Promotum professionals have deep experience working with clients from many technology driven industries. We have particularly deep expertise in those related to the management of the environment, and to the biology, chemistry, and chemical engineering disciplines. We leverage this with business expertise to deliver results during these chaotic times.
Our work in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical space focuses on our core business development and licensing skills. We review the technology. Identify its advantages. We then actively identify, validate and reach out to leading licensing candidates. We prepare marketing and technical materials to support these efforts. We license diagnostic and drug candidates, as well as technology platforms for fuels, polymers and chemicals.
Biomass to Energy
Biomass is essentially wood and other renewable cellulosic materials combusted to make electricity. In parts of the US where these resources are available, biomass facilities are being built, sometimes preferentially to wind turbines. Forward thinking institutions making future energy purchases will increasingly be able to by portions of their electricity from these sources. In parts of the country that have lost sight of their agrarian roots, the harvesting of trees to reduce GHGs can seem counterintuitive. We can help executives weigh the pros and cons financially and environmentally and help with messaging to stakeholders and other vested parties.
We fundamentally disagree with deep well injection of critical fluids and other proposed underground carbon dioxide storage schemes for the simple reason that measurement and validation of retention is not possible. We believe that technologies which recycle carbon dioxide into fuels, polymers and chemicals will be implemented. We continue to watch developments in technology and help candidates raise venture capital, DOE and strategic funding through proposal writing. We also help our clients win customers and build alliances through our business development efforts. We have already written a successful ARPA-E Proposal in this area.
Energy efficiency is easily the least sexy, but perhaps the most important area of green development. Replacing incandescent lighting, swapping in variable speed motors, insulating and HVAC improvements are not the stuff of big headlines. Although Promotum does not actively work in this area, we continue to look for opportunities to merge classic design and facilities engineering with scalable Energy Efficiency project acquisition.
We continue to watch the flood of software and professionals targeting LCA. However well intentioned the practitioners may be, we wonder how those unfamiliar with classic mass balance analysis underlying such software will prevent an unprecedented and huge GIGO (garbage in = garbage out) situation. Without proper supervision these tools and their misuse are guaranteed to produce spurious results and feed skepticism. Promotum personnel have years of experience with emissions inventory and analysis and can help those conducting LCA understand and reconcile the data they produce.
Sellers of commodity chemicals understand well the economics of oil. High and variable prices, the scarcity or absence of oil feedstocks are detrimental to their survival. Some have initiated programs to actively identifying renewable raw materials, apply biotechnological tools and validate sustainable routes to important chemicals and intermediates. Toxics use reduction and lower impact products are also on the table. While mandates, grants and incentives have been limited to date we expect changes in government policy. We help chemical companies with business development, identifying innovative technology, which might have large impact. As government grants become available we help with proposal writing. We have already written a successful ARPA-E Proposal in this area.
Sellers of commodity polymers understand well the economics of oil. Some have initiated programs to actively identifying renewable raw materials, apply biotechnological tools and validate sustainable routes to important chemicals and intermediates. Toxics use reduction and lower impact products are also on the table. While mandates, grants and incentives have been limited to date we expect changes in government policy. We help companies with business development. As government grants become available we can help with proposal writing. We have already written a successful ARPA-E Proposal in this area.
However misguided the food v. fuel debate it is something the biofuels industry must transcend and the RFS mandates for advanced biofuels are the tool to get us there. We must look beyond corn, soy and other virgin food oil feedstocks. So, what's next? Going forward sugar cane, cellulose and algal oil are the prefered feedstocks and cellulosic ethanol, butanol and synthetic gasoline and diesel the prefered molecules. Promotum provides business development, corporate development and competitive intelligence at each step in the value chain.
The car park turns over every 17 years. For this reason alone the internal combustion engine and fuels that run them are going to be with us for a long time to come. We believe in reducing impact of mobile sources by moving beyond the blend wall and through improvements in engine design. In the automotive space Promotum is tightly focused on engine/biofuel performance, systems compatibility and effluent processing. We also have experience with lightweighting and substitute materials. We provide business development, corporate development and competitive intelligence.