Recap on Biofuels & Biochemicals Innovation Report

Cleantech Group recently published a sector whitepaper focused on innovation trends in the Biofuels & Biochemicals sector. In this report, we provided a comprehensive overview of the industry’s value chain, ranging from feedstocks to end products. Despite several setbacks throughout the development of this sector, there are still an increasing number of innovations during the past five years – at both industry and company levels – in an effort to push through some of the scale-up challenges since the sector’s initial rise.

Several themes emerged through our analysis of this sector. First of all, building a streamlined supply chain for year-round production is the first bottleneck to overcome. In essence, there is no single silver bullet solution to feedstock and as a result, we are seeing innovative technologies being developed ranging from crop yield improvements to direct production of fermentable sugars. Looking closely at the latest investment trends, 2013 showed a significant spike in both sum and number of deals to feedstock companies.

Another key trend in the Biofuels & Biochemicals sector centers on the shift from biofuels to biochemicals, where companies are starting to focus on high-margin products due to their pricing premiums. In addition, such shift has also attracted corporate partnerships in this sector with the goal of jointly commercialize bio-based chemicals.  As more technologies continue to move from the R&D phase to commercialization, we will continue to see ongoing investments and partnerships in this sector.