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Algae startup Sapphire Energy raising $144M
Posted On: April 3, 2012Algae biofuel is getting a massive infusion of money. Startup Sapphire Energy, which uses synthetic biology to make a green crude out of algae that can be turned into gas, diesel or jet fuel, announced on Monday that it’s raising $144 million in a Series C round from investors including agriculture company Monsanto. Previous investors in Sapphire include Bill Gates’ investment firm Cascade Investment and Sapphire has also raised a $50 million grant from the Department of Energy and a $54.4 million dollar loan guarantee from the Department of Agriculture.
NUI Galway’s participation in Energetic Algae project (EnAlgae) investigates algae as sustainable energy source
Posted On: March 23, 2012Seaweed is big business in Asia, where it is cultivated and used in a variety of food and beauty products. Nine-tenths of the world’s production for commercial use takes place in China, Japan and Korea. It is also commonly used as a sugar-rich animal feedstock in the US.
Of the 500 species that can be found in Ireland, though, only a small number are harvested. Now researchers in at NUI Galway’s Ryan Institute are taking part in a European collaborative project to investigate the potential of algae as a source of sustainable energy.
Algal bio-energy development is still in its infancy, but NUI Galway’s participation in the Energetic Algae project (EnAlgae), a four-year, €1.2-million initiative which hopes to shed more light on this undervalued resource.
Novozymes and Sea6 Energy Team on Seaweed Research
Posted On: February 20, 2012Novozymes has announced an exploratory research agreement with India-based Sea6 Energy to co-develop a process for the production of biofuels from seaweed.
The research alliance will use enzymes to convert seaweed-based carbohydrates to sugar, which can then be fermented to produce ethanol for fuel, fine chemicals, proteins for food, and fertilizers for plants. Novozymes will research, develop, and manufacture enzymes for the conversion process, while Sea6 Energy will contribute its offshore seaweed cultivation technology.
European Microalgae Producer BTMW is Looking For Investors And Partners
Posted On: February 17, 2012Biotecnología de las microalgas europe, BTME, is a Spanish company focused on the production of microalgae and by-products. The company has been doing R&D activities for 5 years, and has just finished the construction of a facility for microalgae industrial production and R&D.
Currently the company is starting the industrial biomass production for aquaculture, R&D programs and health ingredients market. BTME is looking for investors and partners with the following objectives:
· To obtain financial support to boost the activities of the company
· To find synergies with other companies with the purpose of the joint development of new markets or a faster introduction in the existing ones.
For additional company information and contact: www.btmicroalgas.es
Algae.Tec Successfully Completes $5m Capital Raising With Patersons Securities
Posted On: February 3, 2012Algae.Tec Ltd has announced that the AUD$5,000,000 (USD$5,354,086.97) Placement through Patersons Securities Limited has been successfully completed.
As previously stated, this capital raising will be utilised to fund the fast-tracking of commercial projects recently announced.
Algae.Tec Executive Chairman, Roger Stroud, said the Company was extremely pleased with the capital raising.
“This again demonstrates that sophisticated investors are aligned with the need for alternative transport fuel technologies such as the Algae.Tec enclosed algae to biofuels solution,” said Stroud.
“The market is also responding to the recent milestones and commercial deal announcements the Company has signed with major companies in China, Sri Lanka and Europe.”
UC Davis and University of Tokyo collaborating on algae biofuels project
Posted On: January 22, 2012A better understanding of how algae can be used to make biofuels is the aim of a new joint project between UC Davis and the University of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of four new grants, jointly funded by the US National Science Foundation and the Japan Science and Technology Agency, to develop environment-friendly fuels and reduce pesticide use.
The four grants, totaling $12 million (¥960 million), will be divided between the Japanese and US laboratories. UC Davis’ share will be about $1.5 million over three years, with the possibility of renewal for another two years.
All four projects are based on metabolomics, an approach that uses high-tech analysis to understand all the chemicals involved in a living cell’s metabolism.
OriginOil and DOE to Develop Direct Conversion of Algae into Renewable Crude Oil Source
Posted On: January 22, 2012Good news on the algae-to-oil front has been released by Los Angeles-based OriginOil, Inc., in conjunction with the US Department of Energy. The company will work in partnership with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to help algae growers to enter the global crude oil market.
OriginOil, a developer of a technology platform to extract oil from algae, reports that it plans to co-develop an integrated system with the DOE’s INL for direct conversion of raw algae into a renewable crude oil that can be used by existing petroleum refineries.
Algae-based fuels a growing business in New Mexico
Posted On: January 22, 2012Sapphire Energy Inc., which uses a proprietary process to turn algae oil into renewable gasoline to replace fossil fuels at the pump, broke ground last June on a 300-acre commercial demonstration facility in Columbus.
In Hobbs, in the heart of southeast New Mexico’s oil patch, Massachusetts-based Joule Unlimited Inc. broke ground this fall on a five-acre site that will use concentrating-solar biorefineries to extract ethanol and diesel from bacteria in salt-water mixed with carbon dioxide.
United States Patent and Trademark Office issues patent to Heliae
Posted On: January 12, 2012Heliae, an Arizona-based algae technology company, announced today three significant additions to its expanding portfolio of intellectual property.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued patent number 8,084,038 to Heliae entitled “Methods of and Systems for Isolating Nutraceutical Products from Algae” on December 27, 2011. Heliae has received a Notice of Allowance from the USPTO for two additional patent applications focused on Heliae’s breakthrough extraction technology. These patents are expected to issue in the first half of February.
GlycoMar awarded grant for collaboration with MicroA of Norway
Posted On: January 5, 2012The UK Technology Strategy Board today announced funding of a collaboration between GlycoMar and MicroA of Norway for the pilot scale production of one of GlycoMar’s biologically active polysaccharides from a marine microalga using MicroA’s patented photobioreactor technology.
The project will use MicroA’s recently patented PBR technology as the scale-up platform for GlycoMar’s microalgal polysaccharide product development. MicroA will use their pilot scale system to optimise growth conditions for maximum algal polysaccharide production. GlycoMar will optimise downstream processing to maximise recovery of the target product. The project will establish the commercial viability of full-scale production. Success of the project will be an important milestone for both partner companies and the wider biotechnology and microalgae industries, and will lead to commercialisation as a high value natural skin care ingredient within 3 years.
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