12. January 2009 by Mykel Pereira.

 EnerG2, Inc.

Call
+1.206.274.6622

Fax
+1.425.650.7012

Email
info@energ2.com

EnerG2, Inc.
810 3rd Avenue, Suite 120
Seattle, WA  98104

About

The Science of Storage

EnerG2 and its state-of-the-art scientific approach to energy storage materials has been backed over the past five years by the public and private sectors.  Among the company’s supporters: the University of Washington, the Washington Technology Center, a state-supported economic development agency that finances applications of university research, WRF Capital of Seattle, Washington, the Sustainability Investment Fund of Portland, Oregon, OVP Venture Partners of Kirkland, Washington, and Firelake Capital Management of Palo Alto, California.

In October 2008, EnerG2 raised $8.5 million in Series A financing. The financing was led by OVP and Firelake.

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about EnerG2:

What does the company do?

EnerG2 engineers advanced nano-structured materials for energy storage breakthroughs.

How important is energy storage to the sustainable economy?

We believe that efficient, reliable and cost-effective clean energy storage will be an essential element of the emerging post-petroleum economy.

What makes EnerG2 different?

EnerG2 approaches the problem with engineered materials solutions; and, from our perspective, it’s the materials that matter in any energy storage device.

Rather than accept the limitations of naturally occurring materials, EnerG2 uses materials science to assemble cutting-edge products at the molecular level. Controlling the molecular structure and assembly process of our engineered materials at the earliest stage possible provides flexibility, lowers costs and maximizes performance. As a result, we are delivering new capabilities and creating fresh opportunities in energy storage.

What is EnerG2 focused on today?

EnerG2 is currently focused on customizing electrode materials to enhance energy and power density in ultracapacitors, one of the essential engines of the new energy economy. Ultracapacitors, which are dependent on the performance of their materials, store and release more energy faster than conventional batteries. The size and make-up of the electrodes’ surface area helps ultracapacitors store and supply large bursts of energy; the materials also effectively enable limitless cycle life.

What are the most promising applications for ultracapacitors?

Ultracapacitors containing EnerG2 materials will be increasingly embraced by the automotive industry for hybrid electric vehicles, by electronics manufacturers for enhancing the life and usability of consumer goods, and by a variety of industrial customers to deliver an ever-increasing breadth of new ways to improve energy efficiency.

What’s next for EnerG2?

In the future, EnerG2 materials may be used to improve natural gas, methane and hydrogen storage as well as lithium-ion batteries.

Technology

The patented and proprietary technology used by EnerG2 is based on nano-structured carbon materials that are finely controlled and offer ultra-high surface areas.  These materials are extremely conductive and are tremendously attractive to energy-storing molecules such as electrolytic ions, methane, natural gas and hydrogen. The result: maximum energy storage that is exceedingly cost effective. Working in collaboration with the University of Washington Department of Materials Science & Engineering, EnerG2 has developed unique sol-gel processing technologies to construct its carbon materials.  Sol-gel processing, which creates optimal structure and purity in the finished carbon product, is a chemical synthesis that gels colloidal suspensions to form solids through heat and catalysts. EnerG2 has invented a patented ability to control the hydrolysis and condensation reactions within the gelling process, and this allows the materials’ surface structures and pore-size distributions to be shaped, molded and customized for a variety of critical energy storage uses. The EnerG2 approach to energy storage material manufacturing is unique.  Most commercially available materials for energy storage are produced from naturally occurring precursors; therefore much of the performance of these derivative materials is determined by natural physical properties of the selected precursor. As a result, important characteristics such as pore-size distribution and purity are fixed within the natural precursor and are merely exposed by competitors’ various processing approaches.  Innovation at EnerG2 is derived from molecular self-assembly; to put it simply, we build our energy storage materials from scratch, and this leads to greater structural control, improved product purity and an ability to escape today’s energy storage performance limitations. EnerG2 has developed these processing capabilities with an explicit and aggressive focus on cost control.  To avoid the expensive processing typically associated with nanotechnology, the company has leveraged large-scale commercial processing technologies from established industries to design a production approach that is both relatively inexpensive and inherently scalable.

EnerG2 focuses its efforts and attention on three core carbon material groups:

• Granules in infinitely variable carbon particle sizes are used to make high-performance electrode materials for ultracapacitors.

• Monoliths are the carbon materials composed of the granules in relatively solid form prior to milling and are used in methane and natural gas storage systems.

• Nano-Composites are created when carbon materials are mixed with chemical and metal hydrides; they are central to hydrogen storage systems.

Posted in Washington, Energy Storage Techs, Automotive Techs, USA | No Comments »

12. January 2009 by Mykel Pereira.

Qteros

100 Campus Drive
Marlborough, MA 01752
Phone: 508-281-4060

About

In just two years, the Qteros team has made remarkable progress enhancing strains of the Q Microbe. Our goal is to keep refining this process until our technology provides the world’s most economical and sustainable transportation energy.

The story of Qteros began in 1996 with a walk near the Quabbin Reservoir in Western Massachusetts. University of Massachusetts microbiologist Dr. Susan Leschine and her lab assistant, Tom Warnick, were looking for a microbe that breaks down plant waste, but they found something far more noteworthy. The microscopic organism they sampled from the mud and later named Clostridium phytofermentans, was isolated and recognized as a novel life form.

Known today as Q Microbe, this tiny organism has an enormous appetite for all types of cellulose and the ability to convert that cellulose directly into ethanol. What the scientists found in a spoonful of dirt has been referred to by the director of the National Renewable Energy Lab as the Holy Grail of cellulosic ethanol.

Qteros has worked with this remarkable microbe to develop and commercialize a pioneering, clean fuel technology that comes from the earth. By overcoming the recalcitrance of cellulose to release the sugars deep within the plant cell wall, the Q Microbe does today what other researchers hope to do sometime in the next decade. The company’s proprietary Complete Cellulosic Conversion (C3) process simplifies and dramatically improves the economics of the equation.

Qteros technology is impressively versatile. It breaks down and ferments many types of non-food plant and tree waste in an ethanol-producing process that doesn’t compete with the food industry. It reduces the conventional two-step conversion process to one step, saving time, money, and energy. In addition, our patented Q Microbe is naturally occurring, and the process is sustainable and very close to carbon neutral.

Technology

Creating a clean, sustainable, domestic transportation fuel from non-food sources requires scientific ingenuity and disciplined, hard work. The Qteros team is on the technology development path to achieve this ambitious goal with the Q Microbe.

Q-Microbe
The Q Microbe (Clostridium phytofermentans) is a super-bug. This lollipop-shaped microscopic organism has unique properties that make it ideally suited to the production of cellulosic ethanol from a variety of non-food plant materials.

Fig. 1 - What is lignocellulosic biomass?

Typically, cellulosic biomass goes through an intensive pretreatment step. Then enzymes are used to break down the biomass into simple sugars suitable for fermentation by yeast into ethanol. These enzymes, along with the intensive pretreatment required for their use, are the largest single-cost component of cellulosic ethanol production. The Qteros team has developed the technology to eliminate the need for a separate enzymatic breakdown step that also broadens pretreatment options.

The Q Microbe breaks down a wide variety of plant materials, including corn residues, cane bagasse, woody biomass, cellulose waste, and more. It produces prodigious amounts of ethanol by generating its own enzymes and then fermenting the C5 and C6 sugars. The microbe can be engineered to optimize ethanol output from a specific plant material, increasing net energy yield for the whole system. It is the “yeast” component of the conventional bioconversion process plus the enzyme component, all in one.

The C3 Process

Overcoming the difficulty and expense of breaking down plant material is one of the biggest challenges facing the emerging cellulosic ethanol industry. Solving this is the key to a low-cost solution, and Qteros has that solution.

Fig. 1 - Conventional cellulosic ethanol production
versus the C3 Process

In our proprietary Complete Cellulosic Conversion (C3) process, the Q Microbe simultaneously decomposes and ferments cellulosic biomass to ethanol. It converts both cellulose and hemicellulosic plant material. This remarkable microbe not only eliminates the need for costly enzymes, it simplifies the entire ethanol production process, allowing for pre-treatments that are easier on the environment.

Getting More for Less
This ability of the Q Microbe to convert all of the fermentable components of biomass to ethanol enables the C3 process to have higher yields than other bioconversion processes. By avoiding the cost associated with the production, purification, and application of specific enzyme cocktails, it offers cost savings to facilitate large-scale ethanol production from a wide variety of cellulosic biomass. It also allows for a broader range of pretreatment options with further cost savings.

Posted in Biomass Techs, Biofuel Techs, Massachusetts, USA | No Comments »

12. January 2009 by Mykel Pereira.

Cape Town, South Africa

About

Optimal Energy (Pty) Ltd is a privately owned South African company based in Cape Town, headed-up by CEO Kobus Meiring. He founded Optimal Energy in 2005 with Mike Lomberg, Jian Swiegers and Gerhard Swart. An investment from the Innovation Fund (IF), an instrument of the Department of Science and Technology of the South African Government made this venture possible. The founders together with Diana Blake and Ratilal Rowji are the executive management team of Optimal Energy. The current shareholders in Optimal Energy comprise executive management, the IF and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa.

The Vision

The world’s finite energy sources are being used inefficiently and urban transport plays a major role in energy wastage and climate changing pollution. Optimal Energy aims to change that by specialising in and delivering class leading solutions for urban transport. It is Optimal Energy’s vision to establish and lead an electric vehicle industry in South Africa and to expand globally.

Optimal Energy therefore capitalises on the opportunity presented by the exponential increase in oil costs and the dramatic improvement in battery price, lifecycle and performance. Its value proposition is made more compelling when environmental influencers such as increasing pollution, climate change and other phenomena caused by the rapid increase in urbanisation are considered. And most significantly the comparatively affordable technology required for the electric vehicles is ready now. A solution that produces zero emissions, the highest wheel-to-wheel efficiency and minimal lifecycle footprint. Better still, a solution that requires minimal support infrastructure.

The Team

Optimal Energy employs more than 70 staff and is expanding rapidly. 80% of the ever-growing team have University degrees, a substantial compliment of who have both masters and PhDs. Their passion for renewable, clean energy is m

anifested in Joule, the company’s first product offering set to transform the face of the urban transportation landscape. Developed in association with Keith Helfet and a team of dedicated experts in Cape Town, the battery electric MPV is nothing short of a world-class innovative triumph.

Product

Joule is Africa’s first battery electric engineering masterpiece from Optimal Energy. The silent passenger MPV is manufactured as a standard six-seater which complies with UN-ECE safety standards offering an optimal, no-compromise, and zero emission urban driving experience.

Joule is as beautiful and elegant as it is stylish with a classically timeless appeal set to transform the face of the urban transportation landscape. Developed from the outset as an electric vehicle, Joule delivers optimal design, maximum interior space and a minimal exterior and environmental footprint.

• Maximum 400km Range
• Regenerative ABS Braking system
• Steel space frame and side impact protection
• Two dynamic drive train options
• Excellent vehicle handling and dynamics
• Sports-like acceleration from standstill
• Optimal interior space with minimal exterior footprint

Posted in Automotive Techs | No Comments »