Viral Genetics New Subsidiary VG Energy To Market Breakthrough Algal Biofuel Technology

Viral Genetics, Inc. has launched a subsidiary named “VG Energy, Inc.”, formed to market the company’s biofuel technology.

In VG Energy’s technology portfolio are optimization methods for algae-based biofuel technologies that can triple the oil production in algae, resulting in higher yields and easier processing and extraction steps; valuable for making algal biofuels more cost effective. This method is based on an additive that alters the way plants and algae control their storage and production of these oils; the oils are not used for energy by the algae and are secreted rather than stored; this allows the oil to be extracted without killing the feedstock. Also, because there is no genetic modification involved  the method avoids several legal issues

Viral Genetics’ CEO Haig Keledjian:

“The new brand will help open doors with energy companies. We also believe it will help us attract investors interested in cost-effective, green energy solutions. We believe our approach to biofuels can change the economics of green energy by simply increasing the oil yield in certain plants. Many competitive technologies focus on genetically-modifying algae strains, and developing expensive new growing methods.”

Some of the studies were undertaken at the Texas Life Sciences Collaboration Center, funded by the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, a $200 million initiative created by the Texas Legislature in 2005. VG Energy lead researcher Dr. M. Karen Newell-Rogers recently obtained a $750,000 grant from the fund to study and develop the yield-enhancing technology in her academic research laboratories at the Texas AgriLife Research Blacklands campus. She is the inventor behind a patent and several patent applications under exclusive license to VG Energy directed to methods for dramatically increasing the volume of oils produced by algae and other plants.

VG Energy Lead Researcher, Dr. M. Karen Newell-Rogers:

“Our research seems to indicate that we can trigger plant cells to increase their fat stores. We can manipulate plant cells so that they store oil and eventually release those reserves instead of burning the fat for fuel when glucose stores are low. The end result is more oil is available for processing into a biofuel.”

The commercialization of this technology is an important step for the algal biofuel industry; increased yields of oil and particularly the secretion of oils by the algae are steps towards overcoming some of the greatest challenges in that field. The fact that oils can be collected directly from a living culture removes several processing steps and is therefore cheaper; usually the algae must be dried and the oils extracted from the dry biomass. Also, the fact that the algae do not have to be killed to extract the oil means that the algae culture can be run longer and run continuously rather than in batches, therefore potentially minimizing equipment downtime during production.

BioSolar Completes Successful Production Run of New White BioBacksheet For Solar Panels

BioSolar Inc. develops bio-materials from renewable plant sources with the goal of reducing the cost of photovoltaic (PV) solar modules. Recently Biosolar successfully completed a production run of its new white BioBacksheet.

Backsheets are used in solar PV panels to protect the panels from moisture and UV. They also electrically insulate the panels, improving performance. High quality backsheets improve the lifespan and output of solar panels, and Biosolar’s products aim to do so to at a high standard, cheaply and using sustainable materials. The new Biobacksheet produced by Biosolar is white rather than translucent as their previous model was. This development was partly for cosmetic preferences of manufacturers, but also for the reflectivity which can be used to improve the performance of PV units.

BioSolar’s Chief Executive Officer , Dr. David Lee:
“While meeting with PV module manufacturers in recent months, we encountered an overwhelming preference for a bright-white colored BioBacksheet in lieu of the existing translucent design. For cosmetic reasons, as well as for its high-reflectivity which improves cell efficiency, manufacturers prefer a bright-white colored backsheet. We have successfully modified our product formulation to meet this request without compromising our industry-leading product characteristics. Subsequent testing demonstrated that the improved product meets all industry standards, as well as customer and BioSolar internal product requirements. The new bright-white BioBacksheet opens up a wider pool of potential customers and will be sold as a standard product.”

The next step for Biosolar is to ensure that the new sheets meet the same industry standards as the previous model; for sale in the US and EU they must be registered with the UL and IEC for the benefit of panel manufacturers, who then require certification for the finished panels. This process of recertification is currently underway, and appears to be moving forward unhindered thanks to extensive testing beforehand on the part of Biosolar.

Teijin to Launch Bio-derived PET Fiber in 2012

Teijin Fibers Limited announced that they will begin production of bio-derived polyethylene terephalate (PET) in 2012, which Tejin claims will be the world's first commercially produced bio-derived PET fiber.

Teijin Fibers develops unique polyester technologies through "hybrid strategies" that combine the company's special expertise in biomaterials, recycling, functional materials and manufacturing processes to reduce environmental loads.

The bio-PET fiber, named ECO CIRCLE PlantFiber, is produced from 30% bio-ethylene glycol rather than synthetic ethylene glycol; replacing an oil based reagent with one that is renewably produced. The quality and properties of the plastic is the same as when produced from 100% synthetic reagents, therefore it is suitable for the same applications, such as car interiors and personal hygiene products.

Tejin also has developed means to recycle the plastic. Tejin’s closed loop polyester recycling system allows the PET to be decomposed and the DMT to be reused in other Polyester products. Teijin Fibers expects to sell 30,000 tons of ECO CIRCLE PlantFiber products in the fiscal year ending in March 2013, and 70,000 tons by their third year. They expect the price of the product to be competitive with the fully synthetic PET by the time production reaches the mass production scale, though until then it will be initially higher.

Agrivida Partner With Syngenta For Low Cost Industrial Sugars

Agrivida, Inc. will collaborate with Syngenta Ventures to develop means to produce industrial sugars cheaply by using advanced crop technology. Syngenta will give Agrivida access to its technology in exchange for Agrivida equity.

Massachusetts-based Agrivida are specialists in developing non-food crop strains as biofuel or bioproduct feedstock. The agreement with Syngenta will boost Agrivida’s range of available technologies. The technologies licensed from Syngenta will be used to develop new traits for various crops. Agrivida aims to make next-generation bioproducts more affordable by significantly decreasing the cost of processing biomass, whether for non-food agricultural residues or dedicated biomass crops. This will ultimately be done by modifying the crops to optimize metabolic pathways so that the desired products are present in greater quantities and are easier to extract. Agrividia’s integrated approach to feedstock engineering involves adding genes for cell wall degrading enzymes that are expressed after harvesting; in combination with Syngenta technology this augments product development opportunities available to Agrividia.  

Agrivida's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Mark Wong

“Agrivida is excited to be able to accelerate our product development through our relationship with Syngenta Ventures, the venture capital arm of Syngenta, one of the world's leading agribusiness companies. The combination of Agrivida's proprietary intein platform with Syngenta's technology will allow us to provide an integrated solution for feedstock and enzyme delivery to a wide range of industrial customers. Technologies developed through our collaboration will provide growers, processors, seed partners, and all members of the value chain with crops that enable cost-effective products from cellulosic biomass, and in turn helps to transform this emerging industry."

Agrivida's deal with Syngenta is the latest in a number of recent achievements for the company. In July, Agrivida announced breakthroughs in its development of sugar production from it’s enzyme-expressing crops at the annual BIO industry conference, which followed recent awards from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA–E) to further develop its technology platforms for sorghum and switchgrass.

"Produced in a state that grows GM crops, we cannot guarantee that this product is GM free." Vilsack controversially calls for coexistence of Roundup Ready and conventional alfalfa

On the 20th of December 2010, the US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack held a meeting to discuss proposed conditional deregulation of Forage Genetics’ Roundup Ready alfalfa and has since been criticized for politicizing science based regulatory issues. How this issue is handled will affect the deregulation of any other GM food or fuel crops in the US in future.

Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack:

“What we’re having is a discussion to try to take the courts out of determining who gets to farm and who doesn’t get to farm. We’ve seen a rapid adoption of biotechnology in alfalfa and many other areas of agriculture. At the same time, we’ve seen a substantial expansion and growth in organic production. We want both of them to survive and we want both of them to be profitable—and we want both of them to be able to sort of co-exist in the same neighborhood. We need the capacity to produce more on less—the capacity to use less pesticides and chemicals and water—in an ever-increasing demand globally for food. At the same time, this organic operation is very profitable. It can help small farmers stay on the farm. It can help repopulate rural communities and there’s greater consumer demand for it. So we need to figure out how to do both.”

Monsanto’s Roundup Ready range of products is genetically modified to resist the Roundup glyphosphate herbicide. In theory, this allows herbicide to be used on crops without decreasing crop yields. Under the Plant Protection Act, if scientific trials show the crops are safe they can be deregulated, so that they could be freely planted anywhere.

A number of industry players and alfalfa growers (both GM and conventional) attended the meeting. Vilsack was criticized by the Wall Street Journal for including political opponents of GM in making a regulatory decision rather than leaving the matter to scientists, stating that this could politicize the issue permanently. The three options under discussion were to continue to regulate Roundup Ready alfalfa, deregulate it completely or to deregulate it in certain areas. This final option caused the most debate. At the meeting Vilsack is said to have called for “coexistence” between the GM crop and non-GM varieties in the marketplace. However, despite a USDA environmental impact assessment of RR alfalfa being released, the health and safety aspects of the crop were apparently not mentioned once during the meeting, to the dismay of many opponents of GM crops present.

The concept of coexistence between the crop types is controversial. Easing the legal restrictions here increases the risks of contamination. A move like this would be a blow with the idea that products containing GM material should be labeled so that consumers may have a choice. The international standards on GM contamination are restrictive to the point of impracticality and are in need of reform. “Zero tolerance” on GM contamination simply isn’t possible; even small amounts of genetic material can be spread in many ways, for example pollen from GMOs. However, the effects of contamination might be inconsequential; tiny amounts of modified DNA (which will still break limits) are very unlikely to have any effects according to scientists. Even while Roundup Ready crops were regulated weeds resistant to Roundup have appeared. While some might rush to blame GM contamination for this, natural means often cause resistance to develop. However the apparent avoidance of this issue during the meeting is worrying. The indirect effects of increased herbicide use are a concern that isn’t often explored.

Farmers using the Roundup Ready alfalfa report greater yields, so there is a commercial benefit to producing crops this way. Some farmers are firmly against GM however and draw the line at growing any GM crop. While they will have a market supplying GM free alfalfa to those who choose not to use GM crops, will this market shrink? More and more people are considering GM to be a viable tool for providing food to a growing global population. Roundup Ready alfalfa might one day out-compete conventional alfalfa and ultimately remove this choice. 

If deregulation were to happen in only some parts of the country, however, this would become more pressing. If one state, for example, were to allow Roundup Ready alfalfa to be grown there, would local GM opposed farmers be outcompeted? Or would this allow places for both ways to thrive? The conditions proposed here would limit the percentage of crop acres that could be used to produce the GM variety, making it unlikely that out competition will happen. The limits may be restrictive to the GM growers, but this is still a step towards coexistence.

Vilsack has a point; if GM crops are going to be produced they must co-exist with conventional crops, and the proposed deregulation with limits might well achieve that. But with the thresholds for GM material being as low as they are, increases in GM production will accidentally contaminate conventional production more often. Instead of more customer choice, we might see more disclaimers saying that manufacturers can’t guarantee products that are GM free for those who want a choice.

Cardia Bioplastics Appoints Eco Ventures as its exclusive distributor for Brazil

Eco Ventures Do Brasil (Eco Ventures) will distribute Cardia's range of Biohybrid biodegradable and bio-sourced resins in Brazil.

The exclusive distribution agreement will allow Eco Ventures to supply the full range of Cardia Bioplastics sustainably sourced thermoplastic resins (Cardia Biohybrid) and also its biodegradable resins (Cardia Compostable) to Brazilian plastics industry. The growing demand for packaging that is both renewable and biodegradable is fuelling expansion of bioplastics and the broad range of applications for Cardia products places the company well in this growing market.

Cardia Bioplastics Managing Director Dr Frank Glatz:
"We are delighted to have this partnership with Eco Ventures do Brasil Ltd, the leading sustainable packaging and plastics products distributor in the Brazilian market. This is all part of our global expansion strategy. Growth for the sustainable resins market is driven by changing public attitudes and corresponding regulatory requirements. Another driver for sustainable packaging is the growing certainty that reduction in use of fossil fuels is coming closer. Packaging and plastics businesses know that eventually higher petroleum prices will erode their competitiveness and their profit margins, and they want packaging and bioplastics products solutions based on sustainable resources."

The Bioplastics market in Brazil is growing; consulting firm Frost and Sullivan predict that by 2015 the Brazilian Bioplastics market will be worth $618 million by 2015. Whether most of this value is generated from imports or exports (and therefore Cardia’s place in that market) remains to be seen. Polylactic acid (PLA) was the dominant bioplastic in Brazil during 2009. Brazil is the world’s leading sugar cane producer (PLA can be produced from sugar cane) and Brazilian investment in bioplastics development is expected to increase (35% by 2015, say Frost and Sullivan). It would be reasonable to expect that the leading producer of a common feedstock for bioplastics production will commercialize ways to produce bioplastics. This would cause demand from Brazilian customers for bioplastics from overseas to decrease in the future. The Brazilian Association of Compostable Biodegradable Polymers (ABICOM) has been set up to encourage changes in government policy to support the bioplastics industry in Brazil. If Cardia were to license a Brazilian company to produce their portfolio of resins, however, this might open doors for Cardia down the line.

Spanish algal biofuel consortium builds new pilot plant

A Spanish consortium is scaling up its efforts to produce biofuel from algae by building a pilot plant in Chiclana at a cost of 11.5 million Euros, with 7.5 million Euros being put forward by the European Union.

The ultimate benefits of the project are twofold; not only to produce algal biofuel from the nutrients in wastewater, but also to use the algae for the treatment of this wastewater. Water security and treatment will be one of the biggest challenges facing the world in the future as the global population grows and the effects of climate change are felt. 

The integration of biofuel production and water treatment in a single process could be of great value in the future. Indeed, when this project was presented to the EU Seventh Framework Programme Biofuels from Algae, it was commended for its scientific and technical innovation and also for the sustainability of the project.

Initially this project will focus on research, but then will progress to production after two years. The production stage will see ten hectares of algae production space installed at the plant. It is estimated that with the commissioning of the plant it will be possible to produce enough biofuel to run 200 cars. 

In Spain there are various research projects for the production of biofuel from microalgae. In the province of Cadiz, a pilot plant is under construction, funded by Celulosa Investment (part of the Aurantia Group). Business groups such as Acciona, which invested 2.5 million Euros in a pilot biodiesel plant in Caparroso, or Repsol, through the Business Unit for New Energies, are also work in the production of next generation biofuels.