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Shell and Cargill invest $46m in advanced biofuel development

Virent is seeking to scale-up its technology from its demonstration plant in Madison, Wisconsin

Oil company Shell and farm products giant Cargill have invested a further $46.4 million in a Wisconsin company developing advanced biofuel technology.

Virent Energy Systems, Inc., has a patented process called BioForming, which converts plant sugars into biogasoline or biodiesel.

The firm, which has its HQ in Madison, Wisconsin, said the latest funding round from its existing investors would help its efforts to scale up the process to produce commercial volumes of the advanced biofuel.

For Shell, the move also expands its research and development efforts in the conversion of plant sugars into biofuels.

Lee Edwards, Virent president and CEO, said: “Virent has a competitive advantage from our strong relationships with two premier, global companies, Shell and Cargill. Their significant capabilities and expertise across the value chain will be essential to accelerating deployment of Virent’s BioForming technology at commercial scale.”

Virent

Virent started up its first production plant late last year, (see this BrighterEnergy.org story), a facility capable of producing more than 10,000 gallons of biogasoline annually.

The company’s BioForming technology uses an Aqueous Phase Reforming process that uses catalysis to turn soluble plant sugars into gasoline, jet fuel or diesel.

Virent says its fuels could be used in existing fuel distribution infrastructure, and could be used to power vehicles in high-concentration blends.

Shell, which gains a set on Virent’s board with its investment, said its contribution to the company demonstrated its confidence in the technology.

Luis Scoffone, Vice President of Alternative Energies at Shell, said: “The expansion of our joint technology program to include research into the production of diesel from plant sugars offers considerable potential and complements Shell’s wider biofuels portfolio.”

Minnesota-based agriculture commodities giant Cargill said the flexibility of the Virent technology would be important in developing biogasoline from non-food sources.

Scott Portnoy, corporate vice president of Cargill, said: “Over the past four years, Cargill has supported Virent’s innovative sugars-to-hydrocarbons technology as it has evolved into a true biorefinery solution with the potential to help replace petroleum as the source of fuels and many chemicals.”