SunEthanol, MBI in cellulosic ethanol partnership

Lansing, Mich.-based biotechnology firm MBI International, part of the Michigan State University Foundation, said today that it is teaming up with SunEthanol in Hadley, Mass., to scale-up a fermentation method for cellulosic ethanol.

The fermentation method uses SunEthanol's Q-Microbe system, which SunEthanol says can digest and ferment cellulosic feedstocks to ethanol in a single-step process.

SunEthanol is backed by VeraSun Energy (NYSE: VSE), Battery Ventures, Long River Ventures and AST Capital (see VeraSun takes stake in SunEthanol).

"MBI's mission is to accelerate bio-based technologies from early stage to practical application," said Bobby Bringi, president and CEO of MBI. "MBI minimizes risk by demonstrating commercial viability at a meaningful pilot scale."

MBI specializes in fermentation process development and scale-up, and also develops biomass processing technologies. The group is currently scaling-up ammonia fiber expansion, or AFEX, which it said is a promising biomass pretreatment technology developed at Michigan State University.

"We believe that AFEX-treated biomass could be an effective feedstock for our Q-Microbe in producing cellulosic ethanol," said Sarad Parekh, VP of research and development at SunEthanol.

MBI said AFEX opens up biomass cell-wall structures, increasing the effectiveness of digestion.

In June, SunEthanol announced a partnership with Harvard University's Office of Technology Development to improve ethanol yields from biomass (see Harvard, SunEthanol to collaborate on biofuels).

Under that collaboration, Harvard Medical School researchers will work to develop new genetic strains of a proprietary natural bacterium that SunEthanol is using to convert cellulose into ethanol.

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