A company, pursuing a breakthrough technology in making biofuels and biochemicals, is turning to spacesuit and inflatable materials maker ILC Dover.
“Proterro has reached its Q1 sugar-production pilot milestones,” CEO Kef Kasdin reported in a release. “While sugar production has begun at low levels, it has been controllable, meaning that we can increase sugar productivity as predicted. We also consistently saw no contamination effect on productivity”
Using a photobioreactor, the company believes that the process can be scaled upward for higher production. The company is developing a next-generation photobioreactor being with ILC Dover Kasdin said. an updated iteration of the photobioreactor is due for installation later this quarter.
“Because the photobioreactor is a major component of our process, finding the right company to help create one that would have all the qualities necessary for a successful – and affordable – outcome was crucial to our progress. Our search ended when we were referred to ILC,” she said,
The Delaware-based company “closely collaborated with our own engineers to create a modular, robust, collapsible structure that would integrate systems for optimizing light, water supply and sugar collection,” Kasdin said. “Together, we continue to improve the photobioreactor’s design as it has been put to the test.”
“Venturing into the renewable energy market with such an innovative company as Proterro was and remains the right fit,” said ILC Dover President Fran DiNuzzo.
Proterro is producing sucrose instead of extracting it from crops or deconstructing cellulosic materials. Proterro has developed a patented sugar-making process using carbon dioxide, sunlight and water, and using patented sugar-producing cyanobacteria with patent-pending photobioreactors for cultivating the microorganisms.
The process yields a fermentation-ready sucrose stream, removing the price volatility that comes with crop-based feedstock and eliminating the complex and costly steps required to produce cellulosic sugars derived from biomass, according to the company release. For more information, visit www.proterro.com
ILC, based in Frederica, has facilities in the United States and Europe, ILC has more than 450,000 square feet of office, development and manufacturing space. For more information, visit www.ilcdover.com.
In addition to spacesuits, ILC develops inflatable and flexible materials that can be used in blimps and other aerospace applications.
It has also developed inflatable technology that aims to seal off tunnels from storm water. New York City is seeking such technology after Hurricane Sandy.
Last year, ILC Dover and its investment company owner bought Grayling Industries, an industrial packaging company. ILC moved Grayling operations in Mexico to a site in Seaford.
Work on the technology comes at a time when companies are pursuing ways to produce fuel additives that don’t use chemicals from fossil fuels or corn kernels in biofuels.
DuPont Co. is building a plant in Iowa that will use corn stover material left over after the harvest to produce biofuels.
