Qteros

Qteros to bring ethanol-making bug to India

Qteros, which has a method for creating ethanol from naturally occurring microbes, has signed a partnership to bring its technology to market in India.

The Marlborough, Mass.-based company is expected to announce on Wednesday a joint product development deal with Pune, India-based Praj Industries.

In two years, Praj and Qteros aim to develop a system using Qteros technology which can be licensed to companies that build cellulosic ethanol plants.

In addition, Qteros said it has raised $22 million, which is the first tranche of a series C round of funding.

Qteros was started as a University of Massachusetts spinoff … Read more

Microbe converts sludge into ethanol

Two companies said Wednesday that they have developed a method for turning sewage sludge into ethanol.

Israel-based Applied CleanTech and Marlborough, Mass.-based Qteros created a joint development project that combines sewage treatment technology and a microbial process for converting biomass into ethanol.

The method can turn municipal solid waste into a fuel and reduce the amount of sludge processed by traditional treatment facilities, the companies said. Many researchers have been studying ways to extract usable energy from sewage sludge but there are not any commercial operations that make liquid fuel.

Applied CleanTech's core technology, which is already used … Read more

BP, Soros Fund invest in ethanol-making microbe

BOSTON--Oil giant BP and George Soros' investment firm are putting millions of dollars into a company that has isolated a microbe that can create ethanol.

Qteros, formerly called SunEthanol, on Tuesday announced the $25 million series B round of funding, which was led by venture capital firm Venrock and Battery Ventures. Other investors were BP, Soros Fund Management, and first-round investors Long River Ventures and Camros Capital.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick--a clean-energy industry backer--announced the funding and new company name at the Fourth Conference on Clean Energy here Tuesday.

The basis of Qteros is the Q Microbe, a micro-organism discovered … Read more