An exciting industry to follow

Being a writer for BBI International's magazines requires a lot of reading. The internet has been a blessing for bringing articles published around the world to the screen in front of me. I'll be sharing interesting things I read and learn in this weekly blog whose name,"BioLogue," invites your input. Feel free to add your comments at the bottom. Oftentimes, the readers' comments are the most interesting part of a blog.

This week I found a good review of emerging technologies for transforming biomass into biofuels and other products. The Economist began its article on the players and technologies with a story about a small Californian biotech firm, Amyris Biotechnologies Inc. The company recently announced a partnership with a Brazilian firm to develop microbes that produce a new fuel from sugar cane with the characteristics of diesel fuel - in chemist-speak, an isoprenoid. (To read the entire article, click here.)

Amyris is best known for applying biotechnology to the manufacture of an anti-malarial drug using altered bacteria to make a chemical precursor that can easily be converted into the drug. It replaces the natural source which is limited in supply. The Economist suggests the Amyris story is a parable for the future of biotechnology.

"The point of parable is this:" the article says, "biotechnology may have cut its teeth on medicines, but the big bucks are likely to be in bulk chemicals. And few chemicals are bulkier than fuels." The article goes on to review the many big firms and small players developing new microbes and technologies to produce biofuels and myriad chemicals now derived from petroleum. "Which of these approaches will work best is anybody's guess," the article says. "But their sheer number is proof that the most radical thinking in the field of renewable energy is going on in biofuels."

The Economist makes another observation that nicely characterizes what's been happening since the U.S. President first mentioned switchgrass : "Biofuels, once seen as a cross between eccentric greenwash and a politically acceptable way of subsidizing farmers, are now poised to become big business."

I'd expand that beyond biofuels to include biomass. It's an exciting industry to be writing about right now.