Silicon Valley startups turn woodchips into biofuel
Silicon Valley Business Journal
Silicon Valley startups turn woodchips into biofuel
By Mary Duan
Published: August 20, 2010
Silicon Valley and venture-backed companies want to turn wood waste into fuel, and if that happens, this multibillion-dollar market opportunity could bring more jobs and more businesses to Santa Clara County and surrounding cities.
The efforts would be started by public-private partnerships that would develop processing plants.
One of these partnerships would be between the city of San Jose and the venture-backed Harvest Power Inc. that could someday see biomethane fueling stations pop up around the city. A second venture involves Mountain View-based Cobalt Technologies Inc., which is in the early stages of designing a demonstration-scale plant to process wood waste and manufacture an estimated 1 million gallons annually of biobutanol.