100 Top People in Bioenergy, #81-#100

81. Lonnie Ingram, PhD, Professor,  University of Florida

One of the most popular figures among the academic community, cellulosic ethanol pioneer Lonnie Ingram, whose lab produced much of the magic behind Verenium’s technology, is less well known in the broader global bioenergy industry, but nevertheless held down one of the highest-rated positions among academics. A popular speaker in Florida, he has made fewer forays onto the international stage of late, but his work in teasing sugars out of cellulose remains influential and leading-edge.

82. Sean O’Hanlon, Executive Director, American Biofuels Council

As well as being one of the best-known and respected of the biofuels Twitterati, Sean has been advocating at the grass-roots, and offering advanced bioenergy insight on a consulting basis, for a number of years. “I can’t think of anyone who taught me more about  the potentials and pitfalls in biofuels,” says Digest editor Jim Lane.

83. Kirk Haney, CEO, SG Biofuels

A recovering teak plantation developer, Kirk Haney and his team at SG Biofuels has been busy defining what we mean when we talk about “Jatropha 2.0”. Assembling a world-class portfolio of partners in R&D, and the widest collection of jatropha accessions around, Haney will tell you that “Jatropha 1.0 didn’t fail – the jatropha 1.0 business model failed” and has been steadily repairing that failure as his team prepares a platform for genetically localized and optimized jatropha, just as the demand for high-yield, low-impact renewable oils skyrockets.

84. Joanne Ivancic, Exec Dir, Advanced Biofuels USA

One of the most visible of the NGOs working on popularizing advanced biofuels, Joanne has been a high-value advocate and information distributor for the niches as it begins to educate consumers about the opportunities in advanced feedstocks, processing technologies and fuels,

85. John Scott, CEO, PetroAlgae

As head of biofuels’ most recent IPO candidate, John Scott’s team has been a pioneer in establishing lemna as a candidate biofuels platform feedstock. The company’s demonstration and customer sales center in Florida is also the earliest nexus for the commercialization of biofuels microcrops.

86. Todd Taylor, Partner, Fredrickson & Byron

One of the more popular of the biofuels Twitteratri as well as chairman of the program at next year’s Algal Biomass Summit, Todd’s overall perspective runs across a gamut of cleantech technologies, but he’s best known in the algae field, where he is an ubiquitous presence both online and offline, and a go-to source for the scoop on what’s hot, smart and getting traction.

87. Rafaello Garofalo, Secretary General, European Biodiesel Board

One of the higher-ranked European indusrty leaders, Garofalo has been leading not only the EBB but also pioneered the establishment of the European Algal Biomass group. Along with eBIO, he led a controversial walk-out from the Roundtable of Sustainable Biofuels, saying that the RSB’s principles were incompatible with the needs of his membership. Occasionally controversial but always an entertaining industry presenter.

88. Bliss Baker, MD, Global Renewable Fuels Alliance

The Global Renewable Fuels Alliance is a newer organization, but Bliss Baker has created a fairly strong stream of noise from the group, coordinating on a variety of policy issues whole also being a strong defender on biofuels on food-vs-fuel issues. Recently, the GRFA challenged the UN to reveal the true impact that crude oil prices have on food pricing and recognize that our heavy reliance on crude imports is one of the leading causes of food inflation and price spikes.
“The FAO has recognized a variety of drivers behind food price spikes, such as drought, energy prices and trade restrictions; however, the impact of crude oil prices on food inflation cuts across all national boundaries and has a disproportionate impact on food prices,” said Baker.

89. Tim Cesarak, MD, Organic Growth Group, Waste Management

Tim Cesarak serves on the Enerkem board and is MD of the strategic investment arm of Waste Management. Enerkem, as you may recall, has broken ground on its first commercial-scale advanced biofuels plant, putting it in the lead in terms of developing advanced biofuels from MSW. Meanwhile, WM has invested in Enerkem, Terrabon, S4 and others – their vision on turning waste streams into revenue streams is worth hearing, and possibly worth a partnering discussion

90. Philip Wolfe, Chairman, Ownergy (UK)

Philip Wolfe, a recognised pioneer of the renewables sector since founding BP Solar in the 1970s, is Ownergys chairman and business development director, and continues to be a popular face among Digesterati. In six high-profile years as Director General of the Renewable Energy Association (REA) he became the voice of renewable energy in the UK. Philip was a leading light of the campaign for the Tariffs and authored the first design blueprint presented to Ministers soon after the Energy Act was passed. He continues to work with many others in the industry through participation in the Energy Saving Trust’s Microgeneration Advisory Board and the REAL Code Panel, and his ongoing non-executive directorship of the REA.

91. Phil Bredesen, Governor of Tennessee / Kelly Tiller, CEO Genera Energy, Tim Rials, University of Tennessee

One of the biggest write-in votes we had was for this trio, instrumental in the establishment and growth of Genera Energy. It’s likely to be the most important feedstock play in the next couple of years – intended to benefit Tennessee, but pioneering models for the global industry as a whole. Shows that readers know more than nominators – and we’ve paired the trio at #91.

92. John Benemann, PhD, CEO, Benemann Associates

The “Doctor No” of the algae industry, if he spends a lot of his time talking down the hype around algae, its more to do with the hype than a problem with algae. A co-author of the close-out report of the DOE’s Aquatic Species Program, he’s been instrumental in the formation of the Algal Biomass Organization. If John says its good, that’s rare, but it’s gold.

93. Brian Bilbray / Harry Teague  / Jay Inslee  / Dave Reichart / Mary Bono Mack, US House of Representatives

This stranger’s quintet of House members we’ve paired at #93 – a trio of Republicans and two Democrats – they’re mutually wild about algae and were instrumental in house legislation that passed last summer to give parity to algae within the Renewable Fuel Standard.

94. Bill Holmberg, ACORE Biomass Coordinating Council

One of the more popular association execs is a long-time soldier in the trenches of renewable energy – Bill Holmberg has been a leader over the long haul, and has the battle scars to show it. But he’s one general popular with the troops, and has been a key figure not only in the biofuels policies of the American Council on Renewable Energy, but also the biomass to power side.

95. Charles Wyman, Professor, UC Riverside

Charles Wyman was a co-founder of Mascoma among other projects, and before his gig at Riverside was head of the gang at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Landed one of the highest vote totals on the ballot among researchers, though better known in the US than globally.

96. Gary Luce, CEO Terrabon

“My view,” explains Luce, “in this industry you really have to create a technology not only that adds value, but really enables the feedstock supplier to do something fundamentally different. In our case, creating drop-in fuels at the refinery rather than at the terminal, we offer some extra degree of freedom at the refinery level, and that’s been attractive to our partners.”

97. David Tilman, PhD, Professor,  University of Minnesota

One of the most popular write-ins in the informal balloting, David Tilman also secured one of the higher ranks among researchers and joins the list at #97. A co-author of  “Beneficial Biofuels—The Food, Energy and Environment Trilemma,” from Science, was David Tilman’s product after  a year of conversations and debate among some of the nation’s leading biofuel experts. The writers include some of the leading lights in cellulosic conversion, and the critique of first-generation fuels. In addition to Tilman, the article contributors include the U of M’s Jonathan Foley and Jason Hill; Princeton’s Robert Socolow, Eric Larson, Stephen Pacala, Tim Searchinger and Robert Williams; Dartmouth’s Lee Lynd; MIT’s John Reilly; and the University of California, Berkeley’s Chris Somerville. “The world needs to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, but recent findings have thrown the emerging biofuels industry into a quandary. We met to seek solutions,” wrote Tilman. “We found that the next generation of biofuels can be highly beneficial if produced properly.”

98. Michael Wang, Argonne National Laboratory

The author of the GREET model for measuring direct land use change and emissions impact, and also a leading indirect land use change-skeptic who has been helping to organize the ILUC-skeptics response, which has focused on the development of more robust models for ILUC.

99. Hunt Ramsbottom, CEO, Rentech

One of the pioneers on aviation biofuels and drop-in fuels in general, Hunt Ramsbottom has pioneered one of the most extensive  airline deals – supplying drop-in fuels to airports at LAX and to a consortium of airlines. Picked up strong DOE support in a project partnered with Clear Fuels, and has been leading the opposition to California Proposition 23 that would rollback much of the legislation that has established the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

100. Brian Foody, CEO, Iogen

Foody has been letting others play in the limelight at Iogen, but the Shell- and PetroCanada-backed project is at the cusp of moving from a six-year pilot to demonstration and commercial-scale. The company has been toughing it out with improving yields and reducing capital costs on corn stover conversion, after initially working on woods. Shell calls 2011 “a year of decision” and Iogen could go far in the new year.