A $900,000 BIRD Energy grant has been awarded to Madison, Wisconsin-based Virent Energy Systems, Inc. and Israel-based Virdia (formerly HCL CleanTech) from the BIRD Foundation along with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Israel Ministry of Energy and Water. BIRD Energy is a program for the U.S. and Israel to jointly develop renewable energy.

The grant supported Virent's conversion of Virdia’s Pine Tree Sugars into Hydrocarbon Fuels and products that can be sustainable, cost-effective, and compatible with existing infrastructure
The project, successfully demonstrated that Virdia’s deconstruction process generated high-quality sugars from cellulosic biomass, which were converted to fuel via Virent’s BioForming® process.

Virent's Ming Qiao holding sugar cane bagasse and liquefied biomass
Photo courtesy: Virent

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