Coskata, Qteros and Cobalt Biofuels project “100 Mgy production by 2012″; Solazyme says it will reach the 100 Mgy mark by “2012 or 2013″

In Washington, leaders at advanced biofuels Coskata, Qteros and Cobalt Biofuels projected that they would each reach 100 Mgy in annual production by 2012, and Solazyme projected it would reach a similar volume on “2012 or 2013″.

The companies were presenting at the Advanced Biofuels Development Summit, which is taking place this week in Washington DC along with other biofuels activities in the capital, including a lobbying blitz by members of the Algal Biomass Organization.

Speaking at the conference, Wes Bolsen, CMO of cellulosic ethanol producer Coskata (ranked #1 in the Digest’s 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy), said he was not worried in the short term about downstream development of ethanol distribution infrastructure, saying that in the context of building the first handful of 50-100 Mgy cellulosic ethanol plants that people were lining up to take the ethanol.

Jack Huttner, VP for Corporate and Public Affairs for #9 ranked cellulosic ethanol JV DuPont Danisco, took a longer term view on ethanol infrastructure and said that “the challenges [of cellulosic ethanol] are upstream and downstream of the core technology; the oil industry has had 100 years of vertical integration in building out an infrastructure, and clear energy policies are a clear objective for an alcohol-based energy economy. Downstream is a concern and a priority.”

Solazyme, Coskata, Cobalt Biofuels, and Qteros spoke about the challenges of funding advanced biofuels enterprises in difficult capital markets. Solazyme CEO Jonathan Wolfson said that “On the one hand, the [investors] in the space are much more serious, and in it for the long term. On the other hand, there are a lot fewer of them.”

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