Fulcrum Bioenergy do have an interesting approach to producing biofuel - producing it from organic waste which would normally go to expensive-to-operate landfills.
Fulcrum is rightly bragging about "zero-cost feedstock", which is a big factor in input costs.
Fulcrum is using current-technology waste treatment plant technology to produce their clean feedstock, and utilising heat generated during the treatment process to produce electricity, which again lowers treatment costs.
The clean gas feedstock is then fed into a standard Fischer-Tropsch process plant - the same plant used in a substantial number of gas-to-liquid refineries around the world.
The FT process was commercialised in 1936 and the Nazis used the process to produce a sizeable proportion of their liquid fuels from coal during WW2.
Fulcrum claims to be able to produce jet and diesel biofuel for around US$1.00 gallon. This is the crucial figure, and whether Fulcrum can actually achieve this production cost figure on a consistent basis is the $64 question.
There are very few biofuel producers that can produce biofuels at less cost than crude-oil sourced fuels, but Fulcrum does stand a modest chance of doing so.
One of the biggest unknown factors is whether the feedstock supply is adequate to produce substantial production levels of biofuel.
Biofuels Digest - Fulcrum claims low-cost biofuel