Members of the biofuels industry are ready to meet the challenge of producing replacements for petrochemical fuels that will be cost-competitive and renewable, and will meet the increasingly stringent demands of the green revolution. This was the consensus at CHI’s recent “Advanced Biofuels Development Summit.” Optimism pervaded the presentations of biological, biochemical, genetic, and microbial strategies for enhancing corn ethanol production, developing cellulosic ethanol products, and innovating methods for producing advanced biofuels... more

Ethanol company Qteros said Monday that refiner Valero Energy Corp. is now an investor in the company through Valero's purchase of VeraSun Energy Corp... more

Qteros today announced that Dr. Anthony J. “Tony” Tether, recently retired director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is joining the Qteros Board of Directors. Dr. Tether, who was recently presented with the Department of Defense Outstanding Public Service Medal, will bring decades of experience in managing advanced research into technological development to his new role on the Qteros board... more

A pilot biofuels plant planned for an Indian Orchard site this year could be expanded with federal and state support to create unique microbes that produce ethanol. Qteros, a former Amherst company, plans to establish a small pilot plant at Solutia's Indian Orchard property. It is also proposing to build a full-scale microbe manufacturing center at Solutia. The clean technology company hopes to open the full-scale plant in 2010, once funding is in place... more

When Professor Susan Leschine first recognized that a hardy little microbe had the potential to become an environmental hero, her scientific curiosity fused with a clear sense of duty. “If you suddenly have something that has the potential to be very useful, I think all scientists should feel an obligation to seeing it through and seeing whether it can be beneficial,” says Leschine, the discoverer of the Q Microbe, a tiny bug that has proven to be amazingly efficient at converting cellulose, non-food plant matter, into engine-firing ethanol... more

Zymetis has genetically modified a rare, cellulose-eating bacterium to break down and convert cellulose into sugars necessary to make ethanol, and it recently completed its first commercial-scale trial. Earlier this year, the company ran the modified microbe through a series of tests in large fermenters and found that it was able to convert one ton of cellulosic plant fiber into sugar in 72 hours. The trial, researchers say, illustrates the organism's potential in helping to produce ethanol cheaply and efficiently at industrial scales... more

Qteros, a former Amherst company that has developed what it hopes will be a dramatically more efficient method for producing ethanol, wants to build its first pilot plant in Springfield. The Marlborough-based company is in talks with Solutia Inc. to establish a small pilot ethanol processing plant on Solutia's sprawling Indian Orchard property this year. ... more