Jan 24 2011
The US Department of Energy, the Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD-F) and the Ministry of National Infrastructure of Israel, have granted $900,000 to the US firm, Virent Energy Systems, and the Israel-based biofuel firm, HCL CleanTech.
The grant will fund about 50% of the $2.1 million drop-in biofuel project. The project involves the conversion of pine tree sugars of HCL CleanTech into drop-in biofuel using Virent’s conversion technology.
The drop-in biofuel project utilizes the patented conversion technologies of HCL CleanTech to manufacture cheap non-food sugars, which are then converted into hydrocarbon molecules using BioForming technology of Virent.The
technology that converts plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules.
HCL CleanTech will also supply pine sugars to a biopolymer manufacturer for assessing fermentation into hydrocolloids, which are manufactured traditionally from corn or cane sugars. Hydrocolloids are used in a number of applications such as food, personal care and beverages.