energy, startups, Biofuels

SG Biofuels, Emerging From Stealth, Aims to Make Biodiesel From Hardy Shrub

Bruce V. Bigelow 2/2/09

Another San Diego biofuel company is coming out of stealth mode today. SG Biofuels specializes in developing Jatropha, a hardy shrub found throughout Latin America that produces oval-shaped seeds that can be used to produce biodiesel and other petroleum feedstocks.

SG plans to make its public debut this afternoon in a presentation at the 2009 National Biodiesel Conference and Expo in San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

The company is the newest member of San Diego’s mini-cluster of startups that specialize in biofuel production. While the three-year-old company established its headquarters in San Diego, the job of collecting different Jatropha species and developing new hybrids has taken place throughout Latin America.

“With genetic improvement, it can be grown in California, and in some other areas where agricultural plants and food crops are not grown,” SG Biofuels’ president and CEO Kirk Haney told me Friday. The oil content of a Jatropha seed ranges between 30 and 40 percent, and current yields vary between 200 and 300 gallons per acre. Through additional genetic improvements, SG Biofuels says it’s possible to increase yields by 400 percent—to more than 800 gallons per acre. That’s much higher than the usual 30 to 40 gallons per acre of oil generated from soy, for example.

As part of SG Biofuels’ debut, Haney is set to speak about the company’s efforts in developing Jatropha curcas and other species at the biodiesel conference this afternoon. Haney says SG Biofuels has assembled the largest and most diverse “library” of Jatropha genetic material in the world. By genetically modifying the plant, he says it also should be possible to enhance the plant’s long-term sustainability and grow Jatropha at lower cost.

The startup’s chief scientist is Robert Schmidt, a professor of biological sciences at UC San Diego whose research has focused on the plant genes that control flowering in maize. The company currently has 19 employees, including three other UCSD scientists who round out SG Biofuels’ biotechnology team.

Haney says SG Biofuels has not genetically modified Jatropha yet. Because …Next Page »

Bruce V. Bigelow is the editor of Xconomy San Diego. You can e-mail him at bbigelow@xconomy.com or call 858-202-0492