Energy crop company Ceres, Inc. plans to market its agricultural seeds and traits under the trade name Blade Energy Crops in the United States. Company president and CEO Richard Hamilton unveiled the new brand at the BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology in Chicago earlier this week.

Gevo, Inc. announced that Dr. Patrick Gruber, CEO, has been awarded the first ever George Washington Carver award. Created by BIO, the world’s largest biotech organization, the award recognizes significant contributions by individuals in the field of industrial biotechnology and its application in biological engineering, environmental science, biorefining and biobased products.

BP announced today that it intends to take a 50 per cent stake in Tropical BioEnergia SA, a joint venture established by Brazilian companies Santelisa Vale and Maeda Group, which is constructing a 435 million liter (115 million gallons) a year ethanol refinery in Edéia, Goias State, Brazil.

While the focus of global ethylene investment continues to shift towards the Middle East and Asia Pacific, Shell Chemicals see a future of continuing opportunity for ethylene producers across all the regions of the world. Longer term, Shell Chemicals anticipate increased ethylene production based on a new and growing slate of feedstock ranging from biological sources such as ethanol and agricultural biomass to coal.

A recent article in a biomass trade magazine opened with the declaration that “harvesting forests has become the latest gold rush in the race to convert biomass into energy”--a powerful statement that unearths two major misperceptions about the emerging biofuels industry. The first misperception is that companies can come to places such as the Southeast United States and have a perpetually abundant source of cheap raw materials.

In last month’s column, I began a discussion of “new generation” biotechnology companies and the (unique/interesting/unusual) partnerships that are being formed to develop biobased products. Many of these companies involve the use of new crops and the partnerships are formed to exploit the potential of those crops into many new markets.

Governor Phil Bredesen today signed an Executive Order establishing the Governor’s Task Force on Energy Policy. The Task Force is charged with developing a state energy plan to make Tennessee a leader in energy efficiency and conservation, use of alternative fuels and renewable energy sources, and the development of clean-energy technology.

As someone who has worked with a variety of new crops and technologies for over ten years, this is an exciting time to be involved with new crops and diverse feedstocks for the biofuels and broader biobased products industries. A number of factors are converging to foster the development of new crops in a way that is larger in both volume, variety, and commercial viability than ever before.