Novozymes vs Terrabon: Who's the Best?

September 11, 2011 |

Background: This is a Final Four (semi-final), match-up between International Regional Champion Novozymes and Central Regional Champion Terrabon 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 Tournament Final, and a shot at the Championship.

The loser: Goes home.

Laurels: Novozymes is the 7th ranked company in the 2010-11 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy poll. Terrabon is currently 39th.

The match-up:

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, before defeating LS9 55-45 in the Elite Eight quarterfinal. Terrabon prevailed over Metabolix by 65-35 in the first round, then ZeaChem 53-47 in the round of 32, while recording another 53-47 victory over Virent in the Sweet Sixteen, and going on to defeat Gevo 58-42 in the Elite Eight quarterfinal.

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.

Terrabon’s MixAlco is an advanced bio-refining technology used by Terrabon’s experienced staff of chemical engineers to convert low-cost, readily available, non-food, non-sterile biomass into valuable chemical precursors such as organic acids, ketones and secondary alcohols that can be processed into renewable hydrocarbon fuels.

Deep dive data on LS9 and Novozymes

Novozymes’ complete Hot 50 / Transformative Technologies profile is here

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