news
2007 news archive
18.10.07
Funding Round £1.58 million
GBL has completed a funding round of £1.58 million. This involved existing shareholders as well as new investors, Carbon Trust Investments and Oxford Capital Partners who led the investment round. GBL will use part of this investment to fund scale up of its proprietary ButafuelTM fermentation programme using model waste feedstocks at pilot plant scale in its extended laboratory facilities. Dr Edward Green commented: "We are delighted to have secured the new investment we need to scale up our butanol fermentation process. It is great to have the support of our existing shareholders and we welcome Carbon Trust Investments Limited and Oxford Capital Partners on board as new investors".
02.10.07
GBL Strengthens the Scientific Team
GBL has strengthened its scientific team and taken on several new members within Strain Development and Fermentation. These scientists bring extensive experience which will facilitate the development of the ButafuelTM programme.
GBL has also appointed Martin Comberbach as a Process Engineering Consultant to help scale up and commercialise the proprietary butanol production. Martin is a biochemical engineer with over 25 years experience in R & D, bioprocess design, and project engineering. He has held senior positions at GSK Biologicals s.a., Metris Therapeutics Ltd. and more recently as Director of Global Manufacturing at GeneMedix Plc. He founded Comberbach Consulting Ltd. in April, 2005 and is based in Milton, Oxfordshire.
14.09.07
GBL Opens New Laboratory
GBL has completed an expansion project to refit 2500ft2 of warehouse space adjacent to the current premises into purpose built laboratory facilities. This new open plan laboratory area comprises of dedicated areas for molecular biology, microbiology, fermentation and process demonstration.
The official laboratory opening took place on 14th September, where Sir Martin Woods and Rick De Blaby kindly said a few words relating to growth and support for early stage technology Companies. Dr Andrew Rickman (Chairman) outlined plans for the Company before cutting a ribbon and declaring the labs open.
GBL has also converted the existing lab space into 1700ft2 of office and meeting facilities. This expansion project will enable GBL to increase double in size, speeding up technical development of its proprietary biofuel process (ButafuelTM).
Dr Edward Green CEO comments "This is an exciting time for the company. This new laboratory space will accommodate extra growth and help us develop and commercialise our advanced fermentation technologies for renewable fuels and chemicals"
01.01.07
Grant funding awarded
GBL and EKB have been awarded grant funding of £250,000 from the dti technology programme for collaborative R&D. This matched funding will enable GBL to speed up development of an advanced fermentation process for the production of butanol, a renewable liquid biofuel for transportation. GBL's expertise in microbial strain development together with EKB's innovative process technology should lead to a step change in the economic viability of the manufacturing process.
GBL has identified biobutanol as a superior "next generation" biofuel for transport that can easily be integrated into the existing fuel infrastructure, The conventional biological route for butanol is the clostridial acetone-butanol fermentation of starch. This process was first commercialised in 1916 but gradually displaced by a petrochemical process after World War II. The major barrier is the high cost of the fermentation due to low butanol titre, yield and productivity. GBL aims to re-commercialise the fermentation route for butanol by leveraging its technical expertise to drive down the cost of manufacture.
01.01.07
GBL Appoints Feedstock Advisors
Green Biologics Ltd (GBL) has appointed two advisors who are specialists in edible and forestry feedstocks. Their combined experience will help identify the best feedstock opportunities and accelerate commercialisation of GBL's proprietary biofuel process based on butanol. Dr Edward Green, founder and CEO of Green Biologics, comments: " This a very exciting time for GBL and I am delighted at these appointments. Their expertise will be invaluable as we seek to demonstrate our process at scale and expand our customer base".
Stephen Vaux
Steve has been involved for over 25 years in the identification, planning, development and management of a variety of large integrated agricultural and food businesses. Following extensive involvement in palm oil, he spent over a decade seconded as a senior manager to two successful public companies establishing and growing sugar cane for sugar and ethanol production on a large scale, with Booker Tate Limited part of the Remgro Group.
Robert Rickman
Robert graduated with an MA and MSc in Agriculture and Forestry from Oxford University. He is a non-executive director of Highland Timber PLC, the AIM quoted forestry owning company, CSC LLC, a private sawmilling company in Washington State, USA and a number of private forestry companies. Previously he was director of Forestry Investment Management Limited and responsible for the business management of 50,000 ha of plantation forests in the UK and 17,000 ha in New Zealand.