Inside Greentech, CA
06-27-07
Not everyone applauds new U.S. biofuel research centers
By Dana Childs, inside greentech
In a move not everybody agrees with, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has
announced plans to invest more American taxpayer money to accelerate the
cellulosic ethanol industry.
The agency has earmarked $375 million for three new Bioenergy Research
Centers to be located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Madison, Wisconsin and near
Berkeley, California.
The centers are intended to accelerate basic research in the development of
cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels, using regional plants and crops. The DOE
plans to fund the centers for their first five years of operation (2008-2013).
A major focus of the centers is to be on understanding how to reengineer
biological processes to develop new, more efficient methods for converting the
cellulose in plant material into ethanol or other fuels that serve as a substitute for
gasoline.
The centers are to bring together teams of researchers from 18 of the nation’s
leading universities, seven DOE national laboratories, at least one nonprofit
organization and a range of private companies.
The Department’s three centers will include:
* The DOE BioEnergy Science Center led by the DOE’s Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Collaborators will include Georgia Institute
of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia; DOE’s National Renewable Energy
Laboratory in Golden, Colorado; University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia;
Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire; and the University of
Tennessee, in Knoxville, Tennessee.
* The DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center will be led by the
University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, in collaboration with Michigan
State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Collaborators include DOE’s Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington; Lucigen Corporation in
Middleton, Wisconsin; University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida; DOE’s Oak
Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Illinois State University in
Normal, Illinois; and Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.
The DOE Joint BioEnergy Institute will be led by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory. Collaborators include Sandia National Laboratories; DOE’s
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; University of California - Berkeley;
University of California - Davis; and Stanford University in Stanford, California.
The only private company identified in the DOE's announcement is molecular
biology developer Lucigen.
Well-funded cellulosic ethanol companies Abengoa, Verenium (formerly
Celunol/Diversa), BlueFire Ethanol, Mascoma, Poet, Range Fuels and others
were conspicuously missing from the announcement.
The DOE channeled funds to many of the above earlier this year. In February, it
gave hundreds of millions of dollars to six biorefinery projects (see Inside
Greentech's U.S. government granting $385M to six cellulosic ethanol plants.)
Then it gave out more in March (U.S. gov't doles out another $23m for cellulosic
ethanol) and in May, it announced up to a further $200 million over five years to
support the development of small scale bio-refineries that produce liquid
transportation fuels such as ethanol.
Not everyone in the industry thinks the U.S. government should be investing in
R&D centers.
Biodiesel developer Imperium Renewables CEO Martin Tobias called such
moves "stupid."
"Generate demand in the market and the capitalism system will take care of
itself. All the investments will happen," he said in an interview with Inside
Greentech earlier this year.
"The right thing for the federal government to do is to set long term policy in a
way that allows people to make long term investment. When you have a 10 year
stair-step of demand, an investor can look at that and say “this is a no-brainer. I
know there’s going to be a market for this, so we’re going to make the
investment."
The petroleum industry, which itself is criticized for receiving high levels of
government subsidy (see Inside Greentech's Oil industry subsidies for dummies),
is fond of pointing to the ever-increasing levels of government subsidy of
biofuels.
The libertarian Cato Institute claims the heavy subsidies the ethanol industry
receives are not actually intended to level the playing field, move the country
closer to energy independence or reduce greenhouse gases.
"These are flimsy rationales for the real purpose of the program: to convince
urban voters and their representatives to willingly hand over their money to corn
farmers and the rapidly growing ranks of investors in ethanol plants," it wrote in a
recent newsletter (see Inside Greentech's Ethanol a boondoggle, says Milken.)