The Digest’s Bottom Line: when will we know about Proterro?

December 18, 2012 |

In today’s Digest, we’ve looked at:

• New investors flock to Proterro as all the incumbents re-up
• Why Affordable Renewable Sugars are a Monster Prize• Making sugars, not extracting them: Proterro’s Technology

So, when will we know if Proterro is a company and not a science project?

The timing is in months, not years, in terms of a demonstrated system – think late 2013 for knowing much of what is needed to know about Proterro’s fate – did it build a demonstration unit that affordable worked the problem of low-cost renewable sugars.

Working through actual deployment at scale will take more time – and the venture will need to hook up with a demonstration partners in terms of both the inputs and outputs (CO2, and its sucrose) to demonstrate the the system is affordable, and works in the practical world. Think 2015-16.

But by year-end we will certainly know if the technology really has a chance to deliver that transformation it seeks. As Cultivian founder Ron Meeusen says, “What’s holding back the adoption of biofuels and biobased chemicals is the high cost of producing and delivering feedstock today.”

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