Company Position
We would like to start by repeating the following two statements from a “Special Advertising Section” paid for by Chevron on 2/13/2008 in Wall Street Journal.
“The Biofuels resource is limited by the amount of land that must remain under cultivation for food, animal feed, and fiber production. Therefore a Biofuels “footprint” matters. In the future, the most successful Biofuels feedstocks will be crops that do not compete with food and maximize the volume of liquid that can be converted from a unit of land.”
We at SweetWater like the third sentence of the above quote so much we would like it to be our company's tag line, but it is to long.
“Finally, the role of advanced technology will be critical to Biofuels. The industry needs better molecules, better feedstocks and better conversion technologies. Game changing advances such as the conversion of Biofuels from cellulosic plant material will be necessary to expand the resource base.”
This second quote really is a perfect example of what is wrong with the current cellulosic approach. It is focused totally on the conversion part of the business and has turned a blind eye to the fundamentals and sustainability of the business. Inherent in this approach is also the blind faith that technology will solve every thing.
Therefore SweetWater's counter attacking question is “How will technology ECONOMICALLY solve the transportation, storage, material handling problems and construction cost associated with a cellulose based biorefinery?” This Is where SweetWater comes into the picture Making Cellulose Based Ethanol Cost Competitive and Sustainable
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Opportunity Drivers
Our business opportunity is being driven by the following:
• The U.S. consumes over 140 billion gallons of gasoline a year
• The U.S. produced 7.0 billion gallons of corn grain ethanol in 2007
• Renewable fuel standard calls for 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022
• The energy advocate group 25X25 is calling for 85 billion gallons by 2025
• Demand/Value of our protein enhanced co-product is highly profitable
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Five Introduction Questions and Answers
What Is It? – A unique liquid feedstock for ethanol
Who Is It For? - Today's corn-grain biorefineries
Why Do They Need It? - Reduces production cost
Why Is It Better? - Increases yield; Easily expandable
Why Do We Care? - Quick to market; Highly profitable; IP Protected; Has a smaller carbon footprint; Meets current government mandates