Thursday, October 04, 2007

Supercrude Scum: The Algae-To-Biodiesel Battle

Most greentech watchers have lost their sense of wonder over the fact that pond scum, a.k.a. algae, could be one of the most efficient ways to make biofuels for our cars. These tiny chemical factories can turn sunlight and nutrients into fuel with an efficiency unrivaled by traditional crops, all while using the CO2 that would otherwise go into the atmosphere. It seems almost impossibly promising, which is one reason that a host of companies working with algae, including Solazyme, GreenFuel, GreenShift, and Inventure Chemical have all received funding in the past year.

Of course, there are also host of problems (VCs might call them opportunities) involved in actually creating energy from algae. These problems mimic those of agriculture: there is a constant trade-off between the yield and the amount of money required to invest in the “crops’”production. The two culture methods — open and closed pond systems — each have their pros and cons. In the open system, the algae grow in what are essentially just ponds. It’s cheap, but keeping out “weed” organisms is difficult. Closed pond systems, on the other hand, work more like greenhouses. They are expensive to construct but it’s much easier to regulate the growing conditions.

Today’s startup profiles look at two algae-to-biofuel companies, Live Fuels and Solix Biofuels. When it comes to both culture systems and funding, the two have taken divergent approaches, but they aim to have the same end product: biocrude (or as Live Fuels calls it, “supercrude”). Instead of attempting to convert algae directly into ethanol or biodiesel, these companies are attempting to create green crude that could be fed directly through the nation’s current refinery system. If it works, the technology would require fewer changes to the nation’s energy infrastructure than other biofuel approaches currently out there.

Company: Live Fuels Hometown: Menlo Park, Calif. Founder: Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones Financing: $10 million In Their Corner: Quercus Trust, Sandia National Labs Product: Biocrude CoreTech: Open-pond algae bioreactors Commercialization: 2010

Company: Solix Biofuels Hometown: Fort Collins, Colo. Founder: Jim Sears Financing: NA In Their Corner: Colorado State University Product: Biocrude CoreTech: Closed-pond algae bioreactors Commercialization: 2009?

Live Fuels has received $10 million in financing from the Quercus Trust, David Gelbaum’s well-known environmental funding group. The company believes that driving down costs is paramount to pushing out their technology, so they are taking the open-pond approach to algae culturing. A major component of the group’s core technology is the cultivation of an open-pond ecology that keeps high-value algae producing while preventing unwanted natural competitors from taking over. Working with scientists from Sandia National Labs, Live intends to be price competitive with crude oil.

Solix Biofuels is a venture that consists of private entrepreneurs Jim Sears and Doug Henston, Colorado State professor Bryan Wilson, and Colorado State University itself. Working to refine and scale Sears’ original bioreactor design, the group has called on the resources of CSU’s Engine and Energy Conversion Laboratory in constructing a working prototype of the closed-tank bioreactor. Simply put, the system grows algae in cheap plastic tubes, which keep out unwanted algae while keeping capital costs low.

The company has said that construction will begin this year on its first, large-scale bioreactor at the New Belgian Brewery in Fort Collins, Colo., where waste CO2 produced in the making of delicious beers like our personal favorite, Fat Tire, will be used to feed the algae. Solix eventually plans to license its technology, a process the company believes will speed its product to market without the huge capital investment necessary to build its own plants.

Algae is the most promising biofuel “crop” on a per-acre basis, but the technical hurdles involved in finding (or bioengineering) the right oil-producing algae, the right nutrient mix, the right culturing system, and the right business model mean that scale production of any type of fuel from algae is probably a long way off. Still, it’s going to be an exciting bout to watch as all these startups move through the various stages of funding and start to turn these ideas into factories and fuel.

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Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Bailong Elevator - China

Bailong elevator Bailong elevatorDeputyDog has compiled a list of some of the most interesting elevators in the world. And among them is this Bailong elevator in China.
This controversial 326 metre high elevator takes you up the side of one of the many enormous cliffs in zhangjiajie, china - the lower 1/3 running from a cavern through the rock, the top 2/3 rising outside to the summit - and is the highest and heaviest outdoor elevator in the world. the elevator has an uncertain future due to the potential harm caused to the surrounding landscape.
More elevators after the jump.

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On-demand host goes up against Amazon S3

Flexiscale, a new UK-based on-demand computing service aimed at Web 2.0 startups plans to compete with Amazon's EC2/S3 service. The move - announced at today's Future of Web Apps conference in London - is significant because there are so few 'pay as you go' hosting solutions in Europe, so the launch of a new service shows there's real demand of this kind of scalable hosting for startups. Speaking to a few people about this space, I hear that architecturally Flexiscale could well have a better product than Amazon. That's a big claim. But perhaps one of the key feathers in Flexiscale's service is that it supports Windows while Amazon only does Linux, and offers an SLA, which the latter doesn't. For more detail on this check out TechCrunch UK.

See our recent coverage of Nirvanix, a U.S. based S3 competitor as well.

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Microsoft Acquires Social Shopping Network Jellyfish

October 1, 2007 — 11:43 PM PDT — by Kristen Nicole Share This

We've just caught wind that Microsoft has acquired Jellyfish, the Wisconsin-based social shopping site. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and the official announcement has not yet been made, but is expected very soon.

Jellyfish will remain its own entity under the Microsoft umbrella, and all of Jellyfish's 26 employees will stay on board. Co-founded by Brian Wiegand and Mark McGuire, this is the third company that Wiegand has sold, including Business Filings which was sold to a Dutch publishing company in 2002 for $14 million. Jellyfish had also raised about $5 million a year ago, with much of the funding going towards the improvement of Jellyfish's search technology and social components for shopping online.

It's expected that Jellyfish will be incorporated into Windows Live search, but its extensive social networking components and live games, including Smack Shopping, are the crowning jewels of its social shopping experience. With Microsoft's revised focus on growing its online presence in the social networking realm, this may be more heavily incorporated into some of Windows Live's other services, such as its niche community or moms.

Microsoft has also announced that it will be tweaking its ad platform for Windows Live Search, which will shift more attention to the quality of prominent ad placement. Yahoo has incorporated some fun shopping tools on its portal as well, with the promotion of the Woot Daily Deal. DivX has also swapped Google for Yahoo to power its search or its online video-sharing networks.

[via Wisconsin State Journal]

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TringMe: Phone Free Click To Call

Nearly every VOIP related startup has their own click-to-call widget, Jajah, Jangl, Jaxtr, and even GrandCentral. These widgets let you easily and sometimes anonymously set up a call with friends over the web. They're very useful and come packed with features like voicemail and texting. However, each of these services connects phones to phones, which still eats away at your mobile minutes while you're talking to that business contact or MySpace hottie.

TringMe offers a bit more flexibility. Callers can ditch their phone and call directly through their Flash widget to your mobile phone, landline, and GTalk (Yahoo and Skype coming soon). All they need is a microphone and one click. Although they're still in private beta, you can try the demo widget to the right for an idea of the experience.

Similar to the other services, your phone number is kept private and the calls are free (now's the time for that overseas call). You can also set the widget to just receive voicemails, which are emailed to you, saved on your standard mailbox, or recorded and played back in GTalk. There is one major drawback, though. Since there is no virtual phone number involved, callers have to be at a computer and can't call you while they're on the go.

Naturally such an easy and anonymous calling service is susceptible to abuse, and I don't see any countermeasures in place to keep out prank calls and telemarketers. The other services have verified phone numbers and white/black lists to keep abuse to a minimum. I expect TringMe will have to incorporate similar controls to make people more comfortable with using the widget.

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