Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum

Professor Sossina M. Haile Materials Science and of Chemical Engineering , California Institute Of Technology

Alternative Fuels Clean Tech investor, Lux Capital, citing a rise in oil prices, market size and policy recently noted that investors have been lured to alternative fuel technologies since 2004 [shifting] focus to flexible technologies capable of converting waste and cellulosic feedstocks into a variety of fuels and chemicals. In biofuels, the use of algae has attracted a lot of attention as an economical alternative to biofuel production. By using specialized algae that are robust and able to withstand true industrial conditions on a commercial basis, output can be at least one or two orders of magnitude better than the best agri¬cultural system.

Caltech Professor Sossina Haile and her group are taking another approach to creating alternative power sources and converting CO2 into fuel using a Ceria and Nickel plus concentrated sunlight system. With this technology they can either produce methane or syngas based on the operating temperature without the need to sequester the CO2.

The transition to flexibility as a successful business strategy is demonstrated by the recent IPOs of Amyris, Solazyme, and Gevo, which brought in a combined $406 million for these three companies that play in both fuels and chemicals. Additionally, Lux tallied up that there were 333 investments in the alternative fuels industry since 2004, totaling $6.46 billion.

This forum will address questions such as where the markets are developing, how entrepreneurs and corporate investors play a role in this space, what impact the recession has had on deal size and investors appetite for risk, and how investment activity varies according to technology type and fuel produced.

Join us on April 14th, 2012, when our program will focus on the business, entrepreneurial and financing opportunities in the alternative fuel clean technology sector.