EBOOM CAPITAL: Khosla Ventures - One VC’s Bets on Next-Gen Biofuel

Hundreds of companies are pursuing different technologies and strategies they believe will yield a winning next-generation biofuel.  To increase its odds of backing a winner, Khosla Ventures has made no less than nine investments in this sector.

Vinod Khosla has become a familiar face in the clean energy sector, having founded Khosla Ventures in 2004 after securing his legendary status as a founder of IT winner Sun Microsystems in 1982 (acquired by Oracle Corporation NASDAQ: ORCL in January 2010) and by leading early-stage investments of several other IT winners as a partner in Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Here’s where Khosla Ventures  is putting its money (and its clients' money) in the next-gen biofuel sector: 

• KiOR Inc., of Houston, Texas, (founded 2007, research stage) is developing biomass catalytic cracking technology that converts cellulosic biomass into a high-quality bio-crude which is suitable for refining directly to standard transportation fuels.

• Amyris, of Emeryville, California, (founded 2003, demonstration stage) designs and harnesses yeasts to convert plant-sourced sugars, such as sugar cane or sweet sorthum, into biofuels that are hydrocarbon-based and, therefore, directly compatible with today’s conventional internal combustion engines.

• LS9, Inc. of South San Francisco, California, (demonstration stage) uses synthetic biology to produce low carbon renewable fuels that closely resemble and are cost-competitive with petroleum. The company has acquired a plant at Okeechobee, Florida, which will demonstrate the technology using sugar cane as feedstock and then use cellulose from wood chips, agricultural residues and sorghum. 

• Mascoma Corporation, of Lebanon, New Hampshire, (founded 2005, demonstration stage) is developing low carbon and low cost biofuels from cellulosic biomass. The company has a demonstration plant at Rome, New York, and is developing a commercial-scale plant at Kinross, Michigan.

• Coskata of Warrenville, Illinois, (founded 2006, demonstration stage) has a platform technology that uses proprietary micro-organisms and bioreactor designs to produce ethanol from a variety of feedstock, including biomass, agricultural and municipal wastes and other materials. The company’s demonstration plant at Madison, Pennsylvania, opened in October 2009.

• Gevo Inc., of Englewood, Colorado, (demonstration stage) has a platform technology that produces biobutanol from cellulose feedstock to blend with gasoline to meet clean air and renewable fuel objectives. The company started a plant in September 2009 to demonstrate its technology as a retrofit to convert conventional ethanol plants into cellulosic ethanol plants.

• Lanza Tech, of Auckland, New Zealand, (founded 2005, pre-demonstration stage) has a core technology that uses carbon monoxide from industrial and municipal waste and from biomass syngas to be converted by fermentation into ethanol that can be used as a high octane premium fuel. 

• Range Fuels, of Broomfield, Colorado, (formerly Kergy, Inc., pre-commercial stage) has invented a two-step thermo-chemical process to produce low carbon biofuels, such as cellulosic ethanol and methanol. On November 6, 2007, Range Fuels broke ground at what the company proclaimed would be first commercial cellulosic biofuels plant in the U.S. Commercial production of four million gallons a year was scheduled begin during Q2 2010, but the company has not yet announced the beginning of production.

• HCL CleanTech Ltd. of Tel Aviv, Israel, and Oxford, North Carolina, (founded 2007, pilot stage) is developing technology that converts cellulosic biomass into sugars using concentrated hydrochloric acid. These sugars can be fermented into ethanol and other biofuels using a large variety of feedstocks including waste wood, sewage, grasses.

Photo credit: KPCB

DISCLOSURE: The writer has no positions in, or professional connections with, these companies.