continued on page 2

Julie Tuttle, NREL/PIX 10941, 10944, 10945

Representatives from government, industry, and academia at the Enzyme Sugar Platform

stage-gate meeting in Golden, Colorado.

attended the meetings. Representatives from DOE included

John Ferrell, Amy Miranda, Gerson Santos-Leon, Valerie

Sarisky-Reed, Andy Trenka, and Jim Spaeth. 

The Enzyme Sugar Platform Project focuses on researching and proving the technologies that will allow industry to

build biorefineries capable of making a variety of products

from lignocellulosic materials. At the stage-gate meetings,

Biofuels Program presenters emphasized that in order to

develop lignocellulosic biorefinery technology it is necessary to

develop a process that will economically

convert lignocellulosic biomass to sugars

to allow fermentation to ethanol and

other products (see figure on page 2). In

order to develop this process, researchers

are utilizing market analyses, technical

assessments, and economic assessments. 

Another important part of the project

is the development of a life-cycle analysis

to measure “cradle to grave” effects of

feedstock collection and its conversion

to ethanol. “Life-cycle analysis is where

all the pieces have to come together ...

we use life-cycle analysis to tell us if we

have a strategic fit with the Biofuels

Program,” said NREL senior engineer

John Sheehan. “The real goal for lifecycle analysis is that we end up with 

a usable tool to help people make

sustainable choices.”

DOE Hosts Stage-Gate Review of 

the Enzyme Sugar Platform Project

On January 30 and 31, representatives from government

agencies, universities, and industry met in Golden, Colorado,

to discuss the future of the Department of Energy’s (DOE)

Enzyme Sugar Platform Project. The Enzyme Sugar Platform

meetings were part of the project’s

stage-gate review; a process in which

DOE, the National Renewable Energy

Laboratory (NREL), and external

reviewers meet to discuss the project’s progress and future directions.

The meetings were also intended to

give potential industrial partners

information about the Enzyme Sugar

Platform Project. 

An external review panel that

included Rod Fisher from Cargill, Scott

Nichols from Dupont, Dale Monceaux

from Katzen International, and Mel

Pearson from Kvaerner attended the

meeting to assess how well the project's

objectives are being met. In addition,

approximately 80 individuals representing a wide variety of government,

university, and industry groups also

Volume 5, Number 1 Spring 2002

“The most valuable way to improve the availability

of biofuels is to develop advanced methods of 

overcoming the resistance of agricultural, forestbased, and urban feedstocks to enzymatic and 

fermentation treatments.”

-from “Biomass Research and Development Technical

Advisory Committee Recommendations,” December, 2001. 

(see article on page 3)

FOCUS ON...

DOE’s Enzyme Sugar

Platform Project

WHAT IS THE STAGE-GATE PROCESS?

The stage-gate process is used as a project

management tool by Biofuels Program staff to

manage biofuels projects. The process helps 

to insure that research projects are aligned

with national and program objectives. It also

insures industrial and financial relevance, and

guides research in the most valuable directions. Projects are reviewed at key points in

their progress—called “gates.” A project must

successfully pass through this gate review to

proceed to the next stage. DOE, NREL, and

external reviewers assess how well the previous stage’s objectives were met, and whether

it is appropriate for the project to move to the

next stage, remain in the current stage, or be

canceled. For projects that continue, the gate

review helps refine the project’s objectives for

the next stage. For the Enzyme Sugar Platform

Project, the recent stage-gate review occurred

between Stage 2 (detailed investigation efforts),

and Stage 3 (process development efforts).

Biofuelsnews
Program researchers

also discussed DOE’s goal

of commercially producing

ethanol from agricultural

residues by 2010 at a cost

of $1.10 per gallon, and

by 2025 at a cost of $0.60

per gallon. When commenting on these goals,

reviewer Mel Pearson

stated, “What we need

out of this is a flexible,

robust breakthrough on

costs, as I see it, to get over the hurdle of the capital and operating costs and

the immediate extreme difficulty of getting to [the target cost of] $1.10 ... or

even $1.30 [per gallon].”

Although the external reviewers recommended that the project move to

the next stage, they also raised concerns about adequacy of funding and the

ambitious timeline. 

Project managers indicate that in 2002-2003 the project will focus on testing

selected technology options, financial assessment and life cycle analysis work,

increasing industry involvement, and extending the current

market assessment.

The Enzyme Sugar Platform Project—

Designing Tomorrow’s Biorefinery

The Enzyme Sugar Platform Project focuses on using

enzymatic hydrolysis to break cellulose into its component

sugars and researching and proving the core technologies

that will allow tomorrow’s lignocellulose biorefineries to be

built. Although bioethanol technology breaks down both

cellulose and hemicellulose into their component sugars,

hemicellulose hydrolyzes more readily during chemical

pretreatment. Cellulose hydrolysis is more challenging and

the key to process economics. In the future, the biomass sugars

from cellulose and hemicellulose will be used as “platform”

chemicals to make a variety of products, including ethanol. 

According to project leader Jim McMillan, the Enzyme

Sugar Platform Project is the Biofuels Program’s largest and

most complex process development project. The project

seeks to exploit low-cost, high-volume lignocellulosic feedstocks like corn stover, rice hulls, or grasses in order to

develop a biorefinery capable of making not only ethanol

fuel, but also a range of other biobased products. “I think

your technology is going to be useful and will produce a

variety of different value products. Ethanol will be one of

them, but I think that others will be even more valuable,”

stage-gate reviewer Mel Pearson told researchers. 

For more information on the Enzyme Sugar Platform

Project and the recent stage-gate meetings, visit

www.ott.doe.gov/biofuels/enzyme_sugar _platform.html.

Jim McMillan has led the Enzyme Sugar

Platform Project at NREL since 1998 and has worked at NREL since

1990. As the head of the Enzyme Sugar Platform Project, Jim leads

a multidisciplinary team that develops and demonstrates economically attractive technology for producing sugars and ethanol from

abundant lignocellulosic agricultural residues (corn stover is the

model feedstock). The objective is to integrate established pretreatment and fermentation strain technologies with the next generation,

lower-cost cellulase enzymes.

Jim holds a PhD in Biochemical Engineering and an MS in

Chemical Engineering Practice from the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Colorado State

University (CSU). He is an active member of the American Institute

of Chemical Engineers and serves on the organizing committee for

the annual Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals.

Jim is also a member of the Advisory and Development Boards 

for CSU’s College of Engineering, and an affiliate faculty member

at several universities where he serves on chemical engineering

masters and PhD theses committees. He is a reviewer for numerous

scientific journals and was previously on the editorial board of the

World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology. Jim was part of the

team that won an R&D 100 award for Ethanol from Corn Fiber in

1993, and holds two patents issued in 1998.

MEET THE BIOFUELS STAFF

Jim McMillan –

Senior Biochemical

Engineer

Nicole Kusy, NREL

Enzyme Sugar Platform Project continued from page 1

Printed with a renewable-source ink on paper containing at least 50% wastepaper, including 20% postconsumer waste.

ENZYME SUGAR PLATFORM 

SCALE-UP FACILITY SOLICITATION

The primary objective of the Enzyme Sugar

Platform Project is to enable industry to construct and operate a scale-up facility to produce

engineering data that will enable them to

design and construct a commercial facility for

converting biomass to fuel ethanol or other

biobased products. To support this objective, DOE

has issued a request for letters of interest in

participating in designing or constructing and

operating the scale-up facility. All phases of the

project will be cost-shared between DOE and

industrial partners. DOE invites potential partners to suggest feedstocks, technologies, and

products from the project, and to specify which

of the project’s phases they would like to participate in. For information about the request for

letters of interest and planned solicitation,

visit the DOE Golden Field Office Web site at 

www.golden.doe.gov/businessopportunities.html

and view announcement DE-PS36-02G-092007.

page 2
The Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory

Committee recently submitted a recommendation report to

Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman and Secretary of Energy

Spencer Abraham. The report was developed as part of the

Biomass Research and Development Initiative and is the

response to a Congressional charge to recommend ways to

advance the availability and use of biobased products. The

Committee proposed several goals and recommendations for

biofuels, three of which were specific to biofuels development:

1. “By 2010 triple production of fuel from biomass sources, from

2000 levels, by removing technology and policy barriers.”

2. “Provide benefits to farmers and forest landowners by increasing the value of agricultural and forestry products and

assisting rural communities with economic development.”

3. “Encourage investment by mitigating the financial risk

involved in biofuels.”

The Committee also identified several areas in which they

felt that more research was needed, including lignocellulosic

materials, pretreatment, catalytic and chemical processing,

and biorefineries. 

Additional recommendations in the report included increasing the coordination between USDA and DOE, developing an

infrastructure to effectively develop products and move them

to market, and developing a cohesive and consistent long-term

policy to develop and promote biobased products.

A minority report, submitted by David Morris of the

Institute for Local Self-Reliance, specifically addressed 

cellulose-to-ethanol commercialization as the primary issue

affecting biofuels. The minority report recognizes DOE’s

Building a Bridge to Ethanol project and suggests a more

aggressive effort in that direction, including government and

ethanol industry cost-shared financing of three front-end

ethanol facilities. The minority report also recommends

improving the dissemination and coordination of information. 

For more information on the Biomass Research and

Development Technical Advisory Committee’s recommendations, visit www.bioproducts-bioenergy.gov/pdfs/

AdvisoryCommitteeRDRecommendations.pdf.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Biofuels and 

Homeland Security

Cheap oil fuels America’s economy. And as our economy has grown, so

has our demand for oil. Unfortunately, at the same time, our easily accessible, low-cost supply of domestic oil has been virtually tapped out. To make

up for the shortfall in domestic supply, the United States has steadily

increased its reliance on foreign oil. In 2000,

according to the Energy Information

Administration, net imports totaled 10.4 million barrels

per day, or 53% of petroleum supplied. And net imports

will keep growing for the foreseeable future, accounting

for 62% of petroleum supplied by 2020. This heavy

reliance on imported oil jeopardizes our nation’s energy

and economic security by making us vulnerable to oil

supply disruptions and oil price hikes.

Transportation is particularly vulnerable because more than 50% of the fuel used by 

the transportation sector is imported—far more than any other part of the U.S. economy.

Using biofuels can help to offset some of the transportation sector’s demand for oil. 

A recent consultant study estimated that incrementally increasing the biofuels content 

of motor vehicle fuel (gasoline and diesel) from 1.2% to 4.0% between 2002 and 2016

would displace a total of 2.9 billion barrels of crude oil. Together with measures such as

improving vehicle fuel efficiency, using bioethanol and biodiesel as additives to gasoline

and diesel can go a long way toward improving our nation’s energy security.

The United States has steadily

increased its reliance on 

foreign oil. In 2000, net

imports totaled 10.4 million

barrels per day, or 53% of

petroleum supplied.

page 3

ON THE FEDERAL FRONT

Biomass R&D Advisory

Committee Releases

Recommendations
www.ott.doe.gov/biofuels/ DOE/GO-102002-1548 Past issues and other related information are available on the Biofuels Program Web site 

www.ott.doe.gov/biofuels/subscribe.html. Register your e-mail address to receive electronic notification of future issues at: 

Produced for the National Biofuels Program, Office of Fuels Development, U.S. Department of Energy,

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DID YOU KNOW?

New Publications from 

the Biofuels Program

■ Stage Gate Management in the Biofuels Program 

www.nrel.gov/docs/gen/fy01/31541.pdf

■ Colloquies on the Yeast Platform Project-Final Summary 

Report www.nrel.gov/docs/fy02osti/31690.pdf

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