Comments on: Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Algae is considered a lot father away than ten years.” http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/2009/06/29/today-in-biofuels-opinion-algae-is-considered-a-lot-father-away-than-ten-years/ The world's most widely-read biofuels daily Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:30:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Joelle Brink http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/2009/06/29/today-in-biofuels-opinion-algae-is-considered-a-lot-father-away-than-ten-years/comment-page-1/#comment-2928 Joelle Brink Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:12:42 +0000 http://biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/?p=12719#comment-2928 If I remember correctly, this was the period when D1 had to close its UK refinery due to financial problems and lay off all its workers, which probably explains their lack of refining expertise at the time. D1 was a small-medium scale British producer then, but it was very innovative and committed to sustainable agriculture and biodiesel processing. I believe they did deploy the small scale mobile refineries they designed in India, but they would't have had the scale or expertise at that point to process large amounts of Jatropha oil into biodiesel, and in the end they decided to ship raw Jatropha oil instead because it was more stable than biodiesel. When BP later bought a stake in the company, it was in Fuel Crops only, not in biodiesel production. D1 is now trying to convince BP to change its stake from Fuel Crops to Oils, where its refining expertise would be much more helpful. False starts and course corrections like this are very common in new industries like biofuels. Unfortunately over-promotion led many interested investors to expect quick scale-ups in fuel production and profitability and were angry when this didn't happen. Those who stay the course will be reap the rewards. If I remember correctly, this was the period when D1 had to close its UK refinery due to financial problems and lay off all its workers, which probably explains their lack of refining expertise at the time.

D1 was a small-medium scale British producer then, but it was very innovative and committed to sustainable agriculture and biodiesel processing. I believe they did deploy the small scale mobile refineries they designed in India, but they would’t have had the scale or expertise at that point to process large amounts of Jatropha oil into biodiesel, and in the end they decided to ship raw Jatropha oil instead because it was more stable than biodiesel.

When BP later bought a stake in the company, it was in Fuel Crops only, not in biodiesel production. D1 is now trying to convince BP to change its stake from Fuel Crops to Oils, where its refining expertise would be much more helpful.

False starts and course corrections like this are very common in new industries like biofuels. Unfortunately over-promotion led many interested investors to expect quick scale-ups in fuel production and profitability and were angry when this didn’t happen. Those who stay the course will be reap the rewards.

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