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Print Edition StoriesWednesday, October 7, 2009
Qteros finds new Mass. plant site, joins in sewage-based ethanol tech
By Mass High Tech staff
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Qteros Inc., the UMass Amherst spinout focused on biofuels development, has determined the location of its $3.2 million pilot plant in Western Massachusetts, and it's preparing for a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, Qteros executive vice president Jef Sharp said.
The plant, to be located in a 16,000-square-foot facility at Air Park West near Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, is expected to manufacture biofuels by converting plant matter into ethanol on a small scale beginning in 2010. Sharp noted that the plant could ramp up to full-scale manufacturing at the same location if the site operates successfully on a small scale — but that's a second-tier goal. The third-tier goal, which would have the Chicopee plant manufacturing the company's Q Microbe on a grander scale, could potentially see 150 workers employed at the site. Sharp said that plan relies on whether the company wins a $22.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which he said the company will find out by the end of the year.
In a separate announcement on Tuesday, Qteros formed a joint development project with Israeli commodities recycling firm Applied Cleantech (ACT). ACT uses its Recyllose-based feedstock — municipal wastewater solids — to make ethanol. The joint project has resulted with ethanol produced from cellulose in both municipal and agricultural liquid waste.
"It shows the versatility of the Q Microbe," said Sharp. "The fact that it can make ethanol from munical waste...it's a surprise feedstock."
Last year, Marlborough-based Qteros raised $25 million in a round of private funding that included local venture capital firms Venrock of Cambridge, Battery Ventures of Waltham and Long River Ventures of Amherst.
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