Company Name
EdenIQ

Company Web Site
http://www.edeniq.com/

Headquarters
Visalia, CA

Latest News
May 30, 2008
EdeniQ, an Encino, Calif.-based cellulosic ethanol startup, has quietly wrapped up a $33 million round of funding as part of its spinoff from parent company Altra Biofuels. PE Hub reports that Advanced Equities Investments and Draper Fisher Jurvetson were the lead investors; other backers include Element Partners, Angeleno Group, The Westly Group, Omninet, DAG Ventures and Northgate Capital.

EdeniQ claims its processes for converting non-food biomass sources into cellulosic ethanol can be implemented for "a fraction of the $6 to $12 per gallon capital cost" it would normally take to build a cellulosic facility using current technologies. The firm is focused on developing processes to make ethanol from agricultural waste like corn stover, woodchips and rice straw without requiring a complete overhaul of the existing biofuel infrastructure.

One of its goals is to bring the cost of cellulosic ethanol below $1.50 per gallon in the near future.

Funding
$33 million from Advanced Equities Investments, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Element Partners, Angeleno Group, The Westly Group, Omninet, DAG Ventures and Northgate Capital.

Technology
EdeniQ knows that cellulosic ethanol will only enter the mainstream when the following key conditions are met:

* The processes for breaking down complex lignocelluosic materials must be fast and affordable;
* These processes must not produce wastestreams that are expensive to handle and deleterious to the environment;
* The refining processes must not use fossil fuels to generate the required inputs of heat and electricity;
* The plants employing these processes should not be tied to the use of any one type of feedstock, but rather be free to work with a wide variety of feedstocks;
* The processes should cost-effectively yield sugars that can be fermented or otherwise processed into a range of fuels (not just ethanol);
* The processes should be water efficient (meaning that a significant portion of the water required is reused);
* When measured end-to-end, the fuel produced by these processes should be carbon-neutral (i.e., not introduce incremental CO2 into the atmosphere);
* The processes should take advantage of valuable co-products;
* The processes should be able to work with many elements of today's existing biofuels infrastructure and not require a complete overhaul of the industry;
* Plants should be able to add the processes in an incremental fashion by deploying profitable modules that help manage precious capital;
* The all-in cost of a gallon of fuel produced by these processes must be under $1.50 per gallon;
* The processes need to be available today, not 2-5 years from now.