BioFuels Journal

Hadley, MA—SunEthanol has raised $25 million in Series B financing from a consortium including BP and Soros Fund Management LLC, and is changing its name effective immediately to Qteros.

The new name refers to its breakthrough Q Microbe™ technology for producing sustainable liquid fuel from non-food plants and wastes.

Leading the Series B financing is new investor Venrock, with previous investor Battery Ventures.

Also participating are Soros Fund Management LLC and BP, both new, and Series A investors Long River Ventures and Camros Capital.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced November 18 Qteros' new name and funding in a speech in Boston at the Fourth Conference on Clean Energy.

The biofuels startup that began with a professor's discovery in the woods of Massachusetts of an exceptionally efficient microbe for making cellulosic ethanol will now scale up from the pilot plant to commercial operations, and hire additional engineers and scientists, officials said.

"Qteros and the Q Microbe(TM) will make a major contribution to achieving the two-pronged objective of energy independence and reduced emissions of global warming gases," said company President and CEO Dr. Bill Frey, who led DuPont's biofuels division until June.

"These partners will allow us to get to market with people who are experts in building very large and valuable companies."

Steve Goldby of Venrock commented, "Qteros' microbial approach to the production of cellulosic ethanol has the potential to revolutionize the production of clean energy for the country."

Congress has mandated production of 36 billion gallons a year of biofuels -- 16 billion gallons of which must be cellulosic ethanol such as Qteros is working to produce.

That would figure prominently in President-elect Obama's plan to reduce America's dependence on foreign fossil fuels by investing $150 billion in clean energy technology over 10 years.

Dr. Susan Leschine, Qteros' Chief Scientist and co-founder, is the University of Massachusetts, Amherst microbiology professor who, nearly 10 years ago, first collected a sample of the Q Microbe™ near the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts.

"Qteros is discovering ever-more productive strains of this amazing microbe," she said.

Led by Dr. Sarad Parekh, Vice President of R&D;, the Qteros lab has already achieved an over 15- fold increase in converting cellulosic plant material to ethanol with its C3 (Complete Cellulosic Conversion) platform.

For more information, call 301-887-1060.