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

Alan Macfarlane

Then: Mid-way through my PhD on organosolv pulping of willow. Spending half of my time at Genesis Biosciences and the rest in the chemical engineering lab at the University of Auckland. The project was started by founders of Lanzatech with a goal to grow willow trees around lake Taupo to protect from dairy run-off and convert the willow into bio-ethanol. I was focussed on extracting lignin from the willow that could be used in high-value applications. My work would become more about pulping kinetics than ethanol production as the bioethanol project never went ahead, the technology was sold and the company moved off-shore.

Now: FPInnovations. As Clean Technologies Researcher on the business intelligence team, I research any bioenergy and biochemical initiatives that may be of interest to the forestry industry. I now specialize in financial analysis of chemical processes, market research, and due diligence.

Inspirations: A diversity of technologies. There is a rather large array of [raw material, pathway, product] and many have a case for a viable business. Each company has different problems to solve with technology or market.

Challenges:  As mentioned above, one thing I like is that each company has different challenges. Scale up for some technologies may be impossible. Lowering capital for some technologies may be impossible. For most, I think financing is an issue, especially since everyone underestimates capital.