SunEthanol secures funding for cellulosic ethanol technology based on 'Q Microbe'

SunEthanol Inc., a biofuels technology company, announced today that it has secured funding to commercialize the 'Q Microbe' (Clostridium phytofermentans), a unique natural bacteria capable of converting cellulose into ethanol. Series A financing for developing patent-pending cellulosic ethanol technology around the Q microbe has been provided by VeraSun Energy, Battery Ventures, Long River Ventures and AST Capital. SunEthanol’s Q Microbe technology, licensed from the University of Massachusetts, has the potential to make the production of ethanol from cellulose economically competitive.

SunEthanol’s Q Microbe and the cellulase enzyme it produces (image, click to enlarge) represents true consolidated bio-processing (CBP), a technology that consolidates multiple steps into a single efficient and natural process, potentially resulting in a lower cost of production and the ability to convert various forms of biomass into ethanol.

The microorganism was discovered by University of Massachusetts professor of microbiology, Dr. Susan Leschine in the soil of New England, near the Quabbin Reservoir, and is being developed for cellulosic ethanol production by Dr. Leschine and the SunEthanol lab team. Dr. Leschine serves as a senior advisor to SunEthanol. The team believes that the Q Microbe’s CBP process can be used with a wide variety of plentiful biomass feedstocks including: switchgrass, corn stover, wheat straw, sugar cane bagasse, and wood pulp. It can potentially be used in all parts of the world where biomass is plentiful.

University of Massachusetts faculty are among the most talented researchers in the world. We work hard to engender an academic environment that helps professors convert revolutionary discoveries to solutions to real-world problems and bring them to market. Spinning off new companies like SunEthanol is a win-win for the University and our state and nation’s economy—our professors and students are involved in basic and translational research that allows the University to foster new technologies, new companies and new jobs. - Jack M. Wilson, president of the University of Massachusetts.

Converting cellulose to ethanol is currently a complex, multi-step process. Cellulosic biomass - plant matter - is an abundant, low-cost source of stored energy. However, unlocking that embodied energy has presented a challenge. Cellulosic biomass is composed of highly ordered sugar polymers, which are shielded from enzyme attack by a matrix of other complex polymers. This makes biomass very difficult to break down into its constituent sugars, in order to ferment these sugars into ethanol:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: ethanol :: cellulose :: cellulase :: microbe ::

Typically, cellulosic biomass must go through an intensive pretreatment step, after which enzymes are used to break down the biomass into simple sugars suitable for fermentation by yeast into ethanol. Enzymes, along with the intensive pretreatment required for their use, are the largest single cost component of cellulosic ethanol production. SunEthanol's technology eliminates the need for a separate enzymatic conversion step, and broadens pretreatment options.

SunEthanol's proprietary catalyst offers other potential advantages. It can process an unusually diverse range of biomass feedstocks. It is also able to ferment all fermentable components of biomass (both C5 and C6 sugars, as well as other saccharides and polysaccharides), and ethanol is its primary product.

The development of a CBP solution has long been the goal of the biofuels industry, and SunEthanol has proven that their microbiological process has unique capabilities to meet the industry’s objectives. This funding will give them the support needed to increase the performance and scale of their technology as they work toward bringing it to market. - Jason Matlof, partner at Battery Ventures.

SunEthanol is a biofuels technology company that is commercializing the Q Microbe, a proprietary cellulosic ethanol production technology. SunEthanol’s consolidated bio-processing (CBP) microbe technology is expected to consolidate multiple steps into one efficient and naturally-occurring process, potentially resulting in a lower cost of production and the ability to convert various forms of biomass into ethanol. SunEthanol's patent-pending technology was developed by Dr. Susan Leschine and her team of research scientists at UMass. The company is backed by VeraSun Energy, Battery Ventures, Long River Ventures and AST Capital.

Since 1983, Battery Ventures has been investing in technology and innovation worldwide. The firm partners with entrepreneurs and management teams across technology sectors, geographies and stages of a company’s life, from start-up and expansion financing, to growth equity and buyouts.

Battery has supported many breakthrough companies around the world, including: Airespace (acquired by Cisco), Akamai Technologies, Cbeyond, LIFFE (acquired by EuroNext), and Neoteris (acquired by Netscreen). Its current portfolio includes emerging firms such as Advent Solar, BladeLogic, Freshpoint, Lion Cells, NanoConduction and Netezza, as well as more established companies such as ITA Software, Consona Corporation, MetroPCS and Nova Analytics. From offices in Boston, Silicon Valley and Israel, Battery manages nearly $3 billion in committed capital, including its current fund of $750 million.


Long River Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm based in central and western Massachusetts. The firm invests in a mix of seed, start-up, and more advanced early stage companies, typically with revenues under $5MM per year. Long River focuses on identifying promising opportunities and entrepreneurs in the emerging technology and life science centers of New England outside of the traditional Boston and New York metro regions.


VeraSun Energy Corporation, headquartered in Brookings, South Dakota, is committed to be a leading producer of renewable fuel. The Company has three operating ethanol production facilities located in Aurora, SD, Fort Dodge, IA, and Charles City, IA, with three facilities under construction in Hartley, IA, Welcome, MN and Reynolds, IN. VeraSun is in the process of acquiring another three biorefineries currently under construction in Albion, NE, Bloomingburg, OH and Linden, IN. Upon completion of the new facilities and those being acquired, VeraSun will have an annual production capacity of approximately one billion gallons by the end of 2008. The Company also has plans to extract oil from dried distillers grains, a co-product of the ethanol process, for use in biodiesel production.

The Company markets E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline for use in Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs), directly to fuel retailers under the brand VE85TM. VE85TM, the first-ever branded E85, is now available at more than 90 retail locations.

Image: A current research thrust of Dr. Leschine's laboratory is aimed at experimentally manipulating fermentation product formation by culturing microbes under conditions that promote the development of substrate-attached cellulose-decomposing communities known as “biofilms.” Surprisingly little is known about biofilm formation on cellulose, especially considering that biofilm production may dramatically affect cellulose decomposition. Presently, her team is focusing on Clostridium phytofermentans, a cellulose-fermenting microbe that produces H2 and exceptionally large amounts of ethanol. The image shows scanning electron micrographs of a C. phytofermentans biofilm on dialysis tubing (“regenerated cellulose”). A. Low magnification view of the biofilm showing cell aggregates on the surface of shredded dialysis tubing. B. Magnified section of biofilm showing individual cells embedded in a stringy extracellular matrix. Credit: Susan B. Leschine.

References:
SunEthanol: bioprocessing technology.

Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center: Fuels from Biomass: Consolidated Bioprocessing of Biomass to Ethanol by Clostridium phytofermentans.

A. Warnick Thomas, A. Methe Barbara and B. Leschine Susan, "Clostridium phytofermentans sp. nov., a cellulolytic mesophile from forest soil" [*abstract], International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, Vol 52, 1155-1160, 2002.

Susan B. Leschine: Microbial Physiology and Diversity: Cellulose and Chitin Decomposition, Biofilms on Natural Polymers, Fuels from Biomass, dept. of microbiology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.