Biocentric Energy Holdings, Inc. (BEHL)

[Ecomike]

These are the guys that are going to leave BEHL in the dust.

http://finance.paidcontent.org/freelunch/action/linkout?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cleantech.com%2Fnews%2F4648%2Fdow-algenol-build-pilot-algae-based&Title=Dow%2C+Algenol+to+build+pilot+algae-based+biorefinery

I don't BEHL's name anywhere on this, and BEHL has not even rasied 1 million dollars in funding yet:

"South San Francisco, Calif.-based Solazyme has raised $45.4 million, the company confirmed to the Cleantech Group today.

Solazyme had previously raised about $25 million in venture capital, debt and federal grants for its process using fermentation to speed the growth of algae in the dark. Most recently, Solazyme said it raised $5 million in December (see Investors eat up algae and other fuels).

The company didn't release details of the funding, but company Chief Executive Jonathan Wolfson has said he expects Solazyme's diesel to be market-ready by 2010 or 2012.

Solazyme is the only company so far to get approval from the American Society for Testing and Materials for its algae-based diesel, which the company is using to power an SUV at its headquarters, but Wolfson has said it will take a couple years to build a plant capable of producing about 100 million gallons per year.

Solazyme and Naples, Fla.-based Algenol Biofuels are two of the algae based fuel companies specifically touting scalability (see Turning algae into ethanol, and gold).

The investment in Solazyme follows a flurry of announcements from rival algae companies. As predicted in May by Cleantech Group Senior Research Director Brian Fan, algae companies are aggressively raising new rounds to scale their products to keep up with Sapphire Energy, which in May raised $50 million—the single largest round to date by an algae company (see Cleantech investments hit a record high and Governments dole out cash for cleantech).

In June, Alameda, Calif.-based Aurora Biofuels said it raised $20 million, and, in May, GreenFuel Technologies said it closed a Series B round of $13.9 million for technology development and scaling (see Aurora Biofuels lands $20M in Series B).

Other companies in the field include LiveFuels, Aquaflow Bionomic, PetroAlgae, among others. "

and this:

"Midland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) and Algenol Biofuels said today they are teaming up to build a pilot, algae-based integrated biorefinery to convert carbon dioxide into ethanol.

The facility, to be located at Dow’s Freeport, Texas site, is expected to incorporate Algenol’s technology. The company said it has a seawater-based way to inexpensively generate up to a billion gallons of algal ethanol per year in bioreactors (see Turning algae into ethanol, and gold).

Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed, but Algenol said it’s applied for a grant for an unspecified amount from the U.S. Department of Energy to help support the plant. Upon approval, Dow and other collaborators plan to work with Algenol to prove the technology can be achieved on a commercial scale. Other collaborators include National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Membrane Technology & Research.

Dow said it plans to develop the advanced materials and specialty films for the photobioreactor system. Dow is also expected to provide the technology and expertise related to water treatment solutions.

Dow said it plans to provide Algenol with access to a CO2 source for the biorefinery from a nearby Dow manufacturing facility. The CO2 is expected to serve as the carbon source for the ethanol produced. The result, according to a news release, would be a CO2 capture process that converts industrially-derived CO2 into more sustainable fuels and chemicals.

One of Algenol’s competitors, South San Francisco, Calif.-based Solazyme, which has a process using fermentation to speed the growth of algae in the dark, said it plans to build a plant capable of producing about 100 million gallons of algae-based diesel per year (see Solazyme joins algae elite with additional $45M)" from:

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