Biofuels

Alcohol has no place behind the wheel of a car, but a team of Scottish scientists believe it might be perfect for the fuel tank: Researchers at Edinburgh Napier University's Biofuel Research Center, according to a report in Sky News, say they have successfully used whiskey by-products to form a butanol biofuel.

Lovers of fine scotch and bourbon may rest assured that this fuel is made from by-products, not the whiskey itself, so that no potable spirits are being put to waste.

The researchers' formula combines pot ale, which is a fluid coming from distillery equipment, with the grains … Read more

Gevo is out to prove that the sleeper success story in the biofuels business is isobutanol.

The Denver-based company on Thursday filed an S-1 document stating its plans to raise $150 million by going public on the stock market. On Wednesday, algae biofuel company PetroAlgae also filed for an initial public offering.

Gevo was started in 2005 to commercialize technology from California Institute of Technology and raised an initial investment from Khosla Ventures, followed by two subsequent rounds.

It is one of many so-called second-generation biofuels companies seeking to make fuels from biomass. Rather than ethanol, though, Gevo's process … Read more

PetroAlgae, which makes systems for growing and harvesting algae for food and fuel, on Wednesday filed documents to raise $200 million through an initial public offering.

The Melbourne, Fla.-based company is already listed on the OTC Bulletin Board and lists no revenue in its S-1 prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Using algae as a feedstock for fuel holds great promise because it can be grown in many different climates and can be used for animal feed as well as fuel. But so far no company has been able to produce it at large scale or cost-effectively. … Read more

Even as investor interest in biofuels has cooled substantially from a few years ago, Solazyme has emerged as one of the few contenders for bringing algae-based fuel to market.

The company on Monday announced that it has raised $52 million in a series D round, which brings investment bank Morgan Stanley into its list of investors. In addition to venture-capital companies, the venture arms of Chevron and Japanese food ingredient manufacturer San-Ei Gen also participated.

Solazyme stands out from the dozens of companies seeking to make fuels and food products from algae in its technical approach and, to some degree, … Read more

The Department of Energy announced two technology clean-energy research projects to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the same day that the Senate dropped efforts to include carbon limits in an energy bill this summer.

As part of a $106 million stimulus funding program, the Energy Department on Thursday named six companies which will be testing methods for using the CO2 from industrial processes as input for products, such as cement, fertilizer, or plastics.

The Energy Department also said that it will create a "solar fuels innovation hub," a research center focused exclusively on converting sunlight into liquid fuels. This … Read more

BP, still mired in the ongoing Gulf oil disaster, has signed a deal to acquire the cellulosic ethanol fuel business of Verenium.

BP said Thursday it will pay $98.3 million in cash for Verenium's technology and ethanol plant in Jennings, La.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Verenium, which has business lines other than ethanol, will retain its commercial enzyme business and its biotech-related research and development.

The Louisiana site, which is a pilot-scale plant as opposed to a commercial-scale one, uses bagasse, the residue from sugar cane processing. The bagasse is used to make ethanol, which is then blended with … Read more

Exxon Mobil said Wednesday it opened a greenhouse facility to grow and test algae, the next step for its nascent biofuels program.

Researchers from Exxon and its partner Synthetic Genomics, will use the facility to test whether large-scale quantities of affordable fuel can be produced from algae.

Exxon said last year it will invest $600 million over the next five to six years attempting to develop biofuel from algae.

If research milestones are successfully met, Exxon said it will spend more than the $600 million over the next decade, $300 million of which will be allocated to SGI.

Exxon's … Read more

Although electric vehicles are often the highlight of auto shows these days, work on advanced biofuels continues with at least some companies making progress on industry goals.

Madison, Wis.-based Virent Energy Systems said on Tuesday that it raised $46.4 million in a third round of funding, which included follow-on investments from Shell and Cargill.

The money will be used to expand the company's existing demonstration plant, which makes a gasoline equivalent, called biogasoline, from plants at a rate of 10,000 gallons per year. The investment agreement also calls for research on making diesel fuel with the … Read more

Valero Services, a subsidiary of the oil refiner Valero Energy, has signed a joint development agreement with Algenol Biofuels to share technology regarding "production and distribution of transportation fuels and chemicals," the company announced Thursday.

Algenol Biofuels, which was founded in 2006, has developed technology that capitalizes on certain types of algae with natural sugar-making abilities, harnessing their enzymes to ferment sugar into ethanol. The metabolically enhanced algae are grown in bioreactors. They're then manipulated with a combination of things like nutrients, water, pH levels, temperature, and salinity to produce ethanol, according to Algenol.

The amount and … Read more