Cobalt Biofuels Opens Plant; Biobutanol the Next Thing?

Individual biofuels — algae fuel, cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel, corn ethanol — have all had their day in the sun over the past few years. Is it time for everyone to cheer for the alternative version of butanol, biobutanol?

This morning Mountain View, Calif.-based startup Cobalt Biofuels, which produces biobutanol, opened up its first pilot plant for a tour by Arnold Schwarzenegger, followed by a press conference that featured the California governor, Silicon Valley heavyweights from local trade groups and other local clean power startups that have set up manufacturing in the state.

We watched the event live, during which Cobalt Biofuels CEO Rick Wilson told the audience that now that the company is producing biobutanol at its pilot facility, it will be able to scale up to a commercial facility within the next two years, and “multiple facilities” by 2014. Wilson said that the company’s fuel, which can reduce carbon emissions by 85 percent compared to gasoline, already costs below the price of petroleum to produce and can be blended with any fuel — gas, diesel, ethanol — or can be used as a bio alternative to chemicals.

Biobutanol is more chemically similar to gasoline than ethanol, meaning it can be burned in existing car engines and transported in the current gas pipelines. There is also a large market for cheap biobutanol in industrial chemicals. Cobalt uses non-food sources to make its biobutanol, including woody biomass.

So if biobutanol is so spectacular and flexible why haven’t more companies been focused on it? Well, previous production processes have been prohibitively expensive. The New York Times points out that use of biobutanol “was abandoned after widespread use in the first half of the 20th century,” because of the high price.

Cobalt says it has brought down the cost through three processes: microbe development, fermentation management and fluid separation. Cobalt says it can tailor its microbes for different regionally available feedstocks, optimizing its process for deployment anywhere. It’s also trying something novel, that of forgoing the standard batch fermentation process and instead managing the fermentation process at peak production for long periods, boosting output and cutting operating costs.

The company has raised at least $25 million from backers including LSP, Pinnacle Ventures, Vantage Point Venture Partners, The Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund, @Ventures and Harris and Harris.

source: earth2tech