Cobalt Biofuels: 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy candidate profile

Cobalt Biofuels
Based in: California
2008-09 ranking: 17

Business: Producer of Butanol, electricity and a small amount of acetone via integrated biorefinery and biomass electricity generation.  Biofuels production involves fermentation of non-food cellulosic (hemicellulose and cellulose) feedstock.  Lignin is passed to the onsite boiler and generates sufficient power to serve the needs of the biorefinery, with significant excess power exported to the grid.

Model: Owner/operator, with outside equity participation, in Initial commercial facility.  On an ongoing basis, expect to be both owner/operator and licensor, on a project-by-project basis.

Past milestones:

1.       Raise Series C equity
2.       Demonstrate pretreatment of woody biomass and fermentation of C5 sugars in stable, continuous fermentation at bench scale
3.       Build and operate a pilot facility

Future milestones:

1.   Build scale up facility
2.   Raise Series D equity
3.  Procure site, complete design and obtain financing for commercial scale facility

Metrics: Fuel cost per gallon:  $1.02 per gallon. (Cost calculated as cost of production, minus revenue from co-products, and assuming feedstock (woody biomass) cost of $38.50 dry metric tonne (per DOE EERE 2009 goal) and natural gas cost of $7.50 1000 scf.  Co-products priced according to their BTU content per guidance from the DOE ($0.025 per 1000 BTUs). )

Cobalt Biofuels quotable quotes: “Low capital costs compared to other cellulosic biofuels companies, patent-pending, high productivity bioreactor design, high margins generated by use of low cost feedstock, plant design and engineering for energy efficiency, significant co-product revenue (electricity).”

The Hot 50 for 2009-10 will be released Tuesday, 12/1. Between now and then, you’ll see profiles of potential candidates in the Digest, and you’ll have a chance to vote for your favorites. Reader response will count for 50 percent of a company’s overall score in the preparation of the rankings. The remaining 50 percent is voted by a panel of experts.

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