Tom's Tech Tweets » ARPA-E

ARPA-E produces the next “Energy Google”

Tom Schulz — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 10:49:32 +0000

BioCee is mentioned in Kevin Bohn’s and Jessica Yellin’s article on the CNN website which gives a good overview on the ARPA-E program’s potential in the energy and job markets. They quoted us:

Tom Schulz, co-founder of BioCee, which does research in solar fuels, said the program will produce the next “Energy Google.”
“We don’t know which company of the funded projects it will be, and we don’t know when it will ‘tip.’ However, most of the projects will create only a few (but very qualified) jobs over the next two years,” Schulz said. “The real question is how many jobs will be created and saved in 5 to 10 years.”

BioCee – biocatalysis for clean fuels, chemicals and water

Tom Schulz — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:56:43 +0000

BioCee is the company that I co-founded with my friend, biologist, chemical and environmental engineer Marc von Keitz; other co-founders are Michael Flickinger, who developed the technology at the University of Minnesota, and Luca Zullo, who joined us from Cargill.

BioCee is a material science company, right at the overlap of biotech and chemical engineering. They produce bioreactors that make microorganisms happier and more efficient than the usual steel tanks in which they have to do their work.

The first applications BioCee focuses on are desulfurization of petroleum products (NSF gives us a grant for that), and “Direct Solar Fuel”; “Direct Solar Fuel” is the production of hydrocarbons directly from sunlight and CO2 (some kind of artificial photosynthesis). For that, BioCee was among the first three ARPA-E recipients in October 2009.

Please see my 99 second interview on BioCee which was taped at the Munich Cleantech Conference a week ago (it’s in German).

The official press release is here, and lots of excellent press article are here.

Tom Schulz explains BioCee in 99 seconds

BioCee on Public Radio’s Living on Earth

Tom Schulz — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:23:15 +0000

BioCee’s story on Public Radio’s “Living on Earth Program”. I learnt that we are now the “Magic Bug Guys”. Sounds like fun. For those of you who haven’t followed the news on BioCee: After receiving an NSF grant for desulfurization of petroleum products, we were amongst the Top 3 recipients of the brand new ARPA-E grants. This time for our participation in a consortium with the University of Minnesota and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, making “direct solar fuel”. BioCee’s bioreactor will be the home for two types of microorganisms that produce biofuel directly from sunlight and CO2. See BioCee’s website for the press release and the news articles.