Thursday, May 20, 2010

Ceres, Novozymes In Biofuels Collaboration

Thousand Oaks-based Ceres, a developer of biofuel crop technology, and Novozymes, a developer of enzymes, said today that the two have entered into a research collaboration around cellulosic biofuel production. The companies said that they will co-develop customized plant varieties and enzyme cocktails used in production of cellulosic biofuel, which will lead to greater fuel yields and lower capital and operating costs. Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed. The firms said they will determine the best enzyme cocktails for biorefining Ceres' commercial switchgrass seed products, and will also evaluate sweet sorghum. Ceres is working on both crops to optimize the amount of sugar which can be used to produce biofuel. Ceres is backed by Warburg Pincus, Soros Private Equity, QuestMark Partners, Oxford BioScience, Oppenheimer, Monsanto, KBC, H&Q, and GIMV.

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