NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL EVENT

2008 Going Green Conference: Building, Technology & Practices

Thursday, October 9, 2008, 7:30-11:45 a.m., Doubletree Hotel, Rohnert Park

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West Biofuels, U.C. partner to make ethanol

FOREST, YARD, AG WASTE COULD HELP FUEL FUTURE OF CALIFORNIA, SAY RESEARCHERS

SAN RAFAEL – If you can picture your big green yard waste can with a gas pump on the side, you’ll be sharing the vision of a North Bay entrepreneur and researchers at the University of California.

With a combination of state and private dollars and the funding of a prototype thermochemical processing reactor by San Rafael mortgage banker Peter Paul, a team of scientists has launched a project to turn forest, yard and agricultural waste into ethanol.

West Biofuels in San Rafael, Mr. Paul’s new enterprise, has put close to $2 million into a pilot plant, located in Yolo County, that will convert five tons of woodchips a day into 500 gallons of fuel suitable for

mixing with gasoline.

“It’s a totally clean-burning production process and it doesn’t use any feed stock that can be eaten, except perhaps by a moose,” said Mr. Paul.

The production, expected to begin late this summer, is being studied very carefully by a team of U.C. researchers led by Robert Cattolica, Ph.D.

A professor in the Jacobs School of Engineering at U.C. San Diego, he’s assembled a team of faculty from mechanical engineering at U.C. Berkeley and biological and agricultural engineering from U.C. Davis.

“Over 100 million tons of biomass is generated in California each year,” said Dr. Cattolica. Orange County alone produces about 30,000 tons of urban green waste per day. “If we can divert a third of the state’s biomass from forests, farms and urban landscapes, we could generate 2.4 billion gallons of fuel per year. That’s more than enough to supply California’s ethanol needs,” he said.

California motorists currently purchase more than 900 million gallons of ethanol a year, 25 percent of the national total. But only 5 percent is produced in the state. The rest is trucked or trained over the Sierras or brought in from China by ship.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered the state to produce at least 20 percent of its biofuels by 2010, 40 percent by 2020 and 75 percent by 2050. The governor also mandated a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in California by 2025. Substituting biomass for petroleum could make that goal achievable.

“When waste stream biomass material is used to produce alcohol, burning the fuel in internal combustion engines has a zero net effect on the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” said Dr. Cattolica.

“On the other hand, burning fossil fuels continually adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.”

The process the team is testing involves gasification of carbon using steam, sand and catalysts, an existing chemical technology that U.C. researchers are bringing to the peak of efficiency with highly sensitive laser sensors and process control algorithms.

Cellulose material – non-recycled cardboard or paper products, urban green waste, forest trimmings, rice or corn stubble – goes through a three-stage process whereby it’s turned into a gas, separated from the tars and synthesized into transportable alcohol.

Once the prototype plant has been fine-tuned, funds will be sought to build a pilot commercial-scale reactor, which would process 100 tons of biomass a day, generating one 10,000 gallon tanker truck of mixed-alcohol fuel for every seven semi-tractor trucks of waste. About one third of the biomass will be burned to power each plant.

“We picture each of these plants being located on four or five acres close to a source of biomass such as a national forest or landfill,” said Mr. Paul.

He’ll be visiting venture funding firms and other sources in the fall looking for $20 million to $30 million for the first plant.

Meanwhile, the project is funded partially by a U.C. Discovery Grant, which provides matching funds from the state for biopower and renewable fuel research. The California Integrated Waste Management Board put in half a million dollars to study the conversion of solid waste.

Chevron Corp. contributed to the project funding, and the California Energy Commission invested $500,000 in the project to study using surplus fuel to run a power plant alongside the reactor.

West Biofuels has applied for patents, and Mr. Paul expects to build a successful for-profit company with the technology.

“We expect a business model to develop rapidly after the pilot commercial plant is up and running,” he said.

Mr. Paul’s 35 years of mortgage banking include founding Headlands Mortgage Co. in Larkspur, taking it through a successful IPO and negotiating its merger with GreenPoint Financial. After serving as president and CEO of GreenPoint Credit, he left to found Paul Financial in San Rafael.

He owns Peter Paul Wines in Healdsburg, and founded and heads up The Headlands Foundation in Marin, a nonprofit organization. “My business experience is a good addition to the team, and I expect it’ll come in to play as we move from prototype through pilot to commercialization,” said Mr. Paul.

“This is a very promising technology that could eventually have a significant beneficial impact on our environment while also reducing California’s reliance on oil imports.”

For more information, visit www.westbiofuels.com.