1

Cellulosic n-butanolCo-production of n-butanol and

derivatives at biomass plants and pulp mills

Rick Wilson, PhDChief Executive Officer

Confidential 2

Approach: Fermentation to n-butanol integrated with biomass facilities

Addressing large existing high-value chemical and derivatives markets

Significant cost advantage vs. petroleum with low-cost waste biomass

Capital light enabled by bioreactor technology & co-location

Co-location with biomass power, pellet plants, sugar mills, pulp mills

470,000 GPY demonstration unit under construction

Cobalt Snapshot

Confidential 3

Approach: Fermentation with Biomass Processing

Bioreactors

Electricity

Distillation

Biomass

ConditioningExtraction &

Hydrolysis

Power Generation

ButanolC5 Sugars Clean

Sugars Broth

Low EnergyLow OPEX

Continuous High Rate & Yield

Low Capital

Phase ILignin

C6 Sugars

Steam & Electric

Acetone (minor)

Bolt On

Glycerol (C3)

Phase IIC6 Sugars Future Lignin to

Deployment Partner

Bagasse

EnergyC5 Sugars

Specialty Pulp Mill PartnerBiomass Power Partner

Biodiesel Partner

Confidential 4

$250B

Jet Fuel

High Value Chemical & Derivative Markets

N-Butanol OXO Derivatives Butene Derivatives

KeyParticipants

Chemical End Uses

ProductsAcetates

Acrylates

Glycol Ethers

2-Ethyl Hexanol

N-Butyraldehyde

Butyric Acid

LLDPE

Valderaldehyde

Polybutene

Isobutene

Butadiene

Market Size &Avg Sales Price

$7B $9B $5B $12B

Market Potential: Chemicals ($33B) & Fuels ($2T)

Paints

Solvents

Acrylics

Amines

Plasticizers

Paint Dryers

Stabilizers

Preservatives

Plastics

Liquid Polymers

Ag Intermediate

Lube Additives

Synthetic Rubber

Polypropylene

ABS

Cumene

$1,040BFuels Markets

$2300/mt $2600/mt $1500/mt $1300/mt

$980B

Gasoline?

Diesel ?

Confidential 5

Feedstock Comparison

Disruptive Cost Advantage with Waste Cellulosic Feedstocks

~ Eighty Percent (80%) cost advantage

Confidential 6

Cost Advantage with Biomass Feedstocks

Confidential 7

Sugars Extraction

Acid Catalyzed Sugar Extraction

1.Autohydrolysis

2.Dilute Acid Hydrolysis

C5 C6

Catalyzed Sugar Extraction

1.Enzymatic Hydrolysis

2.Dilute Acid Hydrolysis

Phase II

To Fermentation To Fermentation

Phase I

Confidential 8

Low Production Cost with Cellulosic Feedstock

Utilizes all five and six carbon sugars found in biomass

Directed evolution strain technology for complete sugar utilization

Extensive strain library for hardwood, softwood, and bagasse

Focus on using five carbon hemicellulose

Confidential 9

Capital Efficient Using Cobalt Bioreactor Technology

Immobilized bio-films concentrate fermentation

Continuous process minimizes operating expense

Robust to fermentation inhibitors

No GMO containment costs

Cobalt Bioreactor

11 X scale down

Immobilized

StandardFermenter

Confidential 10

Piloted Technology: Extraction & Conditioning

Biomass Extraction20 dmt/day

Conditioning2 dmt/day

Confidential 11

Piloted Cobalt Technology

60 mlBatch

10 LBatch

1 L0.26 gal

1.3 #/day feed

Continuous

Pilot – 30 gal133 #/day

feedContinuous

14 RunsX 1 month

180 Runs320 Tests>24000 Tests

Improved Pilot154 gallons

267 #/day feed

10 Runs x 1 month

Confidential 12

Hemicellulose extraction – Method for Extracting Soluble Sugar Molecules from Biomass Material

Hydrolysate conditioning– Removal of Inhibitors to Microbial Fermentation from Cellulosic Hydrolysates

Bacterial strain improvement– Selection of Microbial Mutants to Increase Solvent and Inhibitor Tolerance

Bioreactor design and operation– Methods for Producing Butanol from Immobilized Product Tolerant Microorganisms

System design– Low energy distillation and energy integration

Key Technology

Confidential 13

Commercialization Timeline

Demo PlantDemo PlantBiomass Boiler470,000 GPY

Q1 2012ANNOUNCED SOON

Confidential 14

Deployment Options: Colocation

Co-location could be with a pulp mill, biomass power, or pellet operation

Power boiler is 25% of project capital cost

Waste water treating

Wood handling

Fiber basket

Permits

Confidential 15

Deployment Options: Pulp Mill Integration (VPP)

Hemicellulose pre-extraction in front of a Kraft Pulp mill

Recovers C5 sugars from recovery boiler

Fermentation of C5 sugars to ethanol or butanol

Works best with hardwood, limiting opportunity

Acetic acid recovery from hardwood extracts adds capital

Hemicellulose extraction impacts pulp quality

Limited quantities of recoverable sugars impairs facility size – diseconomies of scale

Confidential 16

Deployment Options

Re-purpose pulp mills (or co-locate)

Sugar cane bagasse power - 1.77 billion GPY (Brazil, India, China across 232 sites)

Wood biomass power and pellets - 1.14 billion GPY(US and Europe across 126 sites)

Specialty pulp mills – 274 million GPY(Global across 26 mills – Low CAPEX option)

Cane trash “straw” with C6 sugar technology - 4.60 billion GPY

Palm waste with C6 sugar technology - 4.11 billion GPY

17

Cellulosic n-butanolCo-production of n-butanol and

derivatives at biomass plants and pulp mills

Rick Wilson, PhDChief Executive Officer