Qteros Inc., a biofuels company with roots at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has entered a partnership with Praj Industries, of India, a global leader in the construction of ethanol plants.
Now based in Marlborough but with plans to open a demonstration ethanol facility in Chicopee in coming weeks, Qteros will team with Praj to offer what Qteros president John A. McCarthy Jr. hopes will be "the industry's low-cost solution" for large-scale production of ethanol from materials such as wood, grass and non-edible parts of plants.
In addition, Qteros announced last week it has raised an additional $22 million in investment funds, bringing the total raised to about $52 million. Among the investors to date are Soros Fund Management LLC, Valero Energy Corporation and BP AE Ventures.
With the race on to find alternatives to oil as a source of fuel, companies are searching for methods to produce ethanol more cheaply.
Qteros is pinning its hopes on a microbe discovered by a University of Massachusetts researcher in the soils around Quabbin Reservoir. In March, the company received a patent for the "Q Microbe," as it's been named.
Ethanol is typically produced through a multistep process involving two sets of microbes that work to break down plant cells into simple sugars and then ferment the sugars into ethanol. However, the Q microbe has proven it can do the jobs of both microbes, thus reducing the overall costs.
Praj Industries has built nearly 450 ethanol plants on five continents. One strategy for the company is to retrofit conventional ethanol plants so that they can make use of Qteros' process.
Qteros, which employs about 50 people, plans to license its process to ethanol producers. The partnership with Praj is non-exclusive.
Qteros expects to open a 15,000-square-foot facility in Chicopee soon that will demonstrate the company's ethanol process on a less than full-scale commercial scale.
Biofuels Digest recently named Qteros number 21 on its list of the 50 hottest companies in bioenergy.
