CAPCO Program

A DC CAPCO portfolio company, agencyQ, recently won three awards:

agencyQ, a digital strategy and marketing agency, has been recognized by the International Academy of the Visual arts and awarded three Communicator Awards. The Communicator Awards receives thousands of entries from across the U.S. and around the world. agencyQ winners are:

The Office of Science, http://science.energy.gov, was honored with two Awards of Distinction in the Science and Government categories. agencyQ launched the redesigned the site with an interactive and visually striking web experience for OOS’s diverse audience groups.

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Virent, a Wisconsin CAPCO program company, recently announced its success with Virdia on creating jet fuel from cellulosic pine tree sugars:

Virent and Virdia, formerly HCL CleanTech, announce the successful conversion of cellulosic pine tree sugars to drop-in hydrocarbon fuels within the BIRD Energy project, a joint program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure and the BIRD Foundation. The project, which commenced in January 2011, successfully demonstrated that Virdia’s deconstruction process generated high-quality sugars from cellulosic biomass, which were converted to fuel via Virent’s BioForming® process.“The high-quality sugars generated from pine trees using Virdia’s process leveraged Virent’s conversion process, establishing a viable route to drop-in hydrocarbons from biomass.”

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The DC CAPCO Program continues to be successful in creating more jobs in the district:

Officials in Maryland and Virginia are increasingly taking on the role of a financial investor in their economic development efforts, deploying millions in taxpayer dollars to up-and-coming companies that they hope will create jobs.

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The Denver Post published some recent news on Able Planet, a CAPCO program portfolio company in Colorado:

Wheat Ridge-based headphone maker Able Planet, a regular at the International Consumer Electronics Show, unveiled a few dozen new products and prototypes at this year’s event, including noise-canceling earbuds.

But the one product that chief executive Kevin Semcken beamed about most had little to do with gadgets.
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Virent, a Wisconsin CAPCO program company, has recently partnered with Coca-Cola:

Biofuels technology developer Virent Inc. will shift from research and development mode to commercial production mode in the coming years, under a partnership with The Coca-Cola Co. announced Thursday.

The multi-million dollar agreement will help Virent move forward with plans to open a commercial plant by 2015, the Madison company said.
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Check out the latest news from Virent, a Wisconsin CAPCO program portfolio company -

In Wisconsin, Virent announced the issuance of five new U.S. patents covering aspects of its catalytic BioForming platform. Three of the patents cover the production of various liquid fuels and chemicals related to its recent announced partnership with The Coca-Cola Company and its ongoing partnership with Royal Dutch Shell. The additional two patents are directed to the production of a range of other industrial chemicals and chemical intermediates using Virent’s BioForming process. These patents join the over 175 domestic and foreign issued and pending applications in Virent’s portfolio representing more than 25 different technology families.

Fast Company interviewed Mary Tilton, VP of plant operations at Virent, a Wisconsin CAPCO program company.

Fast Company: How did the company get started?

Mary Tilton: The technology was first developed at the University of Wisconsin in Madison by our founder, Randy Cortright. Originally, we focused on hydrogen generation, and the company was founded to commercialize that technology. Sometime around 2005 we realized the catalytic processes we were using could be tailored to make hydrocarbon fuels. So our focus shifted and became looking into using sugars to make gasoline. That’s what we really concentrated on in 2008 when we embarked on the scale-up and decided to go to 10,000 gallons a year. We found we were very successful at taking standard sugar and converting it to gasoline. We demonstrated scalability in 2009, which was an important milestone.
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Virent, a Wisconsin CAPCO program company, and its CEO Lee Edwards are highlighted in the Best of Madison Business winners list.  The winners included companies that have made discoveries that will change the way we live.

Virent: Lee Edwards, President & CEO

Scientists and inventors have been chasing this idea throughout history: making something out of nothing, or if not nothing at least something most of us don’t want or need. Virent’s breakthrough BioForming technology transforms soluble plant sugars from corn stover and pine tree materials into hydrocarbon molecules similar to those produced at a petroleum refinery.  Grass to gasoline, or something like that. The renewable hydrocarbons can be blended seamlessly to make gasoline, jet fuel and diesel.

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Virent, a CAPCO program company located in Wisconsin, received a $1.5 million contract:

Virent Inc. of Madison said Friday it is one of eight firms awarded contracts by the Federal Aviation Administration to develop plant-based jet fuels.

The FAA awarded $7.7 million in contracts, including the $1.5 million award to Virent, formerly known as Virent Energy Systems.

The companies were selected to help the FAA develop alternative fuels known as “drop-in” biofuels that can be used without changing aircraft engine systems or fueling infrastructure.

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Tim Erdman, board member of CAPCO program company Virent, spoke about biofuels development at this month’s Green Biz Roundtable:

Nearly 50 people packed into the Wilkinson Library’s program room Friday morning for December’s Green Biz Roundtable. This month’s talk, delivered by Virent, Inc. board member Tim Erdman, focused on biofuels development. Erdman, who has a long history of renewable energy development in Telluride and elsewhere, excitedly related the possibility of producing a fuel cheaper, more efficient and more environmentally friendly than anything available today.

The kicker: He believes Virent is poised to produce the sugar-based fuel on a large scale soon.

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