Sklar & Associates (S&A) offers a range of specialized financial services supporting 2nd generation Biofuels project development. Current project activities are focused on increasing production of biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol in the Southeast.

S&A is leading a development effort to have oilseed and soybean growers in the Carolina’s participate in production and marketing of bio-fuels. Currently teaming with a manufacturer of crushing equipment to facilitate formation of joint-ventures between grain terminal operators and growers, to support small scale crushing operations for production of soybean, cotton seed and canola oil. Growers participating in each joint venture will initially have to commit soybeans and/or cottonseeds to the crushing operation and to grow canola as a second crop, so that sufficient crushing activity can be sustained year round. Initially, S&A will assist the JV’s by arranging for vegetable oil they produce, to be converted into biodiesel under processing fee arrangements with operators of biodiesel processing facilities. Plans call for developing jointly owned biodiesel-processing facilities, once vegetable oil volumes are significant enough to support such operations. The goal is to give growers and grain terminal operators an opportunity to share in crushing margins, margins on sale of vegetable oil, and in value added obtained from sale of biodiesel that will ultimately be needed as additives to diesel fuel and home heating oil in major U.S. East Coast markets.

S&A is concentrating its effort on projects designed to produce cellulosic ethanol for sale into PADD 1. It has chosen the Southeast as the ideal area for such projects as the Southeast offers considerable transportation savings over corn-based ethanol from the mid-west. S&A is not pursuing projects that use agricultural waste, because of the difficulties in gathering enough such waste to support a processing operation. Instead S&A is concentrating on the many pulp and paper mills in the Southeast that already gather wood and wood waste and are often proximate to water borne transportation. The approach being taken is having pulp and paper mills “partially integrate” with wood waste to ethanol plant on the mill site. Participating mills will receive substantial “value added” revenues for supporting the ethanol plant with wood waste, steam, electricity, water and waste remediation, and the ethanol plant owner will be able to realize a higher ROI resulting from efficiencies obtained through such integration. Once ethanol is produced, S&A will assist in marketing the ethanol to refiners and gasoline terminal operators serving PADD 1. S&A plans to collaborate with selected technology providers in the development of “partially integrated” pulp and paper mill-cellulosic ethanol projects throughout the Southeast.