mascoma

Is vinegar the secret ingredient for biofuels?

To make ethanol, you want to make vinegar first, according to ZeaChem.

The biofuel start-up, which has moved from Colorado to Silicon Valley, says it has come up with a method of making cellulosic ethanol that results in close to 40 percent more fuel per ton of wood chips than competing processes. By 2010 or so, the company hopes to be producing ethanol commercially for 80 cents a gallon at wholesale. That could translate to anywhere from $1.10 to $1.50 at the pump, depending on a host of factors.

How does it work? Most cellulosic ethanol producers convert … Read more

Cellulosic ethanol upstart Mascoma fills coffers

Mascoma, which makes ethanol from wood chips and agricultural wastes, has raised an additional $50 million, according to a published report.

PEHub, citing a regulatory filing, reported Thursday that the Cambridge, Mass.-based company took in $30 million in equity and $20 million in debt.

The financing was led by General Catalyst Partners, and included existing investors Khosla Ventures, Atlas Venture, Flagship Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Pinnacle Ventures, and VantagePoint Venture Partners.

Spun off from Dartmouth College, Mascoma is among the wave of new companies trying to convert biomass, other than corn, into the liquid fuel ethanol. Its technology uses special … Read more

2007 a bit off for Kleiner Perkins' green-tech portfolio

The superheroes of venture capital haven't exactly had a completely smooth year in green tech.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers wasn't the first VC firm to get into green tech. Nth Power, NGEN Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Mohr Davidow Ventures got there first, but Kleiner brought a lot of attention and prestige into the field, and helped push green tech toward the top of the VC agenda in the second half of 2004.

The firm also began to put money into a lot of companies with a pretty good amount of fanfare. John Doerr even cried in public at the TED conference … Read more

Mascoma to breaks ground on cellulosic plant--a year late

Mascoma, which hopes to make cellulosic ethanol out of old wood chips and weed-like plants, will hold a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday for its first plant that is expected to start producing fuel by the end of 2008.

The plant, in Rome, N.Y., will be capable of churning out 500,000 gallons of fuel a year when fully operational. While that sounds like a lot, it's small for the fuel industry. (Americans consume about 150 billion gallons of gas a year.) Thus, the plant will serve as a showcase for Mascoma's technology. The company, a spin-out of … Read more

The cellulosic ethanol road map from Mascoma's CEO

Cellulosic ethanol, a car fuel made out of forest scraps and prairie grasses, is coming, but there still are a lot of hurdles to overcome, said Bruce Jamerson, CEO of Mascoma in an interview with News.com.

Although you may not be familiar with his name, Jamerson is a major figure in the ethanol world. Between 2003 and 2007, he served as president of VeraSun Energy, which makes corn ethanol. The company's stock shot up 29 percent on the first day of trading after its IPO in 2006, but then came back down to earth asrcorn prices rose.

As … Read more

Mascoma: Why all the different ethanol plants?

For a start-up, Mascoma certainly has a lot of refineries in the works.

The cellulosic ethanol specialist already has plans for a demonstration plant in upstate New York capable of churning out 500,000 gallons a year, plus a plant in Michigan capable of 5 million gallons annually.

Just last week, it announced a deal with the University of Tennessee to open another 5-million-gallon plant in that state. Construction will begin in 2007 and become operational in 2009. (The New York and Michigan plants are supposed to go live in late 2007/early 2008 and 2008, respectively.)

That's three … Read more