Biofuels Digest’s 2012 Special Editor’s Award: Amyris, comeback of the year

It’s been a tough year in the headlines for Amyris.

As we wrote last week, “by now, most of the “smart set” that found itself excited about Amyris, and about advanced synthetic biofuels during the IPO fever, have moved on. They read Dan Grushkin’s “The Rise And Fall Of The Company That Was Going To Have Us All Using Biofuels” in Fast Company, wrote off Amyris and possibly the entire sector, and presumably migrated their enthusiasm to low-cost natural gas, battery technology, or tablet computers.”

But the real news out of Amyris is the company has successfull launched has successfully begun production of biofene, (renewable farnesene) at its 50 million liter industrial fermentation facility in Paraiso, Brazil. It’s a huge step in the road back to the center stage — perhaps, even, the dizzying prices that the company’s stock once commanded. If the” rise of Amyris” story was oversold, we think the “fall of Amyris” story is wildly premature.

READ MORE: All about the project, here.

The Complete 2012 Biofuels Digest Awards

Best Project – Thermochemical
Best Project – Fermentation
Best Project – Hybrid
Best Project (demonstration)
Best Project (pilot)

Best Technology Extension
Best New Fuel
Best Retrofit
Process Improvement
Pretreatment Technology

Yield Improvement
Industrial Symbiosis
New Trait
New Feedstock
New Feedstock (Demonstration)

New Feedstock (Trial)
Consumer Product of the Year (biobased)
Consumer Product of the Year (biofuels)
Partnership of the Year
Special Editor’s Award – Comeback of the year

Special Editor’s Award – Sustainable technology
Book of the Year