In Massachusetts, Ginkgo Bioworks has raised $45 million in an oversubscribed Series B round. Viking Global, a firm managing more than $30 billion in capital, led the round along with previous investors including OS Fund, Y Combinator and Felicis Ventures. The new funds will be used to expand into new categories such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and probiotics, as […]
Iogen’s technology at commercial-scale, and officially open for business. In Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff launched Iogen Energy’s cellulosic ethanol technology at the official opening of Raízen`s newly expanded Costa Pinto sugar cane mill in Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil on July 22, 2015. Iogen, a leading developer of cellulosic biofuel technology, and Raízen, one of the […]
In California, Blume Distillation sold a license to its Blume Biorefinery system to Numbitrax, based in Touwsriver, Western Cape, South Africa, has completed a purchase agreement and fund transfer for a Blume Biorefinery system. The purchase represents a several million-dollar investment for Numbitrax, which plans to produce ethanol as well as additional high-return offtake products, […]
Douglas Schultz, Director of Loan Guarantee Origination at the US Energy Department posted a key update on project eligibility for the Loan Program. He writes: During the latest three solicitations issued by the Department’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) for approximately $24 billion in Title XVII loan guarantees for energy projects (Solicitation No. DE–SOL– 007791, 7154 and 6303), the LPO identified […]
Where did the once VC-heralded algae venture go off the tracks?’ They’re selling off the Aurora Algae lab equipment in California’s East Bay — specifically hgpauction.com is, and a good source reports that the company sold off the Texas-based land upon which their first commercial project was aiming to build. Here is a link to sale […]
Condensed from remarks by Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech, on receiving the Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology, from the Biotechnology Industry Organization. So many people beginning with my mother but including colleagues, professors and many others who have guided me, occasionally kicked me. Rosalind Franklin said that technology is about making […]
Biobased chemical company GFBiochemicals has started commercial production at its 10,000 MT/a capacity levulinic acid plant in Caserta, Italy. The announcement was made at the BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology, Montreal. GFBiochemicals is the first company to produce levulinic acid at commercial scale directly from biomass. “Caserta is now the world’s largest operational production […]
Sofinnova Partners, the renewable chemistry venture capital firm, announced that Glucan Biorenewables is the winner of the prestigious Renewable Chemistry Start-Up Award. Following a public vote with almost 8,000 votes cast, the Top-5 companies were shortlisted. These companies then presented yesterday to a jury of industry experts at the BIO World Congress in Montreal. The […]
DSM Bio-Based Products’s new chief, Atul Thakrar, visiting with The Digest on the sidelines of the BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology taking place this week in Montreal. On POET-DSM. “We are completely committed to the POET-DSM venture and the technology. It’s harder and takes longer to get through the commissioning period than we had expected, but […]
FedEx joins Southwest Airlines to buy out Red Rock’s entire 8-year jet fuel inventory — key milestone for project construction. In Colorado, Red Rock Biofuels will produce approximately three million gallons of low-carbon, renewable jet fuel per year from 2017 through 2024 for FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp, in an agreement announced by the […]
