Green Tech America, Inc. (GTA) is in the business of developing and commercializing an yeast-based cellulosic ethanol technology that was pioneered by Dr. Nancy Ho at Purdue University. Cellulosic biomass (corn cobs and stover, wheat and rice straws, wood, grasses, municipal paper wastes, etc) is renewable and abundantly available in the United States. The application of cellulosic ethanol to transportation will help solve the company's Nation's energy problems, strengthen the company's economy, save the company's environment, and have a beneficial impact on the company's society. GTA is dedicated to making the production of cellulosic ethanol a reality in this country. The goal of GTA is to establish a cutting-edge company that supports and collaborates with ethanol producers to make the production of cellulosic ethanol a highly profitable business. Based on the Cellulosic Ethanol Yeast Technology developed by Dr. Ho and her colleagues at Purdue University, GTA will optimize the technical details and establish a blueprint for cellulosic ethanol production. The "blueprint" will then be licensed to other ethanol producers throughout the US and around the world to establish franchises for cellulosic ethanol production.GTA will provide cells, enzymes, chemicals, project management and technical support to the cellulosic ethanol producers, particularly to the numerous newly established corn-ethanol farmer-owned plants. The goal is to transform such plants to produce both corn- and cellulosic-ethanol. However, GTA's main business at the present time is to help the Purdue researchers engineer the yeast to produce important industrial products that can be produced alone or co-produced during ethanol production. Most importantly, the resulting yeasts can efficiently produce these co-products during the production of ethanol using sugars from both grain and cellulosic biomass as feedstocks.The Saccharomyces co-production technology to be marketed by GTA will make both the current grain-to-ethanol and the emergent cellulosic ethanol process more cost effective and profitable. The first generation of co-products that GTA plans to produce are substances important for animal feed, for the detergent industry, for the paper and fabric industry, as well as others. In addition, GTA will also market high valued products and residues, such as yeast extracts, from the yeast cells. More importantly, GTA will generate a range of other products produced from renewable resources for sustainable growth. GTA will also provide the R&D as well as the technical consultants for all small corn- or cellulosic-ethanol producers.

Suganit Systems Inc is a Reston, VA based company that has received a grant(s) from the Department of Energy's SBIR/STTR program. The abstract(s) for these grant award(s) are provided as well since they provide insights into Suganit Systems Inc's business and areas of expertise. This project will develop a processing method for the conversion of wood, grasses and other nonfood crop feedstocks, into sugars. Ionic liquids (low melting temperature salts) will be used to dramatically ease conversion of biomass sugar polymers to fuel ethanol.

Xylofuel aims to license out patented processes for converting plant fiber to fuel ethanol and other products. University of Maryland researchers discovered a bacterium that can readily digest and ferment various forms of plant fiber to ethanol.

SunEthanol is a Hadley, MA based company that has received a grant(s) from the Department of Energy's SBIR/STTR program. The abstract(s) for these grant award(s) are provided as well since they provide insights into SunEthanol's business and areas of expertise. Improved technologies are needed to enable the economical production of ethanol from renewable biomass resources such as agricultural, lumber, and paper industry wastes. We have discovered a novel microbe, Clostridium phytofermentans, that directly and efficiently converts a broad-range of readily available and relatively inexpensive biomass sources to ethanol. The goal of this project is to develop a simplified and less expensive commercial process to convert biomass to ethanol This project will develop technology for economically producing ethanol fuel from plant materials, by utilizing genetic information to significantly reduce the cost of biomass-to-ethanol conversion. This project will make use of microbial genome information to bridge science with a technology that overcomes a major barrier to cellulosic ethanol production. The project will advance the commercialization of a process that significantly reduces the cost of converting cellulosic biomass to ethanol fuel.

Energex is a producers of residential and industrial wood pellet fuel in North America. Wood pellet fuel is an environmentally friendly and renewable source of energy that is manufactured from sawdust and other waste wood.

Vital Renewable Energy Company (VREC) is a renewable energy company focused on the development of sugar cane based ethanol and electricity generation in Brazil, as well as related infrastructure projects. VREC is constructing and will operate greenfield sugar cane ethanol facilities with already developed agricultural plans and make opportunistic investments in existing ethanol facilities. VREC has partnered with Grupo Farias, a experienced Brazilian ethanol producer, in order to benefit from its operational expertise and ability to identify strategic opportunities, allowing VREC to promptly capture a share in its market.