Mascoma

Biofuel company Mascoma said today it has the financing and the customer needed to build a biorefinery in Michigan to make ethanol from wood.

The company said that oil refiner Valero Energy will invest up to $50 million in equity needed for the project, which is expected to start construction later this year.

The entire project is expected to cost $350 million which will be funded by a Department of Energy loan, the state of Michigan, Valero, and other investors, a company representative said. With the Energy Department loan guarantee, Mascoma's subsidiary in Michigan, Frontier Renewable Resources, expects to … Read more

Start-up company Mascoma said on Wednesday that a demonstration facility is making ethanol from wood chips and other non-food sources, bringing cellulosic ethanol a step closer to commercialization.

The test facility in Rome, N.Y., uses different feedstocks, including wood and grasses. Production is at a rate of 200,000 gallons per year. Mascoma didn't disclose the yield, or how much biomass is converted into fuel.

The company is testing two methods for making ethanol: a traditional enzyme-based process and one using a genetically modified microbe designed to make the conversion cheaper.

Mascoma is one of a handful of … Read more

Editor's note: This is part of a series of stories about the recession's effect on the tech industry.

On paper, things couldn't be much better for Bruce Jamerson. As CEO of Mascoma, he runs an ethanol company staffed by brilliant scientists, wooed by state governors, and amply funded by General Motors and leading green-tech venture capital firms.

But late last month, he made the painful decision to shed staff in an effort to control costs. Even though Mascoma's a private company, there is no escaping the trickle-down effect of the skidding stock market.

"Because we'… Read more

Biofuel start-up Mascoma has laid off a handful of employees, including President Colin South and other executives.

The total number of eliminated positions was between 5 and 10, CEO Bruce Jamerson said Friday.

Mascoma is one of few well-funded companies that have developed technology to make cellulosic ethanol from nonfood feedstocks. General Motors and refiner Marathon Oil are investors.

Jamerson said Mascoma continues to hit its technology and business milestones. But he and the board felt that it was prudent to cut costs, including personnel.

Because of the upheaval in the capital markets, Mascoma cannot go public to raise additional … Read more

LEBANON, N.H.--Mascoma is a biotech firm engineering its way into the energy business.

At its core is a staff of brainy Phds with expertise in microbial technology and cellulosic ethanol. But rather than design pharmaceuticals or crop seeds, Mascoma scientists are researching ways to make a cheaper fuel.

Its part of an industry-wide race to make ethanol from non-food sources, such as wood chips and grasses, at commercial scale.

If done right, cellulosic ethanol promises to be far better than the current feedstock--corn--from a commercial and environmental standpoint.

There are many techniques for making cellulosic ethanol, including gasification … Read more

After a rash of negative publicity, biofuels backers say that advanced technologies will reshape the industry, making ethanol from sustainably grown sources cost-effective within a few years.

General Motors on Friday convened a panel of experts from cutting-edge ethanol companies that described different technologies--acid hydrolysis, specialty microbes, and genetically engineered energy crops--which they say will bring back biofuels' faded luster.

The key technology transition, already under way, is shifting from corn to other feedstocks for making ethanol from plant cellulose. With the right technologies and policies in place, the U.S. could meet one-third of its transportation fuel needs by … Read more

In a step toward maturing the cellulosic ethanol business, Mascoma officially announced on Tuesday $61 million in third-round funding, which includes participation from Marathon Oil and General Motors.

Marathon Oil, a gas and oil refiner, will put $10 million into Mascoma to help construct a plant and to further develop the company's proprietary microbe that streamlines the process of turning wood chips or agricultural waste into ethanol.

GM's decision to invest in Mascoma--the second cellulosic ethanol company with which it has partnered--was disclosed last week. GM's amount, however, is under wraps.

As previously reported, Mascoma's … Read more

General Motors is opening its pocketbook to get ethanol to the pumps and into its cars.

The auto giant on Thursday announced a partnership and an undisclosed investment in cellulosic-ethanol company Mascoma. The Cambridge, Mass.-based start-up is developing a biochemical approach to converting wood chips and agricultural wastes into ethanol.

It's GM's second investment in a cellulosic ethanol company. Earlier this year, it formed a partnership and took a stake in Coskata, which will be testing its fuel at GM facilities.

For GM, the investments are part of its strategy to prime the pump for ethanol that … Read more

Certain strains of bacteria can pull magnetic materials out of their butt, so to speak. And scientists at Ames Laboratory want to imitate it in an effort to make smaller memory or medical devices.

Several strains of bacteria can produce fairly uniform particles of magnetite (three iron atoms, four oxygens) measuring about 50 nanometers across. (A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.) The particles are a natural byproduct of their metabolic system. The crystals in this bacteria are also bound in membranes to form chains. The bacteria use these chains to navigate and orientate themselves to the magnetic field. … Read more