The Biofuel Business Is Going Horizontal

Computer companies initially made everything they needed–chips, software, chassis, cooling systems. Gradually, the business went horizontal: some made chips, others went into software and others just concentrated on equipment.

The same is going to happen in biofuels, Neal Gutterson, CEO of Mendel Biotechnology told me during a break at the GoingGreen conference taking place in Sausalito. Right now, a lot of biofuel start-ups are growing their own feedstocks, genetically optimizing microbes for their feedstocks into oil, harvesting oil, and even refining it. You can’t be an expert at everything. Thus, the biotechnologists who know how to optimize bacteria will likely get out of the feedstock and refining part of the business as time goes on. It’s something to watch out for.
This, admittedly, also suits Mendel’s plans. The company specializes in optimizing feedstocks like grasses for fuel consumption. In a sense, the company is the farm of the 21st Century, specializing in raising inedible grasses for industrial use. (Great name too. Just think if they every merged with Gregor Technologies.) The company right now concentrates on making feedstock for the liquid biofuels for transportation but will soon move into the market for making fuel for stationary biogas digesters and biofuel pellet stoves.

Greentech Media