GenPrime taps ethanol market

Sometimes the best business plan is to be in the right place at the right time.

Spokane-based GenPrime illustrated that lesson this past year.

Without intending to develop the market, the small biotechnology company has sold a substantial number of its patented yeast-monitoring kits to major U.S. producers of ethanol, a gasoline additive made from corn.

“We didn’t look for them. They sought us out,” said Darby McLean, product management director at the downtown Spokane company.

GenPrime previously sold its Easy Count yeast-tracking kit primarily to the beer-brewing industry. Its second major product, developed for first-response agencies, is a kit that identifies dangerous toxic powders, such as anthrax.

But in the past year, several U.S. ethanol producers have begun using the Easy Count kit to track the level of yeast activity during the production process.

The Easy Count product uses a patented process in which a chemical is added to active yeast, making the yeast fluorescent. In the beer-brewing industry, the kits are used to find the optimum bacterial level to produce the best taste.

The ethanol industry uses yeast to break down the sugars in mashed corn mixes. After the yeast breaks down the complex sugars, the result is the ethanol liquid and carbon dioxide. Easy Count helps ethanol producers track the rate at which the sugars are converted and which yeast levels produce the best results.

GenPrime today has 17 ethanol customers, including some of the major domestic producers, McLean said.

More gasoline producers are adding ethanol to their fuel.

One factor behind the increased production of ethanol — about 15 billion gallons per year and growing — is rising health concerns over methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, a widely used gasoline additive that has been identified by some researchers as a carcinogen.

In the past three years, Oregon and California have banned the use of MTBEs, said McLean. Washington and Idaho haven’t restricted its use, but in both states, ethanol is the preferred alternative because it doesn’t produce harmful by-products.

If more states join those banning MTBE, increased production of ethanol is likely, McLean added.

Another factor in the increased production of ethanol is the need to reduce dependence on foreign oil. Most U.S. gasoline refiners now add about 15 percent ethanol to gas sold at the pump.

If fuel blends can add an extra percent or two to each gallon of gas, “that’s a significant increase in ethanol use,” said McLean.

“This (ethanol market) will become a steady one for GenPrime, but it’ll never get to a million dollars a year,” McLean added.

GenPrime sells the Easy Count kit for about $6,800, she said.

In 2005, the ethanol market will make up around 15 percent of GenPrime’s sales, she said.

In October, McLean and others from GenPrime hope to visit Brazil as part of a trade delegation promoting the use of reusable fuels. “Brazil is the leading country in the world in production of ethanol. They’ve been doing it longer than anyone else,” McLean said.

The obvious goal, she added, is helping persuade producers there to consider using Easy Count kits. “At this point, we know of no other (companies) offering the same technology we have,” said McLean.