Tag: Proterro
Proterro receives new US patent for its cyanobacteria
Tweet In New Jersey, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a composition of matter patent that protects Proterro’s unique engineered photosynthetic cyanobacteria and their genetic code. The issued patent is directed to the sequence and assembly of discrete genes of engineered cyanobacteria and the cyanobacteria themselves, which Proterro uses in a biosynthetic process to [...]
A Sugar Fix: Proterro, biofuels and affordable, renewable sugars
Tweet Why is making affordable renewable sugars potentially big business? Which intrepid investors have targeted biofuels’ biggest bottleneck? News has been circulating that Proterro raised $3.5 million for a demonstration-scale of their renewable sugars technology, and secured a key patent allowance for their bioreactor system and microorganism. Giving us a good opportunity to review how [...]
Why Affordable Renewable Sugars are a Monster Prize
Tweet “What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar”, US Vice President Thomas Marshall once remarked to the United States Senate during a long speech by Kansas Senator Joe Bristow on the subject of “what this country needs.” Today, we could use a good five-cent renewable sugar, suitable for microorganisms that, from sucrose, make [...]
Making sugars, not extracting them: Proterro’s Technology
Tweet Where other companies are growing sugars via crop improvements, or extracting them, Proterro is making them via synthetic biology. Specifically, they have engineered a cyanobacteria to make sucrose (via a series of steps you can read all about here), ultimately from CO2, water, sunlight and nutrients – and secrete it into a sugarwater stream [...]
The Digest’s Bottom Line: when will we know about Proterro?
Tweet In today’s Digest, we’ve looked at: • New investors flock to Proterro as all the incumbents re-up • Why Affordable Renewable Sugars are a Monster Prize• Making sugars, not extracting them: Proterro’s Technology So, when will we know if Proterro is a company and not a science project? The timing is in months, not years, in terms [...]
Proterro lands $3.5 million in new funding
Tweet In New Jersey, Proterro has landed $3.5 million in its most recent funding round to help it continue developing its technology that aims at sugar production below 5 cents per pound from cyanobacteria. Lab-scale production is currently at 10 times that of sugarcane on a per acre basis, with the expectation of eventually reaching [...]
“Biofuels are the future says FedEx CEO.”
Tweet Today on Twitter. CientificaLtd: Iowa State Testing Bio-Oil Gasifier for Biofuels CaterComNews: Biofuels are the future says FedEx CEO, Fred Smith (CNN, Fareed Zakaria GPS) stringfellow: Biofuels! EU will need to lead on this. Food is going into fuel. Reviews are under way, so again +ve action EON_Environment: Proterro CEO to Discuss Feedstock Economics [...]
Burning Man, Burning Microbe: Biofuels beyond biomass
Tweet Can you have a biofuel without processing an intermediate biomass? Can post-biomass technologies revolutionize fuel and chemical production? Fuels and chemicals can make people mighty uneasy, when you think about them. With fossil fuels, the issues include the uneven distribution of resources and wealth, national security, price and price volatility, and carbon emissions. So along [...]
The Sherpas: 7 biofuels feedstock developers clearing paths to the summit
Tweet Sherpas – the high-altitude companions that see Himalayan hopefuls safely to the top (and back again). Every great biofuels technology has its own companion feedstock strategy – with unique advantages and technical challenges. Who’s got what it takes to be a great Sherpa, providing that feedstock or intermediates edge that puts a processing technology [...]
Super-cali-thali-terpa-butyl-peta what? The hockey-stickin’, flash-mobbin’ growth in biobased intermediates
Tweet The new trend in biofuels is not a biofuel at all – it’s an (usually unpronounceable) intermediate that can be refined into an array of fuels, chemicals, flavors, fragrances, and construction or packaging materials. Ptera-buta-thalic-what? We can hardly pronounce them, but we sure need to know about them. Amyris, KiOR, Renmatix, Virdia, Blue Sugars, [...]
