Lack of industrial data to support TEA has prompted government initiatives to sponsor the construction of pilot — and demonstration-scale biorefineries such as the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium (NABC). These initiatives help gather process data that guides the direction of future public funding in biofuels research and development.

Industry has yet to meet the RFS2 mandates for advanced cellulosic biofuel production. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) retroactively reduced the 2011 mandate from 250 million gallons (946 million liters) to 6.5 million gallons (25 million liters). The United States Department of Agriculture attributes the lack of advanced biofuel supply to several factors including the high cost of first-of-a-kind biorefineries (Coyle, 2010). Lack of financial investment in these technologies is exacerbated by the lack of industrial data to support them. This can be alleviated with the construction of pilot — and demonstration-scale facilities.

Pilot — and demonstration-scale projects are key milestones for the commercialization of novel technologies. These facilities are not intended to generate revenue, but they sometimes require significant financial commitments. Pilot-scale biorefineries have capacities of less than 5 MT per day, and demonstration-scale facilities can operate at commercial produc­tion rates but are discontinued once operators obtain the necessary data. Industry has so far been reluctant to invest in these capital-intensive demonstration facilities. Unfortunately, there are important processing considerations that can only be tested at commercial scale.

Data from privately funded demonstration projects are almost never released to the general public. However, this data is crucial to help guide policy decisions that may affect the development of biorefinery technologies. Demonstration-plant data will drastically improve the quality of TEA studies, and conversely, TEA will improve in their ability to clarify the path from nascent technology to commercial product.