Proterro has received a US Patent and Trademark Office Notice of Allowance for a device patent on the company’s proprietary photobioreactor.
The device is an element of the company’s process for making sucrose at a lower cost than corn, sugar cane or cellulosic approaches, the company says. The modular photobioreactor is used for cultivating Proterro’s cyanobacteria to secrete sucrose.
Using only CO2, sunlight and water, Proterro’s process for both biofuels and biobased chemicals lowers the cost of sugar production, yields a fermentation-ready sucrose stream and has proven to be 30 times more productive on an acreage basis than sugar cane, according to the company.
The company has commissioned a pilot plant in Orlando, Florida, and has completed a design, layout and associated cost estimate for a demonstration-scale plant.