Tuesday, March 20, 2007

RED HERRING | Earthanol Raises $7.1M For Waste-to-Ethanol Plant

"Cleantech startup Earthanol has raised $7.1 million in venture funding to make ethanol from waste, said company CEO Larry Folks on Wednesday. The financing was led by Sail Venture Partners, the seed capital investor in company. Other investors are Nth Power, @Ventures and Calvert Social Investment Funds.

Earthanol is an early-stage company that is developing a project to convert waste-products to ethanol. Unlike typical ethanol producers, Earthanol is trying to utilize a cheese industry waste called whey permeate, an acidic by-product that is generally considered environmentally harmful. Earthanol will also try to utilize forestry biomass and municipal waste containing high energy content.

Ethanol-analyst Rick Kment of DTM said that Earthanol’s way to produce ethanol will probably not be a significant competitor to corn-ethanol in the short term, but he said it was good to focus on alternatives to corn-based ethanol."

No comments: