Eric McAfee’s Post

Congratulations to Elizabeth McAfee of Aemetis for this California Manufacturers & Technology Association recognition at the upcoming Women MakingCA event: Innovator of the Year! Elizabeth led the business development and negotiation of transaction contracts with entirely new customers to generate more than $23 million of sanitizer alcohol sales in only a few months by Aemetis at the onset of the pandemic - without meeting a single buyer and with almost all sales prepaid. Aemetis quickly became the largest sanitizer alcohol producer in the Western U.S. through her leadership and hard work. Building strong relationships in a time of crisis to achieve important company and societal goals is a great example for all of us. I am personally proud of Elizabeth, since she set aside her college work and took on the job of immediately finding and closing new sanitizer alcohol customers at my request. She delayed her own goals to serve a greater good, essentially solving the problem of almost no revenues from fuel ethanol sales during the pandemic shutdown. We look forward to more great things from Elizabeth as she continues to take on new responsibilities and leads new opportunities.

Jim, progress is made when leaders persist. The Fulcrum project is an amazing example of this axiom, but the personal toll and sacrifices are seldom known. Thank you for your commitment to the funding of this important process - garbage to fuels - but the contributions of former CEO Jim Macias and so many others on the Fulcrum team over the past 15 years is an amazing testimony to the power of focused leadership. The renewable fuel industry owes you and the Fulcrum team a debt of gratitude for your efforts and devotion over 15 years that is leading to a new investor confidence in waste-to-fuels, including the opportunity to utilize MSW as a productive waste stream for transportation energy. We hope the Sierra project and the other projects now under development scale to full production smoothly, and Fulcrum becomes a great commercial success. You, your investors, the management team and vendors deserve the rewards of victory after a long campaign to show the world a path toward low carbon, waste feedstocks for renewable fuels. Thank you!

Andrew, since renewable ethanol is a zero emission, low cost and low carbon intensity fuel to power fuel cells, I assume that this CARB staff position also will be counting the number of E100 fueling stations for ethanol fuel cell electric vehicles in California? 17 billion gallons of ethanol production capacity already exists in the U.S.

The goals of dramatically reducing air pollution and carbon emissions in California are achievable quickly and at low cost using existing fueling infrastructure (no new charging stations needed at truck stops). Simply converting trucks to near zero emission fuels such as low cost, renewable ethanol achieves most of the emissions goals within this decade - not year 2045. Then, using ethanol fuel cell engines for zero emissions when the FC technology improves (see the Livermore Labs ethanol fuel cell that already works). Stanford spinout Clearflame engines uses 100% ethanol in a regular diesel compression design engine to generate the same power and performance as dirty Diesel engines. The PhD founders of Clearflame have a solution that does not require coal plants in the Midwest and new overhead powerlines to provide electricity for California “clean energy”. Mandating a techology solution seldom works out: Solyndra was the brilliant idea that a round solar cell tube that is always 50% in shade is a great technology for clean electricity. Are we doing Solyndra on a grand scale at CARB by not simply setting overall emissions reduction goals and letting the market decide which innovations achieve the emissions goals?

As a GlobalScot appointed in 2012 by Alex Salmond (First Minister of Scotland) to advise on entrepreneurship and renewable energy, I have had many opportunities to give speeches and provide mentorship meetings with Scottish and U.S. investors, business and government leaders about how to pursue economic expansion by supporting innovation. This podcast interview with Fraser for the Scottish Business Network is a more personal discussion about some of my motivations, experiences and thoughts about leadership.

https://abc30.com/5982289/ My brothers and I grew up on a farm West of Fresno with neighbors a mile away. We founded McAfee Farms as teenagers to manage 2,200 acres of farmland, expanding into ventures including bagged apples and organic almonds. Twenty years ago, we built a mobile milk barn that could milk 20 cows at a time, and started Organic Pastures Dairy Company 400 acres of alfalfa field. We moved cows every few days to keep the pastures healthy and moved the milk barn instead of having the cows walk to the Milking Parlor. We discovered that the pastured cows had clean milk, so when we added many steps to processing and bottling we did not have to cook and homogenize the milk. We could sell Raw Milk with its many active enzymes and other immune-boosting health benefits. Our family dairy business now has grown to be managed by the next generation of family leaders; operates inhouse milk bottling, cheese plant, kefir and butter production; and our warehousing and trucks supply farmers markets as well as 450+ stores in California and our Truly Raw Cheese throughout the US through Sprouts, HEB, Kroger’s and other stores.

I just had to post this inspiring short video to share with you. She has a clear message of hope to young (and old) to use their lives to build a better world.

Mitsubishi Chemical and Aemetis announce the first large scale fuel ethanol implementation of the Zebrex membrane technology in the world. Reduces energy use up to 25% and increases production capacity up to 15% at the plant in California, lowering the carbon intensity and increasing the value per gallon of the ethanol. https://lnkd.in/gdzGpUq