Then and Now: 120 Bioeconomy Pioneers look at yesterday, today, inspirations and challenges

Jim Colthart

Then: Into our third year with Decision Sciences Corp, a San Diego-based homeland security technology startup.  We licensed a detection protocol and manufacturing IP from Los Alamos National Labs to identify nuclear and other anomalies in cargo containers.  Initial prototype development was underway; analytical work that laid the groundwork for algorithms to determine dangerous cargoes in near real time was in its early stages.

Now: We are currently seeking funding and strategic partners to realize unique technology to produce liquid hydrocarbons from forest waste at logging sites and lumber mills. In the current hostile political environment in the US, we have transferred our assets and IP to Canada, where the climate is far more receptive to renewable energy technologies, as evident from the recent announcements of multi-billion dollars of new funding from both federal and provincial governments.

We believe that successful demonstration and commercialization of our technology will offer the opportunity to address, in a meaningful way, the adverse social, economic and institutional costs of relying on crude oil for transportation fuels. We can displace crude oil with a carbon-neutral, cost-competitive equivalent, reduce GHG emissions, strengthen local and national economies by creating job opportunities in all the remote communities and adding new sustainable revenue streams to the forest industry.

Inspirations: The critical issue remains funding to enable us to prove that the technologies we have can be integrated and perform in accordance with the research goals we have set.