March 16, 2010

Texas-based industrial biotechnology company produces large scale yields as it moves toward commercialization of its microbial technology.

Houston-based Glycos Biotechnologies recently announced it has successfully produced lactic acid and advanced ethanol in a commercial facility that’s capable of producing up to 150,000 liters of chemicals.

The emerging biochemical company specializes in metabolic engineering and microbiology technology to produce sustainable biochemicals and advanced ethanol. Those chemicals can in turn be used as building blocks for applications including biodegradable and non-degradable plastics.

Glycos CEO Rich Cilento told the Cleantech Group when he was in San Francisco for business that his private company has a unique approach compared to 90 percent of companies using sugars as a feedstock, and the commodity price of sugars expected to continue to rise.

His company is using other non sugar-based waste byproducts that come from the chemical, biodiesel, and ethanol industries such as crude glycerin. By designing differentiated microorganisms, Glycos says its bioconversion technology lowers production cost and provides a non-food energy balance savings to the chemical and biofuel industries.

“We want to make sure we can run the equipment at the desired temperature, at the right pH level, and ultimately get the right concentration of chemical,” he said.

The company says is technology platform is competitive with the petrochemical industry, while maintaining 45 to 55 percent gross margins from plant operations. The company is on a path toward scaling its production capabilities, with a focus on global commercialization, Cilento added.

Other non-sugar feedstocks the company is pursuing include fatty acids, crude palm oil, and palm oil fatty acid distillates.

Cilento said Glycos has established one commercial partnership with a company in South America. Though he wouldn’t disclose the company’s name, he said the partner is constructing a facility specifically to use technology from Glycos.

“We are at the point now where people are comfortable with the ability and commercialization and have looked at our plant and said it’s worth putting steel in the ground to invest to get into the production process with our technology,” he said.

He added Glycos is on the verge of closing a second partnership and has four more potential partners in the pipeline in the biodiesel and oleochemical industries, with discussions expected in the next six to nine months.

One of those potential partnerships is interested in making technical-grade ethanol used in medical wipes and other sterile household and personal care products, Cilento said.

“They have the feedstock, and they don’t know what to do with it,” Cilento said of the biodiesel and oleochemical companies.

He said his company can take feedstock valued at $100 to $200 per metric ton on the commodities market and turn it into more than $1,000 per metric ton.

Cilento said the company has also been extremely capital efficient, and because it is commercializing rapidly it won’t need a lot of funding going forward.

Glycos raised $5 million in Series A funding in April 2009 led by DFJ Mercury and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, one of the most active cleantech venture funds in the second quarter of 2009, according to Cleantech Group data (see Cleantech upgrades the industrial sector and Clean technology venture investment rebounds in 2Q09 after two consecutive quarterly declines).
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