BP invests in carbon negative biofuel/biochar company
December 30, 2011
By
Scott Jamieson
Dec 30, 2011, Camarillo, CA - BP Technology Ventures has
made an investment in Cool Planet Biofuels Inc.'s C Round along with investments by the company's current investors, General Electric, Google
Ventures, ConocoPhillips, NRG and North Bridge Venture Partners.
Cool Planet BioFuels is developing bio based renewable, reduced carbon
gasoline that can be blended with conventional gasoline and used in
today's vehicles, while also producing a similar mass of biochar that can be buried in the ground for both soil enhancement and carbon sequestration (see technology brief here). The result according to the company is a carbon negative fuel.
In addition to BP and ConocoPhillips, several other
energy companies are in the process of testing and evaluating Cool
Planet's fuel with very good results to date. The company expects to
announce additional energy company strategic relationships throughout
2012.
Cool Planet's renewable gasoline is chemically indistinguishable from
crude oil derived product and can only be detected by radiocarbon
isotope analysis.
The company completed its B Round financing in the spring of 2011 and
has pulled in its C Round a year ahead of schedule in order to
accelerate the development of its modular fuel production plants. Cool
Planet expects to deploy hundreds of relatively low cost modular plants
around the country in the next few years to make effective use of
available biomass without incurring high transportation costs. Raw materials can range from agricultural residues to low value woody biomass. Cool
Planet's Energy Systems Division plans to mass produce these plants on a
production line basis. Cool Planet's BioFuels division plans to team
with various strategic partners to produce fuel using this equipment.
More information on the company, its goals and technology can be found here.
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