Cobalt Technologies Grabs Cheap Waste to Break into Vehicle Fuels
Cobalt Technologies Grabs Cheap Waste to Break into Vehicle Fuels
By Ken Stier
Published: June 29, 2011
For biofuels startup Cobalt Technologies, the quest to replace petroleum has led to sugary waste water from Decorative Panels International, a wood paneling manufacturer in the small town of Alpena in northern Michigan. Mountain View (Calif.)-based Cobalt and its partner, biorefinery consulting firm American Process in Atlanta, are building an industrial-scale cellulosic refinery -- one of the world’s first -- on Decorative Panels’s campus. When it’s complete, they will use the paneling byproduct -- which Decorative Panels pays American Process to take -- to produce petroleum-free fuels.
To break into the U.S. vehicle fuel market, low-cost feedstock is essential. Highly efficient U.S. petroleum refineries provide some of the world’s cheapest gasoline. That’s why 38-employee Cobalt -- which aims to sell bio-butanol, a solvent that can serve as a higher-energy-density fuel than ethanol -- plans to use Decorative Panels’s waste, as well as agricultural and forestry wastes: They average $60 to $80 per ton, vs. $200 to $400 per ton for corn and other traditional feedstocks.