Biocatalysis

We are now moving into biofuels of the non-alcohol variety, and our first profile is Amyris Biotechnologies. The offspring of Jay Keasling’s synthetic biology research and vision, Emeryville, CA-based Amyris Biotechnologies has made a double impact. First, the company, with more than $40 million of backing from the Bill Gates’ Institute for One World Health charity, developed a microbial route to the anti-malarial compound artemisinin.  In and of itself this work was a stunningly successful scientific achievement, and the resulting process has been licensed to Sanofi-Aventis for low-cost manufacturing and distribution in the third world.

But how does that relate to biofuels? Well, the basic pathway to the anti-malarial drug relied on the engineering of the mevalonate pathway to produce a key terpene intermediate. Terpenes are hydrocarbons, and therefore the same basic science, with appropriate tweaking, can be applied to produce fuel compounds. And according to the company, a desired fuel compound can be selected based on its properties (flash point, cloud point, boiling point, density, fuels value, etc), and then the pathway to produce it can be designed. Voila! You have a designer fuel. And terpenes are natural fuel compounds: they are hydrocarbons, like gasoline and diesel, and do not suffer from the limitations that alcohols (particularly ethanol) have as fuels. If you want to put something into your gas tank or jet engine, a designer hydrocarbon is likely to be superior to any alcohol. At least that is what Amyris argues.

Amyris has the backing of a well-heeled group of VCs: Kleiner Perkins, TPG Biotech, and DAG Ventures. In my humble opinion, Amyris is at the head of the class when it comes to biofuels work. Economics remain to be proven, but Amyris has formed a joint venture with the second largest Brazilian sugar producer, Crystalsev, to get access to inexpensive sugar feedstock, and the first demonstration plant is scheduled to be built right on the sugar plantation in Brazil by 2010.  It will produce a biodiesel (with the interesting name of “No Compromise^TM”), currently being piloted at Amyris’ Emerville facility. Amyris promises that a bio-gasoline and a bio-aviation fuel are not far behind. If any company can make terpene-based fuels successfully, Amyris appears to be that company.