrition professor at the University of Illinois, Yong-Su Jin, says the team has created a yeast that contains five different enzymes that make cofermentation of both glucose and xylose more efficient. “Standard fermentation (with standard yeast strains) is like giving a piece of chocolate and some broccoli to a kid,” Jin says. “The kid will eat the chocolate first and the vegetable later.” The new strain Jin’s team has developed combines the chocolate and vegetable together so the kid doesn’t know the vegetable is there, Jin says.
 
10. Marlborough, Mass.-based cellulosic ethanol technology developer Qteros Inc. and India-based engineering and design firm Praj Industries Ltd. have formed a strategic partnership to accelerate the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol production. The partnership agreement, according to Qteros president and CEO John McCarthy, was the result of a culmination of collaborative work between Qteros and Praj, which will allow both to aggressively roll out its commercial strategy. “We’ve been working with Praj for nine to 10 months now on some experimental work that we’re doing with some of their pretreatment materials, feedstocks and our technology platform, as we have done with a number of other players in the market,” McCarthy says. The partnership, according to McCarthy, is structured around a joint development program that will span roughly the next 18 to 24 months where Qteros will retrofit Praj’s existing fully integrated pilot ethanol facility in Pune, India, and use that as the foundation to deliver fully integrated engineering design packages.

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