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Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Qteros, UMass Amherst land biofuels production patent
By Mass High Tech staff
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Cellulosic ethanol technology company Qteros Inc. and the University of Massachusetts Amherst have been granted a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its new ethanol production technology using biomass fermentation.
The patent, called “Systems and Methods for Producing Biofuels and Related Materials,” is based on the company’s Q Microbe, a naturally occurring anaerobic microorganism developed by Qteros founder, UMass Amherst professor and 2009 Mass High Tech Woman to Watch Susan Leschine and research associate Thomas Warnick.
“While traditional cellulosic ethanol processes require numerous production steps, including the addition of costly exogenous enzymes, use of the Q Microbe£ lowers costs by simultaneously hydrolyzing polysaccharides into simple sugars and fermenting all of these sugars into desirable products in a single-tank operation,” said Qteros senior vice president and CTO Kevin Gray.
The Q Microbe has worked, according to the company, with feedstocks such as wheat straw, sugar cane, bagasse, energy crops such as switchgrass, and agricultural residues like corn stover, cob and fiber. The technology, and patent, all point to Qteros’ goal of low-cost cellulosic ethanol production.
The Marlborough-based, privately held company is a spinout of UMass Amherst and is backed by venture capital firms Venrock of Cambridge, Battery Ventures of Waltham and Long River Ventures of Amherst. Early this year, the company replaced CEO William Frey with industrial biotechnology veteran John McCarthy.
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