CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Flagship
VentureLabs announced today that Midori Renewables is globally
deploying their Breaking the Biomass Barrier™ technology, a novel
catalyst that melts non-food biomass into low cost sugar, enabling
the production of many valuable renewable products and animal feed.
Midori's catalyst is a solid material, not an enzyme,
micro-organism, or aqueous acid, that can be easily separated from
the reaction and reused, resulting in a significantly lower cost
solution than existing technologies.
"We evaluated hundreds of technologies before we invented our
own solid catalyst, which is truly an innovative way to produce
ultra low cost sugars for sustainable bio-based products," said Dr.
Brian Baynes, Founder and Chairman
of Midori and Partner at Flagship VentureLabs. "People have been
trying to cost-effectively break down cellulose in biomass for more
than 100 years, and we have finally done it." Midori's technology
has been shown to be effective on a variety of biomass feedstocks
and can bolt-on to existing corn, sugarcane or palm oil processing
facilities, converting low value cellulosic waste into high value,
usable sugars.
Over the past 12 months, Midori has been testing its technology
in a range of markets including, renewable fuels, renewable
chemicals, food/feed, and consumer goods materials, converting
biomass into sugar at costs as low as pennies per pound.
Midori has already been issued two foundational U.S. patents
on its catalyst technology and has more than 10 additional families
of patents pending worldwide. The company will begin
constructing a commercial demonstration facility in 2014 and is
currently in partnering discussions with several engineering,
procurement and construction firms to build the plant.
Midori is assembling a world class leadership team led by
Daniel Trunfio, President and Chief
Executive Officer. "Midori has made a significant technology
breakthrough, one of the most substantial I have seen in my three
decades in the oil and gas industry," said Mr. Trunfio. "I am very
excited to be leading Midori into its next phase of growth."
Mr. Trunfio has 30 years of domestic and international
experience in the oil and renewable fuels industries. He
began his professional career with Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum
Company in 1984 and held increasing leadership roles including Vice
President and General Manager and led the development and
implementation of Shell's bio-fuel strategies and operations
worldwide. Mr. Trunfio also held senior positions in trading,
supply chain management, marketing and operations.
Midori was founded within Flagship VentureLabs, the innovation
foundry of Flagship Ventures. Dr. Noubar
Afeyan, Managing Partner and CEO of Flagship Ventures, is on
the Board of Directors. "Midori follows a growing list of
disruptive ventures emerging from our VentureLabs unit," said Dr.
Afeyan. "Our technology breakthrough has been well validated
and our patented biomass conversion process promises to transform
the biomass based fuels and chemicals industry in a major way."
Midori has also assembled a scientific advisory board that
includes renowned experts Dr. Charlie
Wyman, Ford Motor Company, Chair and Professor of Chemical
& Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Riverside; Dr.
Richard Bailey, former CEO of
Microbia Inc.; and Dr. Leo Manzer, a
former DuPont executive and DuPont Technical Fellow.
About Midori Renewables
Midori Renewables is globally
deploying their Breaking the Biomass Barrier™ technology that melts
and digests biomass into sugars with a solid, recyclable
catalyst. This catalyst technology will transform the entire
value chain for converting cellulosic biomass to high-quality
sugars. Midori's breakthrough technology overcomes the
limitations of traditional fuels and chemicals derived from fossil
fuels and from food biomass sources. The technology has
already been shown to be effective on a variety of biomass
feedstocks and the company will begin constructing a commercial
demonstration facility in 2014. For more information, please
visit www.midorirenewables.com.
About Flagship VentureLabs
Flagship VentureLabs™ is
the innovation foundry of Flagship Ventures. VentureLabs has
been creating innovative, game changing companies since its
founding in 2000. It is the first institution dedicated to
entrepreneurial innovation and parallel entrepreneuring, where the
acts of technology invention and entrepreneuring are performed in
concert by a team of world-class innovators and professional
entrepreneurs. The VentureLabs team innovates, invents,
iterates, founds and builds startups using a unique, systematic
approach that results in the creation of best-in-class new
ventures. More than 25 life science and technology startups
have been created within VentureLabs, including recently launched
Joule Unlimited, Moderna Therapeutics, Pronutria and Seres
Health. For more information, please visit
www.flagshipventures.com/venturelabs.
About Flagship Ventures
Realizing entrepreneurial
innovation is the mission of Flagship Ventures. The firm operates
through two synergistic units: VentureLabs™ which invents and
launches transformative companies, and Venture Capital, which
finances and develops innovative, early-stage companies. Founded in
2000, and based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Flagship Ventures manages over $900 million in capital. The Flagship team is
active in three principal business sectors: therapeutics, health
technologies and sustainability/clean technology. Past successful
Flagship portfolio companies include: Accuri Cytometers (acquired
by Becton, Dickinson and Company), Adnexus (acquired by
Bristol-Myers Squibb), Hypnion (acquired by Eli Lilly), Agios
(NASDAQ: AGIO), AVEO (NASDAQ: AVEO), BG Medicine (NASDAQ: BGMD),
Receptos (NASDAQ: RCPT), Tetraphase (NASDAQ: TTPH), and Morphotek
(acquired by Eisai). Additional notable portfolio companies
include: Affinnova, BIND Therapeutics, Joule Unlimited, Quanterix,
and Moderna Therapeutics. For more information, please visit
www.flagshipventures.com.
Contact:
For Flagship
Ventures: Rachel Brenner
Ruder Finn
212.715.1623
flagship@ruderfinn.com
SOURCE Flagship Ventures