Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Cool Planet BioFuels Starts Road Testing

Camarillo-based Cool Planet Biofuels, the cellulosic biofuels developer backed by BP, Shea Ventures, General Electric, Google Ventures, ConocoPhillips, NRG and North Bridge Venture Partners, announced today that it has received approval from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to begin fleet-testing its low carbon gasoline. Cool Planet is developing a process to convert low-grade biomass such as grass and woodchips, into gasoline. According to the firm, it first road test will involve combining its fuel with California standard E-10 gasoline. Cool Planet Biofuels said that its process is carbon negative, and actually produces a byproduct which can sequester carbon and be used as a soil conditioner. The company is currently using corn cobs for its process, although the company says "virtually any" kind of biomass can be used in its process.

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