Company Name
TMO Renewables

Company Web Site
http://www.tmo-group.com/

Headquarters
Guildford, UK

Latest News
September 9, 2008
Bacteria found in compost heaps able to convert waste plant fibre into ethanol could eventually provide up 10% of the UK's transport fuel needs, scientists heard September 9, 2008 at the Society for General Microbiology's Autumn meeting being held at Trinity College, Dublin.

Researchers from Guildford, UK, have successfully developed a new strain of bacteria that can break down straw and agricultural plant waste, domestic hedge clippings, garden trimmings and cardboard, wood chippings and other municipal rubbish to convert them all into useful renewable fuels for the transport industry.

"The bioethanol produced in our process can be blended with existing gasoline to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions, help tackle global warming, reduce dependence upon foreign oil and help meet national and international targets for renewable energy," said Paul Milner, Fermentation Development Manager of TMO Renewables Ltd, based in Surrey Research Park, Guildford.

The new strain of bacteria allows ethanol to be produced much more efficiently and cheaply than in traditional yeast-based fermentation, which is based on the beer-brewing process and forms the basis for most current commercial bioethanol production.

"Conventional ethanol production is energy-intensive, expensive, and time-consuming as the barley malt or other material being brewed needs to be heated up as a mash in feedstock pre-treatment. Then it is significantly cooled from that high temperature to a lower temperature for yeast fermentation, only to be re-heated when it is later distilled into ethanol. Our process is much more energy-efficient." said Paul Milner.

TMO's microbiologists screened thousands of different wild types of bacteria, looking for one that could survive high temperatures and that liked feeding off a wide variety of plant based materials.

"We found some heat-loving bacteria in a compost heap, from the Geobacillus family, which in their wild form produce lactic acid as a by-product of sugar synthesis when they break down biomass," said Paul Milner. "We altered their internal metabolism, adapting them to produce substantial amounts of ethanol instead".

"Our new microorganism, called TM242, can efficiently convert the longer-chain sugars from woody biomass materials into ethanol. This thermophilic bacterium operates at high temperatures of 60oC-70oC and digests a wide range of feedstocks very rapidly," said Paul Milner.

The scientists estimate that some 7 million tons of surplus straw is available in the UK every year. Turning it into ethanol could replace 10% of the gasoline fuel used in this country. "As our process uses agricultural waste materials such as straw, wood, paper and plants and other cellulosic fibre from domestic and municipal waste, it provides significantly greater environmental and economic benefits than crop-derived biofuels which some believe have contributed to the increased prices of basic food in so many countries," said Paul Milner.

"We have recently completed commissioning the UK's first cellulosic ethanol demonstration facility - one of just a handful worldwide," said Paul Milner. "We are constantly researching new, better ways to produce biofuels. We also believe that our process can be used successfully beyond biofuels to produce other high-value chemicals and drug ingredients that are currently derived from oil."

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May 30, 2008
CHICAGO & GUILDFORD, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Integrated Genomics, Inc., a leader in microbial genomic informatics and TMO Renewables Limited, a leader in the production of ethanol from biomass, announced today that they have signed an agreement to extend their collaboration on the discovery of cellulosic bioethanol production systems.

Integrated Genomics ERGO platform is the leading genomic tool for microbial systems biology. Scientists at IG will work with TMO to identify pathways that can be exploited in future "upgrades" to TMO's proprietary cellulosic ethanol process. The initial targets of the collaboration are two of IG's proprietary membrane transport proteins that will be evaluated in TMO's thermophilic strains.

"We have developed unique high-temperature process organisms capable of producing bioethanol quickly and efficiently from a wide diversity of sustainable cellulosic feedstocks. We are delighted to announce this extension of our collaboration with Integrated Genomics to find additional opportunities to exploit these organisms," said Dr Kirstin Eley, External Program Manager at TMO.

Funding
7 May 2007
TMO Renewables, a developer of a new process for converting biomass into fuel ethanol, is pleased to announce the completion of a round of financing which, following shareholder approval, will total £15 million for development of a process demonstration unit (PDU) and for further research and development of its proprietary thermophile portfolio. Ambrian Partners acted as placing agent to the Company on this fundraising.

Hamish Curran, Chief Executive Officer of TMO, commented: "We have attracted a significant number of new institutional investors who are committed to renewable energy and funds, such as Aegon Asset Management, Charles Stanley, City Capital, Ethanol Investments plc, Greater Europe Deep Value Fund, Liberty Square Asset Management, Nikko Principle Investments, Orn Capital Limited and St Peter's Port Capital. We are also delighted with the continuing support from our existing shareholders including Artemis, Fidelity, First State, Jupiter and RAB Capital. TMO's technology has previously been funded by over £5.9 million in equity and £0.85 million in grants through the Carbon Trust, the UK Department of Trade & Industry and the European Union. We believe that the funds raised are a huge endorsement to TMO and will progress the Company well into 2008."

Technology
Building on over ten years of Research and Development and based on thermophilic micro-organisms, TMO has developed a proven process, protected by the Patent Cooperation Treaty, to produce ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuels via the fermentation of the energy-rich components of biomass.

Ethanol is currently produced primarily from starch or sugar whereas TMO also produces ethanol via the conversion of cellulosic biomass. This is a sustainable approach that addresses concerns over the existing technology by using abundant sources of cheap biomass materials such as straw, grasses and biological municipal waste.

TMO's process is capable of utilising all of the sugars, including complex longer chain forms, derived from biomass and their high temperature process is capable of producing fuel ethanol at high efficiency and high conversion rates.