Biofuel startups target revenue

Kiverdi CEO Lisa Dyson.

Biofuel and biochemical startups have wised up about market forces. Many first-generation companies that produced advanced fuels and products shot for the moon, targeting transportation fuel markets that required years of research and development as well as massive scale up and capital. Such companies included South San Francisco-based Solazyme, Emeryville-based Amyris Biotechnologies, and South San Francisco-based LS9 plus other companies such as Kior and Gevo that formed between 2003 and 2006.

Joint BioEnergy Institute scientists ID new type of biofuel

Researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville identified a possible new type of biofuel that could replace diesel.
The JBEI, run by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, engineered the new fuel, called bisabolane, from two microbes -- a bacteria and a yeast.
Fuel made this way, the lab said, would be “clean, green, renewable and produced in the United States.”