Industry partners bring vital applied knowledge to the GLBRC project

June 26, 2007

MADISON — Industry partners in the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) will bring a diverse range of interests, expertise and economic promise to the project, from novel microbial innovations to commercial-scale fermentation experiments.

Seven companies, along with Wisconsin utilities Alliant Energy and Madison Gas & Electric, are serving as core team members, scientific partners or collaborators with the research teams from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan State University. Many of the partners demonstrated a strong enthusiasm for the initiative, citing the critical need for a basic research investment in this relatively young field, as well as the chance to help advance the cause of renewable energy in America.

“University and industry partnerships have become the new standard for tackling large research challenges, because the arrangement leads to stronger alignment between basic research directions and their potential applications down the road," says Molly Jahn, dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. "We think we have terrific depth and breadth on our industry team and look forward to learning from them throughout the project.”

Lucigen’s technology is based on useful enzymes discovered in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. Under the leadership of chief scientific officer Phillip Brumm, Mead’s company is creating thermostable enzymes that are capable of breaking down biomass feedstocks into simple sugars, the key to creating ethanol.

Lucigen has been screening metagenomic libraries for functionally active genes for five years, but the partnership will provide a major acceleration of their search for biocatalysts. “We have found a handful of these useful enzymes since we started; now we will have the capacity to find hundreds,” says Mead.

“The university team will be gaining a really good partner that has a lot of good experience in screening enzymes and knows what to look for and how to skirt around the problems with false positives,” Mead adds. “We are really excited about working with Tim Donohue and his team.”

The Flambeau River Biorefinery LLC in Hayward, Wis., is another core team member in the grant. Through the grant, the company will provide GLBRC scientists with access to both pilot-scale and commercial-scale fermentation facilities, which will be vital to testing the efficacy of various bioenergy developments.

“We don’t have all the answers for the challenges we’re going to face with this company,” says Ben Thorp, president of the Flambeau River Biorefinery. “We have one answer, but it is far from optimal. To get our plant up and running in a good way, we’re going to need a lot of help from UW-Madison and other sources. This process is in its infancy, and the entire industry will rely on basic research innovations.”

The facility will take a novel approach to biorefining by breaking down wood into its three core components, then finding value-added uses for all three. The cellulose will be used for higher-end pulp products, and the lignin will ultimately become the fuel for the entire biorefining process. The third element, hemicellulose, will be converted into sugars through a highly efficient process that leads to an immediately fermentable product, Thorp says. GLBRC scientists will have access to all three of these valuable product streams.

“I think the university really represented the state of Wisconsin well with this grant,” says William B. Johnson, owner of Flambeau River Paper, which spearheaded the Hayward biorefining project. “We want to see this state take a leadership role in biomass and biorefining, and getting a project of this scope is a big step in the right direction.”

Edenspace Systems Corp., another industrial partner in the grant, has pre-existing research partnerships with both UW-Madison and MSU that are leading to cost-effective strategies for developing and utilizing biofuels.

“We think that the basic research that the DOE is funding is essential to the development of the cellulosic ethanol industry, simply because there is so much about plant science that is not well understood,” says Bruce Ferguson, president of Edenspace Systems Corp. and project partner. “As a result, this sort of public investment in basic research is both timely and essential to the success of a variety of bio-based industries, including biofuels.”

Edenspace has licensed technology from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) that was developed by UW-Madison plant scientist Sandra Austin-Phillips. She isolated a gene that produces enzymes capable of increasing the value of animal feeds. Edenspace is applying that same technology to the production process for cellulosic ethanol.

“We know and respect the university’s excellent work in the plant sciences and we intend to forge an academic-industry collaboration that builds on our current foundation,” says Ferguson.

The university-industry collaboration is likely to yield significant intellectual property advances, and WARF has already developed a strategic plan to manage patenting and licensing issues. Laura Heisler, the WARF licensing officer leading the effort, notes that the project includes more than 80 scientists from both campus and industry, and there will be tremendous range in the technology being developed.

The project is likely to produce basic advances in areas such as plant breeding and useful microbial strains, Heisler says, but is also likely to produce gains in engineering fields such as fuel cells and engine research. WARF has developed a master collaboration agreement that will allow both university and industry partners to efficiently protect and commercialize intellectual property, while maintaining an environment of teamwork and knowledge-sharing.

“This project is really exciting because it takes such an integrative approach to the challenge, bringing groups of investigators together from very different ends of the spectrum,” Heisler says. “Much like the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, this project will be integrating entirely diverse areas of investigation into a common set of challenges. This is real virgin territory and we expect to see a great deal of intellectual property emerging from the project.”

Other industry partners in the GLBRC include:

  • Stora Enso North America Corp., a global leader in paper, packaging and forest products with significant operations in Wisconsin. Company representatives will serve on the scientific board of advisers and facilitate partnerships that can accelerate the cost-effective viability and applied use of bioindustry products from timber.
  • Miller Brewing Co. in Milwaukee. Through corporate partner David Ryder, Miller’s vice president for brewing and fermentation research, the company will offer leading-edge expertise and awareness of the challenges and growth areas in fermentation — an essential process to both beer-making and biofuel production.
  • Best Energies, a Madison-based developer of essential technologies for biofuel production. As a core member of the GLBRC, the company will provide pilot- and commercial-scale thermochemical platforms that will enable GLBRC scientists to scale up promising lines of research in gas and liquid fuel production.

— Brian Mattmiller (608) 262-0930, bsmattmi@wisc.edu