Harvard, SunEthanol to collaborate on biofuels

Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development and Amherst, Mass.-based SunEthanol said they have entered into a new research collaboration agreement in effort to improve ethanol yields from biomass.

Under the 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, said the cellulosic biofuel company.

SunEthanol is developing the Q Microbe to produce ethanol from a variety of plentiful biomass feedstocks, including switchgrass, corn stover, wheat straw, sugar cane bagasse and wood pulp.

The goal of the Harvard-based research will be to produce new genetically modified strains that might be capable of delivering higher yields of ethanol than the native source, which the as the company explains, is a critical step in creating an economically viable alternative to the production of ethanol from corn.

The cellulosic ethanol race is filled with growing competition and includes the likes of Iogen, BlueFire Ethanol, Poet and ALICO, just to name a few.

Last week SunEthanol said it was seeking $20 million in Series B funding (see Manufacturing microbes).

Jef Sharp, one of the company’s founders and outgoing CEO (soon-to-be CMO) said the company is already running internal pilot tests in its labs and plans to scale up to an outside pilot in 2009, with commercial production beginning towards the end of 2010.

SunEthanol’s chief scientist and founder of the Q Microbe is University of Massachusetts professor, Dr. Susan Leschine.

Dr. William Frey, a former DuPont Biofuels Division executive, is expected take over from Sharp as CEO later this month.