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Home » August 16, 2010 Issue » Latest News » Industrial Biotechnology: Firms Move To Commercialize
Biobased Fuels And Chemicals
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August 16, 2010
Volume 88, Number 33
p. 13
DOI: 10.1021/CEN081210141157

Marc S. Reisch
Four green technology firms have taken significant steps to advance the production of renewablefuels and
chemicals.
In the first instance, Solazyme has raised $52 million to help it commercialize large-scale fermentation of
algae-based oils for fuel and chemical production. Braemar EnergyVentures and new investor Morgan Stanley led
the financing round. A little more than a year ago, the California-based company raised $57 million from a similar
group of investors (C&EN, June 15, 2009,page 15).
In another case, SG Biofuels plans to build an R&D center in San Diego to further develop Jatropha curcas, a
shrub native to Central America, as a low-cost, sustainable oilseed source ofdiesel fuel, jet fuel, and chemical
feedstocks. The firm’s molecular biologists will use the lab and a 42,000-sq-ft greenhouse to incorporate genetic
traits into the shrub for enhanced yield and easyharvesting.
And two companies are advancing biobased butanol. Gevo has signed an agreement to acquire Agri-Energy’s
ethanol facility in Luverne, Minn., for an undisclosed sum. Gevo will retrofit theplant to produce isobutyl alcohol,
which can be blended into gasoline or converted into isobutylene to make plastics. Cobalt Technologies,
meanwhile, has hired the engineering firm Fluor to provideconstruction services for the fermentation-based
n-butyl alcohol plants it is planning.
Three of the four companies are based in California. Andrew Thomson, an analyst for advisory firm Cleantech...