Algae fuel startup Sapphire Energy is in the process of raising $144 million to build out its first commercial demonstration plant in New Mexico. It’s impressive, but it’s also about three years behind its original projections. Why does algae fuel take so long to scale? Read More »
Cleantech
Algae biofuel is getting a massive infusion of money. Startup Sapphire Energy, which uses synthetic biology to make a green crude out of algae, announced on Monday that it’s raising $144 million in a Series C round from investors including agriculture company Monsanto. Read More »
Making energy from poop can be a good profit-making and social enterprise. That’s the aim of a research project at Columbia University, where a professor is getting a $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a waste-to-energy technology. Read More »
Agriculture and genetics giant Monsanto has made its bet on algae. On Tuesday, Monsanto announced that it has made an equity investment in, and developed a partnership with, algae startup Sapphire Energy. Sapphire Energy uses synthetic biology to make a green crude out of algae. Read More »
Algae fuel is likely decades from powering our vehicles, which is one of the reasons that federal lawmakers already are focusing on tax breaks for companies in the field. Yesterday the House passed a bill that gives $1.01 per gallon tax credit to algae fuel producers. Read More »
Investors are still pumping money into algae fuel, despite the lack of commercial availability of the green gas. This morning seven-year-old Solazyme announced that it has raised $52 million in a Series D financing from investors including Chevron Technology Ventures. Read More »
Craig Venter, considered to be the father of genomics and the founder of synthetic biology startup Synthetic Genomics, said there’s a fundamental problem with algae fuel at the Wall Street Journal’s Eco:nomics conference on Thursday: in his view if algae fuel companies can’t generate billions … Read More »
Despite the crumbling of the first generation of biofuel projects (corn-based ethanol), the U.S. government is in full support of the next generation of biofuels, particularly cellulosic ethanol and algae fuel. This morning Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack … Read More »
Algaeus, a plug-in hybrid car that will run on algae fuel for a cross-country road trip that kicks off today, is like a mash-up song composed of the hippest green technologies of the moment — plug-in cars and algae fuels. But does the combo make a … Read More »
Plane flights are the bane of the eco-elite. You can buy a plug-in car and build a green home, but when it comes to preaching the green gospel, or attending numerous greentech sales meeting, racking up plane flights — and swelling your carbon footprint as a … Read More »
The idea of using algae to produce fuel for vehicles has been the blockbuster topic of the summer. Major deals have recently been done by heavyweights like Exxon, and Synthetic Genomics, Sapphire Energy and Bill Gates’ Cascade Investments, and more funding … Read More »
Algenol Biofuels, with its just-announced plans to build an algae fuel demo plant in partnership with Dow Chemical, isn’t the only startup taking the demise of a well-funded algae fuel company — GreenFuel Technologies — in stride. Today 3-year-old Solix Biofuels, which has some … Read More »
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