LS9 vs Novozymes: Who's the Best?

September 4, 2011 |

Background: This is an Elite Eight (quarter-final), International Regional match-up between #2 seed LS9 and #7 seed Novozymes, in the 2011 Transformative Technologies tourney, from Biofuels Digest.

Voting: Open to all Biofuels Digest subscribers. Voting links are in the Biofuels Digest daily newsletter. To subscribe (free), visit here.

The winner gets: Most votes advances to the Final Four (semi-finals), and a shot at the Championship.

The loser: Goes home.

Laurels: LS9 is the 5th ranked company in the 2010-11 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy poll. Novozymes is currently #7.

The match-up: It’s a Battle for International Region Supremacy, with the winner advancing towards a Final Four match-up with either Gevo or Terrabon.

LS9 took 64 percent of the votes in its first round battle with Lignol, defeated SG Biofuels 59-41 in the round of 32, and edged past Enerkem 51-49 in the Sweet Sixteen. Novozymes prevailed over KL Energy by 71-29, edged by LanzaTech 52-48 in the second round, and upset #1 seed Amyris in the third round, 53-47.

LS9’s technology? Microbial bioprocesses for the conversion of renewable carbohydrates to a diversity of drop-in fuel and chemical   products. All of the chemical steps occur inside LS9’s engineered   microbial catalysts, and the products are naturally secreted into the   growth medium where they form an immiscible organic phase that is easily recoverable. The one step process is simple, efficient, and cost effective, enabling low CapEx multi-use facilities.

Novozymes’ core technology for the biofuels industry is enzymes that break down different types of feedstock into fermentable sugars for conversion into ethanol.  Within this area, Novozymes develops solutions for two distinct types of ethanol technology: cellulosic ethanol and starch-based ethanol. Novozymes cellulosic ethanol work is the largest endeavor the company has ever undertaken, with over 150 scientists dedicated to the effort.  Not only is Novozymes’ developing and offering the leading enzyme solutions for cellulosic ethanol technology, but the company has also expanded its research focus into optimizing the pretreatment, hydrolysis and fermentation process steps.

Deep dive data on LS9 and Novozymes
LS9’s complete Hot 50 / Transformative Technologies profile is here
Novozymes’ complete Hot 50 / Transformative Technologies profile is here

Category: Fuels

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