The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 8,597,914 to Proterro Inc., protecting Proterro&rsquo;s unique, biosynthetic sugar-making process.
The only biofeedstock company that makes sugar instead of extracting it from crops or deconstructing cellulosic materials, Proterro has developed a process that integrates unique transgenic sugar-producing microorganisms with a robust, modular photobioreactor made from off-the-shelf materials. This process yields a fermentation-ready sucrose stream, rather than a mixture of sugars, simplifying downstream processes and reducing their costs.
The photosynthetic microorganisms and their genetic code are already protected by U.S. Patent No. 8,367,379, a composition of matter patent specifically covering &ldquo;the sequence and assembly of discrete genes of engineered cyanobacteria and the cyanobacteria themselves,&rdquo; said Proterro CEO Kef Kasdin, who added that the design of the photobioreactor is itself patent pending.
&ldquo;This method patent protects the technology that will provide a cost-effective, continuous, high-yield process to produce fermentable sugar from the transgenic cyanobacteria using water, carbon dioxide and sunlight,&rdquo; Kasdin explained.
&ldquo;While our first, cornerstone patent protects the genetic blueprint of our cyanobacteria,&rdquo; Kasdin continued, &ldquo;this patent protects our entire process of making fermentable sugar, from introducing the microorganisms into the photobioreactor through isolating the sugar.&rdquo;
Proterro&rsquo;s unique sugar-making process removes the price volatility that comes with crop-based feedstocks and eliminates the complex and costly steps required to produce cellulosic sugars derived from biomass. The result is an economically stable, fermentation-ready sugar feedstock for the scalable, affordable production of a variety of commercial scale fuels and chemicals through standard industrial fermentation methods.
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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 8,597,914 to Proterro Inc., protecting its unique, biosynthetic sugar-making process. The company's technology features microorganisms that produce sugar in modular photobioreactors.

Proterro issued patent for sugar-making process

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