Can we find a clean, planet-friendly fuel to power our cars? Electric cars will take a decade, at least, to have a majorimpact on climate change, while corn ethanol has a slew of well-documented problems. Investors and the government are increasingly focused on so-called next-generation biofuels, which turn sustainable feedstocks (not food-stocks) into transportation fuels.
Dozens and perhaps hundreds of companies are frantically searching for the perfect biofuel. One is Qteros, a Massachusetts-based startup, spun off from Umass-Amherst, that has discovered and refined a microbe called the Q Microbe that turns biomass—switchgrass, wood chips, grass, corn stover or even municipal liquid waste—into ethanol. Qteros’s CEO is Dr. William Frey, former global director of biofuels at Dupont, who recently told a reporter that the company is “basically trying to become the Microsoft of energy.
Since Qteros was formed in 2006, the company has raised about $30 million from venture capital firms, big companies, individuals and, yes, taxpayers like you. The investors include Battery Ventures, BP, Camros Capital, Long River Ventures, the Quantum Group of Funds (advised by George
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